Letter from Md., D.C., Va. Business Community Urging Support for Stimulus

Below, please see a letter regional business leaders sent to members of the Congressional Delegation for Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia. The letter expresses our commitment to working to expeditiously deliver the economic security needed during and after this health crisis, and our request to pass stimulus packages.

Dear Members of the Congressional delegation for Maryland, the District of Columbia and Virginia

As Congress works to address the devastating effects of the COVID-19 public health crisis, we applaud your shared efforts to keep our employers, their employees and their families, and communities safe, to ensure the supply chain for essential goods and services remains viable, and to deliver much-needed assistance, especially to those most vulnerable. However, the necessary steps being taken to keep the public safe and healthy is having devastating immediate impacts on our economy, especially for our small and medium-sized businesses and their employees, with real risk that these immediate impacts will have lasting effect. Already businesses have shuttered operations and many have laid-off employees.

Congress is developing legislative proposals to immediately address the public health crises and respond to the enormous impact it is having on the economy. We support those efforts, and we urge you to work quickly, in a bipartisan manner, to protect workers, businesses and the broader economy from the impacts of this crisis, both near-term and long-term. Failure to act now and with haste will have a far greater long-term cost to our economy. Many sectors of our economy, from hospitality to transportation to services, are facing serious financial and operating pressures during this crisis. Measures to keep the public safe have resulted in reduced demand, creating budgetary challenges for employers and their employees, and reduced ridership, revenues, and increased operating costs for our transportation agencies that are essential to providing the necessary health care. As measures taken by our elected leaders to contain COVID-19 escalate, these already severe impacts will grow exponentially, and without immediate action the risk is that these impacts will have lasting costs to workers, families, businesses, and our entire region. We are committed to working with you to deliver expeditiously the economic security needed during and after this health crisis. We encourage you to pass a stimulus package that:

• Provides adequate financial relief to individuals and families that address income, housing, health care and food challenges;

• Preserves jobs;

• Maintains business liquidity and viability for those most affected;

• Protects the health and safety of our frontline workers; and

• Directs additional operating support to our public transportation systems to ensure essential service can continue and limits budgetary cuts in the coming months.