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ilanaprincilus06

Biden's Intended Commerce Secretary Nominee Is Gina Raimondo : Biden Transition Updates... - 1 views

www.npr.org/...bidens-commerce-secretary-pick

Rhode Island Census Bureau

shared by ilanaprincilus06 on 14 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • Rhode Island Gov. Gina Raimondo, the first woman to lead the country's smallest state, has been named President-elect Joe Biden's intended nominee for commerce secretary.
  • would oversee the U.S. Commerce Department's eclectic portfolio of federal agencies, including some that have been thrown into political hot waters during the Trump administration — most notably the Census Bureau.
  • been scrambling to prepare the release of the first set of 2020 census results, which was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic and last-minute schedule changes by Trump administration officials.
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  • The state population counts that determine each state's share of congressional seats and Electoral College votes for the next decade are not expected to be out until February at the earliest,
  • Raimondo would take over the position from Wilbur Ross, a Trump appointee who has been found in contempt of Congress by the House for defying a subpoena to turn over documents about the Trump administration's efforts to add a citizenship question to census forms.
  • "The mission of the Commerce Department is a very simple one — to help spur good-paying jobs, to empower entrepreneurs to innovate and grow, to come together with working families and American businesses to create new opportunities for all of us,"
  • "Commerce Department employees are getting a terrific new boss who will listen to them, support them, lead from the trenches, and get the very best out of them by holding them to the same high standards she holds herself,"
  • "And Congress will be getting a partner who is an honest broker of unquestioned integrity."
ilanaprincilus06

With Child Hunger Rising, A Federal Aid Program Has Stalled : NPR - 0 views

www.npr.org/...hasnt-gotten-to-needy-families

food stamps US Department of Agriculture

shared by ilanaprincilus06 on 15 Jan 21 - No Cached
  • When schools shut down in the spring, that raised immediate worries about the nearly 30 million children who depend on school food.
  • According to a report from Feeding America, 1 in 4 households with children experienced food insecurity in 2020.
  • when families are having trouble stretching their food budget, the adults will go without food before allowing the children to go hungry. But in April, with shutdowns at their most acute, nearly 20 percent of mothers said their children themselves didn't have enough to eat.
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  • School food programs have been working hard: offering groceries, pre-prepared meals and everything in between. But as we've reported, it often isn't enough.
  • Congress passed a law giving families the cash value of the meals they missed when schools were closed.
  • Families were eligible for $117 per child per month.
  • The potential value, estimates Bauer: $12 billion.
  • The U.S. Department of Agriculture didn't issue guidance to states on plans for how to do this for six weeks
  • So far, they have approved only the plans from Massachusetts, Indiana and Rhode Island. And they haven't yet touched the issue of how to give out the money to children under 6.
  • "The long and short of it is for the past three-plus months, states should have been able to distribute more than $100 of food benefits per child [per month]," she says. "And USDA is not making it easy for any state to roll out this program."
katherineharron

These small business owners got Paycheck Protection loans, but they're afraid to use th... - 0 views

www.cnn.com/...index.html

shared by katherineharron on 14 May 20 - No Cached
  • Many small business owners who received loans from the federal Paycheck Protection Program say the program's rules are forcing them to make a difficult decision: Either take on more debt or spend money in ways that don't actually benefit their business.
  • At issue is a key rule that says in order for a PPP loan to be forgiven, a small business owner must spend at least 75% of it on payroll expenses in the first eight weeks of the loan. The remaining 25% may be spent on mortgage interest, rent, utilities and interest on other business-related debt obligations.
  • That means for businesses that had to shutter and let employees go, they must rehire their workers -- many of whom just started receiving unemployment benefits -- and pay them for eight weeks even though there is no work for them to do. Then one of two things will happen: the business won't be allowed to reopen yet and its employees will have to go back on unemployment; or the business may reopen, but have a hard time paying employees because it's unlikely to turn a profit quickly.
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  • Lisa Ashton had the same problem. She received a PPP loan for her business, Northern Lights Holistic, a wellness center in Portsmouth, Rhode Island. But she quickly realized she wouldn't be able to spend it in eight weeks, especially since her business won't be allowed to open before June 1. She called her bank and asked to give the money back.
  • "We'd rather survive and live to fight another day, even if eventually we owe the government some money," Huffman said.
  • Kurt Huffman, who owns the restaurant group ChefStable in Oregon, sees the PPP loan as a welcome lifeline but says the eight-week window to qualify for forgiveness is much too tight for restaurants.
  • "I told them the situation and I told them that it's going to be too much money for me to spend," Ashton said. Her bank agreed to take half back -- and she can now pay her 16 freelancers and rent through July 1, without accruing loan debt. "I won't have to worry about the interest or everything accumulating ... and being stuck with that payment. So I feel really good about that."
  • It's unclear whether either will happen. But a new report from the inspector general overseeing the Small Business Administration recommends that the SBA review its 75/25 rule for divvying up how the money must be spent. The IG noted that the law that created the program does not create any such restriction.
  • "The Paycheck program is underperforming because Treasury unilaterally required that 75% of the funds be used for payroll within eight weeks of receiving the loan," Seiberg wrote in a note to clients. "The frustration in Washington is that Treasury could unilaterally fix the problems tomorrow because it created them. ... If Treasury won't fix Paycheck, expect Congress to change the terms in the next stimulus."
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