Three Things Congress Should Consider in the Next CARES Act

Image by fernando zhiminaicela from Pixabay

My office has a view of the forest just above one of my beehives. On sunny days, I can see the bees buzzing across the yard, almost dancing in their diligence. They never stop working. There’s a constant stream of bees flying in and out of the hive, crisscrossing in my view, for as long as the sun shines. Then, just before sunset, all goes quiet in the hive as they prepare for their evening rest. The life of the worker bee is constantly changing. A worker can have three to four different jobs in her lifetime. Maybe she starts out in the nursery, caring for and feeding the larva. Next she’s assigned to foraging. Then perhaps to guarding the entrance. In her final days she might be an attendant to the queen. The worker’s life is one of changing to meet the needs of the hive, which vary greatly throughout the days and years of the hive’s life. Everyone must adjust as life shifts and this is the secret of their success.

There are many lessons we’ve learned these past few months in the age of the coronavirus pandemic. From learning how to face death, to discovering who or what in our economy is actually essential while also revealing the enormous gaps in health care, wealth, and education in our society, we keep getting hit with new information and new lessons. In a nutshell, we’re being asked to adjust over and over and over again. Like the bees, American workers have been given new assignments. Some were told they can’t work. Others were told they had to work. Still others were told they had to work, but from home and in a completely new online manner. Working mothers had to homeschool their kids while working full time from their kitchen tables. Other mothers had to quit their paid jobs to care for their young children because daycares were shuttered. In every facet of working life, we’ve been changed and re-assigned. As our nation moves to reopen and find some “new normal,” workers are yet again being asked to be flexible and meet the needs of our economy as we progress.

This is no easy task and most of us are at a loss. Many white collar workers will continue to work from home. Teachers and professors are being asked if they can create a balance of online and in-person instruction. Restaurants and fitness centers need to learn how to operate at only 50% and others in the entertainment industry, like musicians and on-stage actors, will need to wait a while longer without work, without an end date in sight. Some industries will die, and it’s expected that 42% of the jobs lost during the pandemic will NEVER come back. Lastly all parents will have to continue to meet the needs of their children in a world where childcare and school aren’t fully functional.

This is the “new normal.”

Congress can make all the difference here and the time has come for them to act and act fast. The situation right now is not what it was in March. We’re not closed; rather, we’re opening and will continue to do so even without testing and tracing (for some reason that’s beyond America’s technical capabilities). Moreover, we have a responsibility to our children to open schools, grant them time together, and educate our young adults so they can do the work this world needs them to do. Like worker bees, we have to come together to see what we can do safely, what we can’t do safely, and figure out who is capable of doing what. The next CARES bill needs to address the current situation on three important fronts: Protecting those who can work out of the house with guaranteed paid sick and family medical leave, protecting those who can’t work with full paid disability and health insurance, and protecting the unemployed with full unemployment and health insurance. Every American will fall into one of these three categories.

PAID MEDICAL LEAVE

This needs to be at the forefront of the next CARES act. All of those who are working outside of the home are told that should they show any symptoms of illness, they’re to stay home. But who will guarantee their sick pay? What if their child is sick? What if their child’s daycare is closed? What if schools stay closed? All of these things matter and for those businesses that have opened, they have to grant paid, unlimited medical leave for employees as well as paid family medical leave so that we do the right thing. Currently, employers must do this for confirmed Covid-19 cases and this must continue. We can’t tell people to stay home and then punish them by not paying them. There shouldn’t be a penalty right now for taking a sick day right now, even if the employee doesn’t end up with Covid-19. Better to be safe than sorry. “Stay the %$*# home” is a mantra I hear many speaking these days, so do it Congress—make unlimited medical leave mandatory and help businesses make that happen. Moreover, many businesses aren’t allowed to run at full capacity which means many workers are being called back, but for less hours than prior to the lockdowns. Congress needs to supplement these businesses so that they can still pay their employees their previous salaries and compensation packages while we reopen slowly and with intention. I volunteer for Humanity Forward and have been calling microgrant applicants. I spoke with a waitress in Texas who is working again, but only 2 days per week in a mostly empty restaurant. She can no longer claim unemployment, because she’s technically employed, but you try living on $2.15/hr with a fraction of your tips. We can do better than that, can’t we?

KEEP THE VULNERABLE HOME

We know enough about covid-19 to identify probably 90% of those who will suffer the most from this disease. While those who can work should go out there and make it happen, those who can’t, should stay home and either be put on social security without penalty or disability at their previous level of income until either a vaccine is created or herd immunity is achieved. For example, we should reopen our universities, but perhaps the professors age 65+ aren’t comfortable with returning. Or a waitress with diabetes, or a grocery store employee with a heart condition. The next CARES act should include provisions for those who are either over 65 or have diabetes, heart, or lung conditions, to stay home. For those 65+, they should be allowed to go on social security and Medicaid without any penalty. We could also lower the retirement age to 60. Regardless, we know that for every age over 65 your chances of survival go down quite significantly, so let’s do the right thing for our elders and allow them to retire in dignity and wait this out with a roof over their heads, food in their bellies, and proper health care. For those with diabetes, heart, or lung conditions, no matter what the age, they should be able to easily file with their doctors for disability at their normal pay and apply to Medicaid. This will keep them protected and shouldn’t have an end date, rather it should be tied to a vaccine and/or herd immunity, to be determined by our public health officials.

CONTINUE TO SUPPORT THE UNEMPLOYED

The first CARES Act focused entirely on the unemployed and given that many of our workers are still being told to remain at home as well as the 42% of lost jobs that won’t be coming back even if we completely reopened, we will need to continue current unemployment benefits to this group of people. Health insurance also needs to be considered, and ACA enrollment should open in every state to allow them to seek coverage. We’ve seen bills as high as $1 million for covid-19 treatment, it isn’t right to watch our unemployed brothers and sisters die simply because they can’t work right now. Some sort of incentives to return to work should be considered, but then see my point about medical and family leave. However we must accept that some of us will not work again for a long time. Consider Vegas—it’s open but without conventions and the theaters, it’s basically a dead zone. Tons of folks will be out of work there until those two industries reopen. We need to take care of the entertainers, the resort and travel industries, as well as the millions of undocumented service workers who won’t be working any time soon. We also need to allow this group of people to collect unemployment while retraining or taking classes. There will be new types of work emerging during this crisis and new ways of being in the world will require new skills from our employees. Granting money for training while continuing unemployment payments will help those with the interest to move from a dying field to a new emerging opportunity.

I’ve seen hints in the news cycle that Congress is working on a new CARES bill, but as of yet only unemployment seems to be on the table. We’re past that phase and into something completely new. We need to encourage people to work in those industries that are open, while protecting those workers from reduced hours and offering unlimited, paid medical leave. We’re in a pandemic age for goodness sake, it only makes sense to finally join the rest of the civilized world and make paid medical and family leave mandatory. We also need to allow our most vulnerable to stay home, regardless of what industry they’re in. Finally, for those who will remain unemployed for the time being, we need to continue to support them, not only unemployment payments, but also health care and retraining opportunities, so that the industries of the “new normal,” can be born.

The pandemic and economic depression of the moment don’t have to usher in the end of the world. This can be the beginning of the next world. America can lead if Congress actually cares about ALL workers in the next CARES bill. It’s all up to our elected officials. Only time will tell.