Steve Scalise: “I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, as relates to the schedule next week, as well as the schedule we have had this week…”

“I thank the gentleman. Mr. Speaker, as relates to the schedule next week, as well as the schedule we have had this week, I want to bring up a piece of legislation that we have talked about here in this colloquy and in other venues for months now, and that is the bill by Congressman Chabot, H.R. 8265, which is the Paycheck Protection Program Extension Act. We have seen over these last few months our small businesses have struggled tremendously. Some industries have done better during this pandemic where they have seen increased sales for various reasons, but we have mostly seen and heard from so many of those businesses and industries that have been devastated, some harder than others, but so many devastated to the point of bankruptcy. Daily, we see stories of businesses that closed their doors for good. Mr. Speaker, in the State of New York alone, it was reported that one-third of all small businesses--one-third--will never open again. We came together to do the CARES Act, to pass that lifeline to so many small businesses--saved probably 50 million jobs in America, saved millions of small businesses--but it expired; and when it expired, we learned a lot more about where our economy was at that time. When we passed it, it was at the very beginning of the pandemic.…”