COVID Relief Lobbying by Trade Associations

Theodoric Meyer at Politico Influence:

THE STATE OF PLAY: Airlines, restaurants and other industries battered by the pandemic are waiting and watching as House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin inch closer to a deal on a relief package. “Pelosi called on airlines Friday to hold off on any furloughs or layoffs for tens of thousands of employees facing job cuts, and vowed that Congress will enact payroll support one way or another,” POLITICO’s Tanya Snyder reports. “She said Congress would either enact standalone legislation to extend the Payroll Support Program for aviation workers or include it in a comprehensive coronavirus relief package. She called relief ‘imminent.’ ‘Today, I am calling upon the airlines to delay their devastating job cuts as relief for airline workers is being advanced in Congress,’ Pelosi said.”

— House Democrats narrowly passed their own bill on Thursday containing provisions championed by the Independent Restaurant Coalition and the National Independent Venue Association, among others, but it’s unclear which of its provisions will make it into any deal that Pelosi and Mnuchin strike. Other industries are still pushing for aid. The International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association applauded a bill introduced by Reps. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) and Mike Quigley (D-Ill.) on Thursday that would set up a $30 billion fund to help gyms and fitness clubs.

— “While many industries are looking to receive a second round of help from the federal government, a significant segment of our industry was left out of the first relief package,” Brent Darden, the trade group’s interim president and chief executive, said in a statement. “Without immediate assistance, hundreds of thousands of jobs in the fitness industry could be lost.”