State’s congressional delegation stresses need for more stimulus

Both of New Jersey’s U.S. Senators and five of its representatives in the House stressed the importance of a stop-gap stimulus bill to bail out restaurants, bars and hotels struggling amid cold weather and rising COVID-19 case counts.

“The truth is that the coming weeks and months are going to be some of the toughest we have seen yet, and that’s just the reality we have to face. Many restaurants have made admirable and creative efforts to retool in the hopes of surviving the catastrophe,” U.S. Sen. Bob Menendez (D-North Bergen) said. “But many of them are hanging by a thread, and too many have already, as Sean pointed out, closed their doors.”

The lawmakers — Menendez, U.S. Sen. Cory Booker (D-Newark) and Reps. Josh Gottheimer (D-Wyckoff), Chris Smith (R-Hamilton), Tom Malinowski (D-Ringoes), Andy Kim (D-Bordentown) and Mikie Sherrill (D-Montclair) — warned that restaurants would continue to shutter their doors unless Congress passed another round of stimulus.

Namely, they lauded the $908 billion stimulus package put forward by the House Problem Solvers Caucus, which Gottheimer co-chairs and of which Smith is a member.

That bill includes $288 billion for the Paycheck Protection Program, some of which would go to support restaurants and entertainment venues. It also includes another $180 billion in additional unemployment insurance aid.

“Right now we only have two options. There’s the third option of not doing anything, which is not an option,” Malinowski said. “But the only two are the fully bipartisan proposal that Congressman Gottheimer and others on both sides have put forward, which is not enough but does at least some of everything that we need, including support for PPP.”

The other option was a far slimmer $500 billion stimulus package proposed by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.), which received no fanfare during Tuesday’s digital event.

“We will get through this, I believe,” Smith said. “Hopefully sooner rather than later, but no matter how long it takes, that bridge has to be long enough and strong enough to sustain those employees, because once a restaurant or small business goes out of business, the chances of coming back are very, very scarce.”

But the lawmakers warned that even the larger $908 billion bill wouldn’t solve the country’s problems, but it’d be a start.

“This right now is, compared to the need we have, anemic,” Booker said. “But there are elements of it that could really make a difference.”

President-elect Joe Biden has said he wants a round of stimulus passed before he takes office on Jan. 21. He wants another round after he and the new Congress take office.