Senator Doug Jones gives Washington update to local chambers

On Friday, U.S. Senator Doug Jones gave a Washington update during a webinar co-hosted by several local chambers including The Shelby County Chamber, Homewood Chamber of Commerce, Hoover Area Chamber of Commerce, Mountain Brook Chamber of Commerce and Vestavia Hills Chamber of Commerce.

Jones said the Senate is trying to craft the next round of legislation to make what has already been done better and move forward to open things in a safe way.

Addressing the chambers specifically, Jones said he knows they are interested in whether they’ll be included in the payroll protection program.

“I think it was a mistake that they weren't included,” he said. “I don't know where it stands right now, but I don’t think Congress meant to leave them out.”

Jones said the payroll protection program has been a big issue for businesses around Alabama and the country. In the first round, Alabama businesses received about 28,000 loans totaling $4.86 billion. In the second round, Alabama businesses received over 30,000 loans totaling about $5.3 billion. 

“I hope everybody out there that applied for one has received one,” he said.  

Jones mentioned the possibility of forming some type of supplement to the paycheck protection program, and said he advocated for this program to be a straight grant from the IRS or U.S. treasury.

“This will probably use payroll taxes and credits and the ability to advance payroll tax credits to help fund payrolls,” he said. “The goal is to fund as much payroll as we can while companies safely and efficiently open up, and give the companies and employees the security they need to do so safely.”

One area Jones has been pushing for is healthcare manufacturing. He has previously sent a letter to Gov. Kay Ivey saying he believes that Alabama could be a hub for healthcare manufacturing and we are far too dependent on foreign vendors. 

There is a bill in the final stages that should be introduced on Tuesday to give some tax incentives for companies to repurpose or set up new facilities for the purpose of healthcare manufacturing so that going forward, the U.S. won't have to go to foreign vendors.

“As we replenish the national stockpile, we are going to need a lot more masks, gowns, shields and gloves; not just for healthcare workers, but also for first responders and businesses using social distancing,” Jones said. "This virus is going to be here for a while." 

Jones said he is also pushing for agricultural assistance. With the food supply somewhat in jeopardy, family farms along with the cattle and poultry industries are suffering. There will be lots of things done over the next six weeks to try to get farmers more money in the next package.

“We are spending a lot of money we don't have,” Jones said. "But the alternative would be more of a burden on future generations. We should be doing everything in this country we can do to save lives and businesses, and if we do those we save the economy.”

Since the virus isn't going away anytime soon, Jones said people still need to social distance, practice good hygiene and wear masks. 

“We won't have a vaccine until later in the fall or next year and will then have to get it distributed,” he said. “We have to continue to make sure we are opening up in a healthy way. Things are going to be different and this virus will be with us for a while. We have to adapt to it and make sure we do everything safely and efficiently.” 

Jones urges people to not let the partisan rhetoric they will hear about in the next package get in the way of looking at the realistic point of what we can do.

“We need to get something done and done quickly and done in a bipartisan way is what I'm hoping to see in the next couple weeks,” he said. “We can get state and country back rolling come out stronger and better and all be together.”