Ask Congress for Covid-19 Relief

Contact Your Senators and Representatives Today

As previously reported to ASA members, and in order to address staffing firms’ liquidity issues in light of the Covid-19 pandemic, ASA is asking Congress to afford the industry priority status for financial assistance. ASA is also asking that the date by which firms will need to rehire employees for the purpose of loan forgiveness under the Payroll Protection Plan be extended from June 30 to at least Aug. 31. This will allow staffing firms additional time to reassign employees whose assignments were ended by clients during the slowdown.

ASA lobbyists from Squire Patton Boggs are engaging with legislators every day, but we need your help! Legislators need to hear from staffing firms about how they supply all types of workers to every industry—particularly critical industries such as health care, manufacturing, logistics and distribution, airlines, and pharmaceuticals—and about how Covid-19 has caused, and will continue to cause, job orders and revenue to significantly decline. Legislators need to know that the continued viability of staffing firms, and thus millions of jobs, is at risk.

If you haven’t already done so, please email or call your legislators today—time is of the essenceFind contact information for your representative here, and find your senators here. Please be sure to copy our lobbyists, Jack Kingston (jack.kingston@squirepb.com) and Brandon Roman (brandon.roman@squirepb.com), on your emails. They will follow up with them. Also, please copy me at tmalara@americanstaffing.net.

Thank you for taking grassroots action.

Toby Malara, ASA Government Affairs Counsel

Sample Talking Points/Email

My name is [Name], and I am [insert title] of American Staffing Association.

My staffing firm ... [add below suggested information]

  • Years in business
  • Location(s)
  • Number of internal staff
  • Number of temporary employees placed each year
  • Types of jobs filled
  • Types of clients/industries served, particularly critical industries such as grocery and food services, healthcare, manufacturing, logistics and distribution, airlines, and pharmaceuticals

I am reaching out to you about a critical issue—my staffing firm’s ability to stay in business in light of Covid-19. As result of the novel Coronavirus, my firm:

  • Has seen job orders decline by [insert number]
  • Has seen revenue decline by [insert number]

Absent additional assistance from the federal government, these losses will continue; my firm risks going under, and [insert number] workers will lose their jobs.

Therefore, I respectfully request that you take the following actions now:

  • Establish priority status for the staffing industry for general loans available to businesses
  • Extend the covered period in the Payroll Protection Act from June 30, 2020, to at least Aug. 31, 2020; this will afford my business much-needed time to rehire and reassign our temporary employees who were displaced due to the pandemic

Thank you for your consideration.

Name

Company

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *