By Emily Fromke
The coronavirus has devastated our communities and disrupted life for so many in our country. Tragically, over 100,000 people around the world have already lost their lives to the virus. As health care workers battle the spread of the virus on the front lines here at home, most schools, churches, and workplaces have dramatically altered their operations in an effort to “flatten the curve” and protect their neighbors. States have issued orders to stay at home and millions have lost their jobs, in some cases now unable to pay for basic expenses like rent, food, and other outstanding debts. According to the Washington Post, economists predict that nearly 40 million Americans could lose their jobs by the end of April. In the last month alone, a record 17 million Americans have filed for unemployment.
Each day brings more information and new circumstances. Governments, businesses, nonprofits, churches, schools, and families have all begun to respond to the crisis in their own ways. The Center for Public Justice’s animating framework of public justice is useful for assessing the roles, responsibilities, and relationships between citizens, government, and civil society institutions during the current crisis. As articulated in Living Out Our Public Justice Responsibilities During COVID-19,
Public justice recognizes … that much of what contributes to flourishing is government’s task, and it has a unique role in promoting the common good through its policies and practices. In times of public health crises, public justice insists that government has an important and normative role to play, including partnering with employers and services providers (including faith-based organizations and nonprofits) in the provision of social safety net resources including paid sick and medical leave for workers, increased health care for vulnerable populations, and the distribution of basic material resources….
Another dimension of government’s responsibility is to advance “policies and practices that uphold the ability of other institutions and associations to make their full contributions to human flourishing.” Institutions of civil society — houses of worship, higher education institutions, and workplaces, for example — have distinct roles to play in promoting health in this challenging season, including adapting and advancing public health guidelines for congregants, students, workers, and services recipients.
As this crisis continues to unfold, there will be much to monitor and assess as it relates to seeing public justice achieved. This article will explore specifically how the federal government is responding to the crisis and how we, as Christian citizens, might be affected and have the opportunity to come alongside our neighbors and public officials in mitigating the negative impacts of the crisis.
The Emergency Relief Package: What it is and Why it Matters
Last month Congress passed the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, a historic $2 trillion emergency relief package aimed at mitigating the harm to individuals, families, and institutions from the intentional slow down of the economy in order to stop the spread of the virus. While slowing down and social distancing are essential in order to save lives and protect the health of the most vulnerable, this decision comes at a high economic and social cost. The emergency relief package aims to sustain families, nonprofit organizations, churches, businesses, and other faith-based organizations during the crisis.
There is a precedent for using government spending to address an economic crisis. In the aftermath of the 2008 Great Recession, President Barack Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) of 2009 into law. Looking back further in our country’s history, FDR’s New Deal is another example of legislation meant to stabilize the economy. The purpose of a stimulus package is in the name: to stimulate the economy. However, the CARES Act is unique in that it responds to an intentional slowing down of the economy. Further, the size of the stimulus package far surpasses anything the U.S. has spent on emergency relief in the past. No other relief package has included such broad and significant support for all sectors of society.
For many Christian young adults, this may be the first time we’ve heard of an emergency relief package. While complex, it’s important to understand what its intended function is, as well as what to look for in subsequent policy proposals. There are several goals: limit the damage to the economy, provide relief to Americans by putting more money in their pockets, improve job security, and in this case, also sustain vital institutions like faith-based organizations, nonprofits, and businesses that have altered services or closed in response to the crisis. What is notable about the CARES Act is that it makes Small Business Administration (SBA) loans available for the first time to nonprofits, including houses of worship and other faith-based organizations. This SBA provision is known as the Paycheck Protection Program. According to a policy brief by the Center for Public Justice,
The Paycheck Protection Program offers forgivable loans to be used for payroll, mortgage interest, rent and utilities. These programs are available to small employers (500 or fewer employees). Loans are to be made by banks approved for the SBA’s 7(a) small business loan program. Unlike grants provided to deliver government-specified services, these loans seem purposed toward maintaining a community’s institutions and workers. A recipient may be either a small business or a tax-exempt nonprofit organization described in section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code. Houses of worship are considered in law to have 501(c)(3) status without applying for it from the IRS.
