By BRENT MARTIN
St. Joseph Post
Federal money to offset some of the losses created by restrictions to slow the spread of the coronavirus should be coming to the St. Joseph area soon.
U. S. Sen. Roy Blunt tells a St. Joseph audience money from the $2.2 trillion emergency package recently approved by Congress has already started flowing to small businesses.
“The package we passed was the biggest spending bill the Congress has ever passed at any time for anything and it passed pretty quickly,” Blunt tells those attending a virtual version of the St. Joseph Chamber of Commerce Cup of Joe program.
Blunt says Congress had to approve the package in a hurry, because failure to act just wasn’t an option.
“And our next effort should be to go back and figure out what we didn’t get quite right with this bill, but we don’t have time here to get everything right and be sure that everybody is completely happy,” Blunt says. “We’ve got to get out there, one, in the fight against the virus and, two, in the fight for the economy.”
Blunt says $360 billion from the Small Business Administration is going out to businesses with fewer than 500 employees so they can meet payroll and pay expenses to survive. Congress is likely to add another $250 billion to meet the demand, perhaps as early as today.
In addition, Blunt says the check is in the mail or, more accurately, the direct payment from the relief package should be deposited in bank accounts, starting next week.
Blunt says the IRS has scheduled payments to begin going out by the middle of this month.
“It doesn’t mean everybody will get theirs in the middle of April, but a big job for the IRS to get those direct payments out to families,” Blunt says.
Under the bill, individuals making $75,000 or less a year will receive $1,200 with couples making $150,000 or less annually will receive $2,400. Couples with children will receive $500 per child with the average family of four set to receive a total of $3,400.
Blunt says Washington is considering ways to restart an economy sidelined by COVID-19. He says the first cases of COVID-19 in the United States likely cropped up in December with some Americans contracting the virus, then recovering, providing hope it can be overcome.
“There’s a growing feeling that if you’ve had it, you are likely immune for a foreseeable future of not being able to get it again and testing for that I think is one of the ways that we get people more eager and willing to reconnect again back in the economy,” according to Blunt.