Press Releases
Sen. Hawley Writes to Treasury, SBA: Don’t Let Wall Street Greed Undermine Small Biz Loan Program
U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Small Business Administration (SBA) Administrator Jovita Carranza asking they conduct rigorous oversight of the implementation of the Paycheck Protection Program. In the letter Senator Hawley condemns big banks who offered wealthy clients VIP treatment, fast-tracking their applications at the expense of other small businesses who may have applied first.
Hawley, Blunt Urge Administration to Ensure Smaller Colleges & Universities With Work-Study Programs Are Eligible for CARES Act Funding
“It has been brought to our attention that federal work-study students are counted in some cases as employees for purposes of PPP. While the CARES Act defines the term ‘employee’ to include ‘individuals employed on a full-time, part-time, or other basis,’ congressional intent is to stabilize small businesses and non-profits in order to incentivize keeping employees on their employers’ payroll. This purpose is distinct from that of the federal work-study program, and including those students in the PPP employee count is not congressional intent,” the senators wrote. “Please use your statutory authority to ensure that institutions of higher education with less than 500 full time employees can use the resources Congress provided to them to weather the coronavirus pandemic. In our state, many of these institutions are faith-based colleges and universities, and they are vital to the Missouri economy.”
Senator Hawley Announces Bill to Ban Universities from Relief Funds Until Endowments Tapped
Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) announced legislation to prohibit universities from receiving Higher Education Emergency Relief Funds from the CARES Act if they have an endowment larger than $10 billion, unless they first spend some of their own money on coronavirus-related financial assistance for students. Under the proposal, universities with over $10 billion in endowments would have to spend 10 times the amount appropriated to them according to the formula in the CARES Act to be eligible for federal relief funds. The university would have to demonstrate it spent the money on the same uses of funds required by the CARES Act – emergency financial aid grants to students to cover costs like food, housing, healthcare and childcare, and costs related to the disruption to the...
Senator Hawley Calls on Google, Apple CEOs to Commit to be Personally Liable for Protecting Privacy in COVID-19 Response
“If you seek to assure the public, make your stake in this project personal. Make a commitment that you and other executives will be personally liable if you stop protecting privacy, such as by granting advertising companies access to the interface once the pandemic is over. The public statements you make now can be enforced under federal and state consumer protection laws. Do not hide behind a corporate shield like so many privacy offenders have before. Stake your personal finances on the security of this project,” said Senator Josh Hawley.
Senator Hawley Urges USDA Secretary Perdue to Establish Emergency Farm-to-Food-Bank Program
Following reports of farmers destroying healthy produce due to cratering demand from restaurants and other large buyers, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) sent a letter to United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue calling for immediate funding of a farm-to-food-bank program to get food to those in urgent need.
Art Laffer Endorses Senator Hawley’s Plan to Rehire America
Today member of President Trump’s economic recovery task force and former economic adviser to President Reagan Art Laffer endorsed U.S. Senator Josh Hawley’s (R-Mo.) plan to rehire workers now and keep them on payroll throughout the coronavirus pandemic.
Senator Hawley, Colleagues Call for Financial Security for Rural Communities in Midst of COVID-19 Crisis
Today U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) joined a bipartisan group of senators on a letter calling for the Senate to finally provide much-needed financial certainty during the coronavirus pandemic for rural communities to ensure long-term funding needed for essential services. In a letter addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), the senators pushed for, "a long-term solution for the Secure Rural Schools and Community Self-Determination Act (SRS) and Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) programs at the next possible opportunity." "The stop and start authorizations and payments under SRS and PILT have wreaked havoc on rural America for decades, and now, with the COVID-19 pandemic, the budgets of these rural...
Hawley, Blunt, Senators Urge USDA to Provide Assistance to Dairy Farmers Impacted by Coronavirus
This week, Missouri Senators Josh Hawley and Roy Blunt joined 13 of their Senate colleagues in urging U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue to extend assistance to the dairy industry, which has been severely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. As large swaths of the U.S. economy have shuttered in the face of the COVID-19 outbreak, so too have long-existing markets for U.S. dairy producers. This standstill has left dairy farmers with excess product that was originally intended for the food service industry and no channel to get their milk, butter, cheese, and yogurt into the hands of consumers. The senators wrote to Secretary Perdue to request he use the agriculture assistance provisions in the CARES Act to provide stability for the dairy industry and prevent a...
Senator Hawley Appointed to White House Task Force on Reopening the Economy
Today, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) was appointed by President Donald Trump to the White House task force on reopening the economy. Hawley, who introduced a Phase 4 coronavirus relief plan this month to rehire American workers and keep them on payrolls for the duration of the crisis, will join a bipartisan group of lawmakers to determine a path forward for getting Americans back to work as quickly and safely as possible.
Hawley, Blunt Join Bipartisan Effort Urging USDA to Support Pork Producers
Missouri Senators Josh Hawley and Roy Blunt joined a bipartisan letter urging U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Secretary Sonny Perdue to take immediate action to assist pork producers and maintain the pork food supply chain. “We hope this component of the supply chain is restored quickly,” the members of Congress wrote. “However, in the event that producers are unable to schedule harvest of their hogs, we request that you consider how to use your existing authorities and available funds to compensate producers for losses. Furthermore, we request that Natural Resource Conservation Service consider how to provide financial and technical assistance through the Environmental Quality Incentives Program for affected producers, if needed.”