It is worth noting that on April 16, the date this article was published, the Paycheck Protection Program ran out of funds and is no longer accepting applications. Congress has already started to discuss a fourth relief package. We know that the intentional slow down of life and the economy has already impacted families, churches, nonprofits, schools, and businesses in the country. However, the impact may be the greatest on front line and low-wage workers and other workers who do not receive paid sick or family leave related to COVID-19. About 25 percent of workers have no paid sick days. Many of those without any paid sick days are individuals in public-facing roles that are either at risk of closure (e.g. restaurants) or place the employee at risk of exposure to the virus (e.g. grocery stores). According to EconoFact, employees most at risk during this time work in leisure and hospitality, transportation, and retail industries. The CARES Act and subsequent legislation will attempt to mitigate the consequences of unemployment or staying at home for the most vulnerable individuals and families. According to a Families Valued brief,
Emergency paid sick and family leave policies are critical for those who cannot or should not work right now to stay home, recover, and care for children. Unemployment insurance will also be crucial for households who will be out of work due to the recession.
Several Key Provisions to Pay Attention to in the CARES Act
Below are a few key provisions to track. This is by no means a comprehensive overview of everything included in this 335-page piece of legislation. Other outlets have written more extensively about the contents of the legislation. However, I have highlighted several provisions that intersect with the range of topics that Shared Justice typically covers.
Direct Support for Families and Individuals
According to a survey by the First National Bank of Omaha, nearly half of Americans live paycheck to paycheck. For these Americans, even a small disruption in the flow of income can be devastating, causing food and housing insecurity. For them, the reality of the spread of COVID-19 has not only been a question of staying healthy, but of surviving the devastating impact of economic stagnation.
In order to provide financial support to American families and individuals, the U.S. Department of Treasury will issue checks of up to $1,200 to individuals and up to $2,400 to married couples. Households with children will receive an additional $500 for every child. People who make less than $75,000 per year are eligible to receive these direct relief checks. Starting at the $75,000 threshold, individuals will begin to be phased out of payments. Those who make more than $99,000 per year will be totally phased out. These thresholds are doubled for married couples.
Strengthening the Social Safety Net
The CARES Act also offers a few key provisions that strengthen the social safety net. The social safety net is comprised of services and programs that administer basic support to individuals and families in times of need. Government contributes significantly to the safety net through public assistance programs, though civil society institutions also contribute to the safety net, providing services and care sometimes in partnership with government, and sometimes independent of government.
For those already vulnerable, and now many more who are suddenly facing serious financial hardship, the CARES Act took initial steps to bolster government-administered programs within the social safety net. For example, the legislation allocated an additional $15.5 billion for the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) to respond to increased need. It also suspends any work requirements for SNAP beneficiaries during the crisis. The Emergency Solutions Grants program, which provides funding to state and local governments and grantees serving people at-risk or currently experiencing homelessness, received up to $4 billion in supplemental funding to help communities find ways to shelter their citizens while also considering new social distancing guidelines.
Temporary Loan Deferral for Students
The relief package seeks to provide support to students. Individuals with student loan payments may delay payment on their student loans without penalty until September 30.
Protection Against Job Loss with Greater Unemployment Compensation
The provisions on unemployment compensation were the subject of much debate on the day of this bill’s passage. However, both parties came to an agreement that over the next several months state unemployment insurance payments (which vary, by state, from $200 to $550 per week) should be bolstered by $600 per week in federal funding.
The bill also extends unemployment compensation to those who are self-employed and independent contractors and allows them to receive unemployment during the public health emergency. It also includes support to state and local governments, as well as nonprofits, so they can pay unemployment benefits to their employees.
Importantly, the CARES Act adds an additional 13 weeks of unemployment compensation benefits for those who are eligible as determined by each state. The expansion of these benefits ends in 2020.
Assistance to Employers
Most businesses and nonprofit organizations will now be eligible for the new Employee Retention Tax Credit. This program incentivizes employers to keep employees on the payroll by offsetting the employer costs of providing paid leave. Employers that continue to pay their employees who cannot come into work because of the coronavirus may be eligible for a 50 percent credit on up to $10,000 of wages to be paid to those employees. The goal of this provision is to incentivize businesses and nonprofit organizations to retain their employees throughout temporary closures or significant revenue loss.
As discussed earlier, the CARES Act also creates a $349 billion Paycheck Protection Program for businesses and nonprofit organizations. Through this program, the U.S. Treasury will provide loans that cover approximately eight weeks of an organization’s payroll and essential expenses. There will be no loan payments for the first six months and the program will last for up to five years. Organizations that choose to participate in the program will need to show that they have kept a 90 percent retention rate of their employees.
