Republicans look to circumvent gridlock for Paycheck Protection Program

WASHINGTON (SBG) — Republicans are using a rare legislative maneuver in an attempt to sidestep gridlocks in coronavirus relief negotiations to extend the Paycheck Protection Program.

“The Paycheck Protection Program has been a bridge for almost 9,500 small businesses in Southwest Washington alone, but if we fail to extend it immediately, it will have been a bridge to nowhere because small businesses remain on the brink of survival,” Rep. Jamie Herrera Beutler, R-Wash., said in a statement. “I’ve introduced this discharge petition so we can go around Speaker Pelosi’s unwillingness to make the Paycheck Protection Program a priority, and rush aid to small businesses who desperately need it.”

Herrera Beutler filed a discharge petition that would force a House vote on a bill to extend the PPP if it receives enough signatures. The petition would need 218 signatures to force a vote.

Twenty Democrats would need to sign on to the measure if every Republican in the House signed it.

Multiple Republicans, including Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, have called for a more targeted approach for the next rounds of coronavirus relief. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi has dismissed that idea and said Republicans aren’t seeing the size of the problem Americans are facing.

On Thursday, Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio, introduced a bill to reopen the PPP, which has approximately $138 billion in unspent funds. The program has been closed since Aug. 8.

“Congress must come together to help our nation’s small businesses. They create two out of three new private-sector jobs and make the American Dream possible for millions of Americans. While many are thriving, others still need help,” Chabot said in a statement.

Although talks have been in a stalemate for weeks, Pelosi and the White House have expressed willingness to return to the table. President Trump says he can convince Republicans to get behind a larger package, but the two sides are hundreds of billions apart.

Democrats have called for a $2.2 trillion package, well over the $650 billion proposal Senate Republicans offered last week. The White House is looking at a price tag of $1.3 trillion or less.

Earlier this week, a group of moderate lawmakers offered a “middle ground” solution, a roughly $1.5 trillion plan with money for COVID-19 testing, unemployment insurance, direct stimulus payments and several other services.

Pelosi has already dismissed that proposal as inadequate, and it is still over the figure Republicans would like to stay under.