On Thursday morning, United States Congressman Michael Guest joined Linda Allen on The Gallo Show to talk about what the CARES Act means for small businesses and the unemployed.
Guest, who represents the third congressional district of Mississippi, is ecstatic with how the recently enacted CARES Act turned out and told Allen that small businesses have the chance to turn these loans into grants.
“This is really a loan that converts to a grant that helps small businesses during these next two months,” Guest said. “If that employer keeps all of his employees on payroll for the next 8 weeks, then any money that the employer has spent on employees’ salary, healthcare calls, or utilities, they can apply to have that loan forgiven.”
Besides the small business loans having the potential to be 100 percent forgivable, the CARES Act also offers a four-month care package for unemployed individuals, as well as a $1200 stimulus check for all independents.
“In the CARES Act, we increased the unemployment benefits that individuals are going to receive, so it is now going to include both a state unemployment portion and a federal unemployment portion,” Guest said. “That’s going to be for the next sixteen weeks.”
According to yesterday’s report from the U.S. Department on Labor, another 6.6. million people filed for unemployment claims last week, bringing the unemplyment rate to at least 12 percent—the worst since the Great Depression.
Guest also told Allen that he believes local banks should start processing the small business loans as early as tomorrow, and American citizens with an IRS-verified bank account should expect the stimulus money to start coming through by April 20.
To hear the full interview with Guest, check out the video below.
