Saving Our Street Act

Bill: 116-s-4047
Sponsor: full_name: Sen. Harris, Kamala D. [D-CA]
Introduced: 2020-06-23
Policy area: Commerce
Subjects: Appropriations

Business investment and capital

Cardiovascular and respiratory health

Congressional oversight

Emergency medical services and trauma care

Employee benefits and pensions

Employee hiring

Employee leave

Employment taxes

Health care costs and insurance

Health care coverage and access

Infectious and parasitic diseases

Minority and disadvantaged businesses

Self-employed

Small business

Unemployment

Veterans' education, employment, rehabilitation

Wages and earnings

Women in business
Latest action: action_date: 2020-06-23
text: Read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.

Summaries:
action_date: 2020-06-23
action_desc: Introduced in Senate
text: <p><b>Saving Our Street Act</b></p> <p>This bill establishes and provides funding for the Microbusiness Assistance Fund through which the Department of the Treasury must provide grants to specified small entities.</p> <p>Specifically, the bill provides $125 billion for grants to entities such as community small businesses and nonprofits that have suffered a drop in revenue of over 20% during the COVID-19 (i.e., coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic. Such a grant shall not exceed $250,000 and may only be used for certain purposes, including (1) rehiring or hiring furloughed employees; (2) payment of compensation, rent or mortgage, utilities, or insurance; and (3) providing health care and benefits to employees.</p> <p>Treasury is prohibited from denying a grant on the basis of any criminal history or involvement with the criminal legal system. Further, Treasury must give priority to people of color, veterans, women-owned community businesses, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals, and 75% of appropriated amounts shall be provided to businesses or nonprofits owned or controlled by one or more socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. </p>

tv_txt: II 116th CONGRESS 2d Session S. 4047 IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES June 23, 2020 Ms. Harris (for herself, Mrs. Gillibrand , Mr. Wyden , Mr. Markey , Ms. Klobuchar , Ms. Warren , Ms. Duckworth , and Mr. Reed ) introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs A BILL To permit the Secretary of the Treasury to provide direct funding to certain entities.

