As American Rescue Plan passes final political steps, small businesses are relieved and preparing for long road ahead

On the House reconciliation of the American Rescue Plan today and final bill headed to President Biden's desk, Main Street Alliance Government Affairs Director Didier Trinh had this to say:

“The American Rescue Plan will provide bold and critical relief to our nation’s Main Streets, both for small businesses and their customers and communities. We urge President Biden to sign and implement this as quickly as possible.

There are many pieces of this critical, comprehensive plan centered on public health and economic recovery that are particularly important to small businesses.

Targeted small business grant support, particularly for restaurants, cannot come soon enough, and investment in the new technical assistance Community Navigator program and Small Business Opportunity Fund will be critical to ensuring equity and access. Investment in programs that will not only directly support public health, but will also provide the financial runway to support communities through this crisis is key. 

An initial cash infusion with additional stimulus, as well as an extension and expansion of unemployment, health care (ACA) subsidies and rent support is what working families urgently need. Small business owners, employees, customers and clients can finally plan through the drastic financial decisions we have had to make over the past year. Stabilization funds for child care centers will help the child care industry in crisis, as well as the millions of small business employees reliant on quality, affordable care.

The plan expands and extends tax credits to support small businesses to provide paid leave, a critical piece of small business COVID relief, but it is no substitute for a permanent, comprehensive, sustainable paid leave program. We must also begin work on legislation to support our long term economic recovery, including comprehensive paid leave so that we never get caught in a crisis like this again.

We must now begin the work to get us beyond triage into rebuilding a more resilient and sustainable economy. It is time to invest in setting up our communities to thrive again.”