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Legislation to provide economic relief to American families, workers, the recently unemployed, and businesses was approved by the House of Representatives today with the support of Congressman Bill Posey (R-Rockledge). The bill includes a provision authored by Posey to protect NASA and Defense contract employees to ensure our nation’s space and defense programs are not disrupted while we battle the coronavirus.

“Contract workers at NASA and within the defense industry face severe financial hardship when they are restricted from reporting to work at the Cape or their respective program locations – for many there’s no telework option,” said Congressman Posey who led a bipartisan effort working with the Administration and Congressional leaders to resolve the issue. “As we battle the coronavirus we don’t want to risk losing our highly skilled workforce which ultimately could jeopardize our national security and critical space program investments. We must ensure that as we recover from the virus, our economy can get a quick restart and keeping as many workers in place as possible across the private and public sector is critical.”

Specifically, the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (H.R. 748) includes broad economic relief for Americans harmed by public policies, including closures, to stop the spread of the coronavirus. For economic relief, the bill provides: grants and loans to small businesses to meet payroll and pay rent, allows regulatory relief so banks can grant loan payment relief for otherwise healthy businesses struggling while business has been shut down, assistance to distressed industries through guaranteed loans, provides economic stimulus checks to millions of Americans of up to $1,200 and expands unemployment insurance for those who have lost their jobs.

To help fight the coronavirus and protect our health the legislation prioritizes resources to hospitals, doctors and other front-line providers, expands the use of Telehealth medicine to surge capacity to diagnose and treat patients in a safer and faster environment, provides liability protection for good Samaritan providers who volunteer and allows health savings accounts to be used to purchase over-the-counter medicines.

“In the interest of public safety, federal and state governments have temporarily closed businesses causing many to be out of work through no fault of their own,” said Posey. “It is critical that we address the serious health threat that this virus poses to our families and communities, and, while this bill is by no means perfect, it is an important step in offering temporary relief to Americans as many avenues of our economy are paused.”