1. Short title This Act may be cited as the Saving Our Street Act . 2. Grants to small businesses (a) Definition In this section: (1) Covered period The term covered period means the period beginning on February 15, 2020 and ending on December 31, 2020. (2) Eligible entity The term eligible entity — (A) means an entity that— (i) is— (I) a community small business, including a self-employed worker, independent contractor, or sole proprietor, or a community nonprofit with less than— (aa) $1,000,000 in gross revenue; (bb) $500,000 in gross receipts for nonprofits; or (cc) 10 employees; or (II) a small business with— (aa) less than 20 employees in a low-income community; and (bb) not less than 50 percent of employees who live in a low-income community; and (ii) has suffered a drop in revenue of over 20 percent of gross revenue since February 15, 2020; and (B) does not include entities that are publicly traded companies, private equity firms, or hedge funds. (3) Employee The term employee includes— (A) individuals employed on a full-time, part-time, or other basis; (B) independent contractors; (C) any individual in a jurisdiction subject to a stay-at-home order, even if the employee has not physically returned to work. (4) Low-income community The term low-income community means a census tract (or equivalent geographic area defined by the United States Census Bureau) in which at least 50 percent of households have an income less than 60 percent of the area median gross income, as determined by the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development. (5) Payroll costs The term payroll costs means— (A) the sum of payments of any compensation that is a— (i) salary, wage, commission, or similar compensation; (ii) payment of cash tip or equivalent; (iii) payment for vacation, parental, family, medical, or sick leave; (iv) allowance for dismissal or separation; (v) payment required for the provisions of group healthcare benefits, including insurance premiums; (vi) payment of any retirement benefit; or (vii) payment of State or local tax assessed on the compensation of employees or owners; (B) the sum of payments of any compensation to or income of a sole proprietor or independent contractor— (i) that is a wage, commission, income, net earnings from self-employment, or similar compensation; and (ii) in an amount that is not more than $100,000 in 1 year, as prorated for the covered period; (C) the compensation of an individual employee in excess of an annual salary of $100,000, as prorated for the covered period; (D) qualified sick leave wages for which a credit is allowed under section 7001 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act ( Public Law 116–127 ); or (E) qualified family leave wages for which a credit is allowed under section 7003 of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act ( Public Law 116–127 ). (6) Socially and economically disadvantaged individuals The term socially and economically disadvantaged individuals means individuals described in paragraphs (5) and (6) of section 8(a) of the Small Business Act ( 15 U.S.C. 637(a) ). (7) Veterans organization The term veterans organization means an organization that is described in section 501(c)(19) of the Internal Revenue Code that is exempt from taxation under section 501(a) of such Code. (b) Grants (1) In general The Secretary of the Treasury shall create the Microbusiness Assistance Fund which may provide a grant to an eligible entity in an amount not greater than $250,000 to be used only for— (A) rehiring or hiring employees of the entity who were furloughed or laid off after February 15, 2020; (B) payment of, on or after the date described in subparagraph (A), payroll, salaries, commissions, or similar compensations, payroll taxes, employer compensation, rent (including under a lease agreement) or mortgage, including payments of interest on any mortgage obligation (not including prepayment of or payment of principal on a mortgage obligation), utilities, or insurance; (C) providing healthcare and benefits to employees at the same or similar levels as the entity provided on the date described in subparagraph (A), including continuation of group healthcare benefits during periods of paid sick, medical, or family leave, and insurance premiums; and (D) debt obligations that were incurred before the covered period. (2) Eligibility No person shall be denied a grant under this subsection on the basis of— (A) any criminal history or involvement with the criminal legal system; or (B) using an individual taxpayer identification number issued pursuant to section 6109(i) of the Internal Revenue Code of 1986. (3) Priority (A) In general The Secretary shall give priority to people of color, veterans, women-owned community businesses, and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals as it pertains to historically underrepresented businesses. (B) Historically underrepresented businesses Of the amounts made available under this section, 75 percent shall be provided to businesses or nonprofits owned and controlled by 1 or more socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. (4) Other assistance An entity that receives a grant under this subsection shall be eligible to receive assistance under other Federal programs, including the paycheck protection program established under section 7(a)(36) of the Small Business Act ( 15 U.S.C. 636(a)(36) ) or an economic injury disaster loan made under section 7(b)(2) of the Small Business Act ( 15 U.S.C. 636(b)(2) ) if the funds are used for a purpose other than a purpose described in paragraph (1). (5) Sense of Congress It is the sense of Congress that eligible entities should rehire employees described in paragraph (1)(A) after the date on which the national emergency under the National Emergencies Act ( 50 U.S.C. 1601 et seq.) with respect to the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID–19) terminates. (c) Amounts (1) In general Of the amounts made available under this Act— (A) $124,500,000,000 shall be used for grants made under subsection (b); (B) $400,000,000 shall be used to provide financial education training classes and for help applying for the grants and financial recovery for eligible entities, of which— (i) $50,000,000 shall be used to provide small businesses and women development centers with technical assistance and online training and information, of which— (I) $25,000,000 shall be made available for small businesses; and (II) $25,000,000 shall be made available for women development centers; (ii) $50,000,000 shall be used to provide minority business centers with technical assistance and online training and information; and (iii) $300,000,000 shall be used to provide nonprofit and community organizations with assistance to small business owners; and (C) $100,000,000 shall be made available for the Department of the Treasury and the Internal Revenue Service to carry out this Act. (2) Availability Funds made available under this Act shall be available until December 20, 2020. (d) Need An eligible entity shall attest in an application for a grant under this section that the eligible entity— (1) was in business as of February 15, 2020; (2) has suffered a drop in sales of 20 percent or more; (3) meets the criteria as an eligible entity; and (4) will use the grants for authorized expenses. (e) Documentation An eligible self-employed individual, independent contractor, or sole proprietorship applying for a grant under this section shall submit such documentation as is necessary to establish such individual as eligible, including payroll tax filings reported to the Internal Revenue Service, Forms 1099–MISC, and income and expenses from the sole proprietorship, as determined by the Administrator of the Small Business Administration and the Secretary of the Treasury. An applicant may submit to the Secretary of the Treasury a self-certification for employee labor expenses and payroll. (f) Materials Any application or informational material related to the grant program provided by Department of the Treasury or the Internal Revenue Service shall be made available in the 10 most used languages in the United States after English. (g) Receipt of funds Any eligible entity shall receive a grant made under subsection (b) not later than 14 days after the date on which the entity submitted an application for the grant. (h) Reporting The Secretary of the Treasury shall submit to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs and the Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship of the Senate and the Committee on Financial Service, the Committee on Small Business, and the Committee on Oversight and Reform of the House of Representatives a report on the information about the ethnicity, race, industry, geographical demographics, and sex of applicants for grants made under this section. 3. Direct appropriation (a) In general There is appropriated, out of amounts in the Treasury not otherwise appropriated, to the Secretary of the Treasury $125,000,000,000 to carry out this Act. (b) Emergency designation (1) In general The amounts provided under this Act are designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 4(g) of the Statutory Pay-As-You-Go Act of 2010 ( 2 U.S.C. 933(g) ). (2) Designation in senate In the Senate, this Act is designated as an emergency requirement pursuant to section 4112(a) of H. Con. Res. 71 (115th Congress), the concurrent resolution on the budget for fiscal year 2018.