Dear Friend,

Small businesses are facing unprecedented challenges as a result of the COVID-19 crisis. We all know that neighborhood businesses like barbershops, dry cleaners, shops and restaurants have been especially hard-hit by the health and economic effects of the pandemic.

Nationwide, one in six restaurants have shuttered. The unemployment rate in Virginia has doubled. Nearly half of Black-owned businesses across the country have been wiped out. And many more won’t be far behind if Congress doesn’t step up and do something to help. That’s why, for the past several months, I’ve been pushing legislation specifically to help small businesses weather this storm, including  restaurants and minority-owned businesses.

Unfortunately, comprehensive COVID-19 relief negotiations with the Trump Administration have been bogged down for months. It’s classic Washington, D.C. – everybody knows that we’ve got to do more to help struggling businesses, workers, schools and health care facilities – but nobody can seem to agree on how to get it done. That’s unacceptable.

That’s why I’ll be breaking with many in my own party today to vote to send another round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funds to small businesses while congressional leadership and the White House try to figure out a path forward on comprehensive COVID-19 relief. Over the past few months, I’ve met with hundreds of small business owners all around Virginia, and while nobody thinks the PPP program was perfect, pretty much everybody agrees that it provided vital assistance and kept many small businesses from permanently shutting down.

While I’m still hopeful that we’ll be able to reach a bipartisan agreement on a relief package that meets the needs of the American people, an additional round of PPP funding would be a step in the right direction for thousands of small business owners and their employees around the Commonwealth that are struggling to get by every week.

You can count on me to keep working to help Virginians get through this tough time, together. If you want to share your thoughts about an issue that’s important to you, you can send me an email any time using the form on my Senate website. You can also follow me on Facebook and Twitter. I look forward to hearing from you.

Sincerely,