More than 150 of America’s top business leaders voiced their support for President Joe Biden’s $1.9 trillion pandemic recovery plan Wednesday, urging Congress in a letter to pass the bill.
“We write to urge immediate and large-scale federal legislation to address the health and economic crises brought on by the Covid-19 pandemic,” the executives wrote. “Congress should act swiftly and on a bipartisan basis to authorize a stimulus and relief package along the lines of the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed American Rescue Plan.”
The letter was signed by senior executives across all walks of business, including airlines, banking, entertainment, health, utilities and technology.
The business leaders who signed the memo included the CEOs of AT&T, Blackstone, Comcast (the parent company of NBCUniversal), Corcoran, Goldman Sachs, Google, Saks Fifth Avenue, Siemens, T-Mobile, and United Airlines.
“More than 10 million fewer Americans are working today than when the pandemic began, small businesses across the country are facing bankruptcy, and schools are struggling to reopen,” the letter continued. “The American Rescue Plan provides a framework for coordinated public-private efforts to overcome Covid-19 and to move forward with a new era of inclusive growth.”
The bill includes $20 billion for vaccinations, $50 billion for testing and $350 billion for state and local relief.
It also allows for $1,400 direct stimulus payments, a $400 per week additional jobless benefit, and an extension to programs that increased the eligibility of millions of Americans for unemployment insurance.
The bill provides for increasing the federal minimum wage from $7.25 to $15 per hour by 2025, a provision that has drawn particular ire from some Republicans.
Speedy passage is assured when it goes to a vote in Congress this Friday, but getting it through the 50-50 divided Senate is in question. Without bipartisan support, Democrats may have to use a budget reconciliation process, which only requires a simple majority.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky, has said he objects to the bill’s targeting and costs, and resists raising the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour.
“Democrats’ so-called relief bill includesSen. Sanders’ minimum wage proposal that would kill 1.4 million American jobs,” McConnell said earlier this month. “This, after the president killed many thousands of jobs with Keystone XL [pipeline project]. Killing jobs and destroying opportunity — that’s their idea of pandemic relief?”
Biden’s top economic adviser, Brian Deese, who is head of the National Economic Council, told NBC News it was critical to pass the bill, which he said includes recovery ideas from all sides of the political spectrum.
“This is an urgently needed piece of legislation,” he said Wednesday. The country must “move fast and with the kind of speed and size we…
Read More: Over 150 top business executives urge Congress to back Biden recovery bill