The recent passage by the U.S. Congress for a second round of stimulus funding will install close to $1 trillion.

Sources says the main highlights of the over $900 billion COVID-19 relief bill includes $600 stimulus checks for U.S. citizens that make less than $75,000, $300 weekly unemployment benefits, along with funding for the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), food insecurity, schools and the COVID-19 vaccine distribution. Iowa’s Fourth Congressional District Representative Steve King had issues with continuing to pay additional benefits for unemployment.

“The things that are the most important is getting all of us back to work. We just can’t continue to borrow money and to try and prop up an economy with – I’ll just call it – funny money, and think we don’t have to pay the debt on this. The thing that gets us back on our feet is going back to work.” 

King agrees that funding needed to continue for small businesses through PPP, where employers could get a loan to ensure that employees would continue to receive pay during the pandemic.

“I think that’s an important component. When you tell a business that they can’t run, or you tighten up and write new regulations on it that make it far more difficult for them to make a living and a profit, then it is up to the federal government to fill that hole that they’ve created by their regulations.”    

King adds, the second stimulus bill is meant to continue to spur the economy, which is still being impacted by the pandemic. To hear more from King, listen to today and tomorrow’s Community State Bank in Paton Let’s Talk Greene County program.