Mnuchin Urges Small Businesses Not To Fire Employees

Topline: Appearing by phone on FOX Business Network’s Mornings with Maria, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin urged small businesses not to fire their employees during the coronavirus crisis ahead of the Senate’s scheduled vote on a massive economic relief bill this afternoon.

• “We want all small businesses to keep employees on so that they can reopen those businesses quickly,” he urged.
• Many small businesses like bars, restaurants, salons and home care services are especially at risk of going under during the crisis because the services they provide depend on large gatherings or close person-to-person contact. 
• “It reminds me of some of the nights in the middle of January where you drive through town after a blizzard and there is just nobody in town and nobody around,” Matthew Ryan, the general manager at a restaurant in Suttons Bay, Michigan, told UpNorthLive. “It’s really surreal.”
• The proposed legislation would allow small businesses to take loans from the government so they can continue to pay workers for two months; if a business keeps workers on or rehires them later, the government will forgive the debt. 
• “We need to get this legislation passed today,” Mnuchin said. 
• Mnuchin’s statements came as the Senate continues to fight over the proposed stimulus, leaving businesses facing the uncertainty of when and whether this promised relief will come.

Key background: Republican and Democratic leaders rushed to secure a deal over the weekend on a sweeping economic stimulus bill intended to shore up the economy during the coronavirus crisis; on Sunday morning, Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told Fox News Sunday that the bill was nearing completion, while House Speaker Nancy Pelosi signaled her disappointment and said that House Democrats will be drafting their own version of the legislation. The bill could be worth more than $2 trillion, and would include checks sent directly to Americans (Mnuchin said the average family of four can expect to receive $3,000) and expanded unemployment insurance for workers laid off as a result of the virus in addition to include small business retention loans.