The purpose of these loans is to enable businesses and nonprofits (including faith-based organizations and houses of worship) to retain their employees for the extent of the coronavirus crisis. For organizations that do retain employees on payroll during the loan period, the entire loan can be forgiven, meaning that it is essentially converted to a grant. There are additional restrictions requiring employee and executive total compensation not to exceed $425,000 and prohibiting stock buybacks for the duration of the loan.
Robust Funding for Health Care Infrastructure
The nation’s health care infrastructure will receive a big funding boost. Hospitals and veterans’ health care facilities will receive $117 billion, $11 billion will be appropriated for vaccines, therapeutics, diagnostics, and other preparedness needs, $4.3 billion will go to the Centers for Disease Control, $16 billion for the Strategic National Stockpile, and $45 billion for the FEMA disaster relief fund.
The CARES Act also expands the use of tele-health by allowing patients to see doctors that they have not already seen before, connecting people on home dialysis with providers, and allowing federally qualified health centers and rural health centers to offer tele-health services. Additionally the bill expands tele-health services for home health and hospice and allows nurse practitioners and physicians’ assistants to prescribe home health services.
Support Medical Providers
Hospitals struggling under the strain of caring for coronavirus patients will receive some of the $150 billion allocated to boost their efforts. Although there is no COVID-19 vaccine yet, if and when one is developed, they will be available for free for anyone with insurance.
Supports Medicare Patients and Providers
This legislation accelerates Medicare payments and creates a 20 percent add-on payment for inpatient treatment. Medicare does not usually cover the full cost of treatment to a provider, so increasing the amount that it covers will help health care providers administer better care to more patients and give hospitals a more reliable source of cash flow.
What happens next?
Now that the CARES Act has been signed into law, various federal agencies and state governments will be responsible for implementing the policies outlined within the bill. According to a press release from the Senate Committee on Appropriations, of the $340 billion designated for emergency supplemental appropriations, more than 80 percent will go directly to state and local governments.
As the Center for Public Justice’s policy brief explains,
The measures enacted by the CARES Act and other systems may help stabilize institutions and at-risk households, but many of the benefits and processes contemplated by these laws are new and untested. Citizens will need to monitor these processes as they roll out, discerning: Are they providing the help intended? Are vulnerable communities and those serving within them able to access support? Does support reach vulnerable households who entered this crisis with few financial buffers and whose life and livelihood may now be at risk? Along the way, people of faith will need to continue to address these challenges through both charitable service and engaged citizenship.
Loving Our Neighbors Through Active Civic Engagement
While loving our neighbors might look a lot like keeping an appropriate social distance for the time being, we should also consider ways that we can love our neighbors from a distance. This may look like advocating for public policies that promote health and flourishing for vulnerable individuals, families, and civil society institutions like nonprofits and faith-based organizations doing critical work to serve on the ground. CPJ’s Guideline on Citizenship states that “Citizens share with the government the responsibility to uphold a just political community.” The Guideline goes on to suggest that, “Responsible citizenship includes not only abiding by the law, paying taxes, and enjoying the benefits of law-abiding behavior, but also helping to shape the political community to conform to the demands of justice.”
With the aid of technology and the courage that comes from knowing our calling, we don’t have to divert from our call to love our neighbors through politics, even in the midst of a pandemic. Instead we can stay informed about what our lawmakers are doing (or not doing) to uphold public justice, look for ways we can partner with them to care for our neighbors, and creatively work to support other institutions such as schools, families, churches, nonprofits, and businesses during this time.
Emily Fromke is a Falls Church Fellow with the Falls Church Anglican in Northern Virginia. As part of her fellowship, she works in the U.S. Senate and mentors a group of 8th grade girls at the Falls Church Anglican (one of the best parts of her week!). She was first connected with the Center for Public Justice by a professor during the Summer of 2016 and began interning at CPJ. During this internship Emily learned to see the good God-given roles that the Church, government, businesses, non-profits, schools, and families all play in upholding public justice. Since then she has kept this perspective with her. In 2019, she graduated from Wheaton College (IL) with a B.A. in Political Science and Economics and continues to have a passion for encouraging discussion and action around public justice.
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