Hmmmmm?
Didn’t the Republican’s COMPLAIN LOUDLY AGAINST thePaycheck Protection Program in the past?
Now?
Something went sideways in a RED State ?
And NOW there is call for another program outside the way the orignal program was for a nationwide pandemic…
Again…
Republicans do NOT support aid for the nation as a whole…
Just for themselves….
Oh, and isn’t Norfolk Southern supposeted to pay the bill on this?
Sen. J.D. Vance’s (R-Ohio) call for a Paycheck Protection Program (PPP)-style plan to help workers and businesses affected by the East Palestine train derailment is being greeted skeptically by Senate Republicans as they think about the best way to deliver aid to the community.
Vance has been among the leaders calling for increased attention and resources for East Palestine and a region that is still in the midst of a toxic waste cleanup following the Feb. 3 derailment.
…
Vance told The Hill on Tuesday that he and his staff are still figuring out the nuts and bolts of the PPP-type proposal, adding that it is “one piece” of the financial response and will be thought through over the “next couple of weeks.”
“We’re still thinking through what exactly it would look like, but the PPP program is a pretty good structural basis for it, which is effectively income replacement for people who lost their job through no fault of their own. That’s the baseline of how we think this would work,” Vance said in a brief interview, adding that questions surrounding where the funds would come from and underwater mortgages also need to be addressed.
While popular when it passed, the Paycheck Protection Program has drawn the ire of many Republicans in recent months as experts estimate that $80 billion of the $800 billion in PPP loans that were doled out to small businesses were fraudulent. Unlike that system, any proposal for those in eastern Ohio would be on a much smaller scale, though it would be unprecedented for a non-COVID-19 situation.
In total, the railway has committed nearly $8 million to the area in various ways, but lawmakers indicated they are nowhere close to being finished on that end. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-Ohio) told reporters on Tuesday that the federal government should not have to provide assistance to the area and believes Norfolk Southern should cover more than the lion’s share of what is needed….
…
One entity that is not aiding financially is the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), which said that the derailment does not qualify as a traditional disaster. The agency has, however, dispatched multiple staffers to the area.
But Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said on the Senate floor on Monday that lawmakers will work with Vance “to ensure the people of Ohio are appropriately informed and supported in the months to come.”