Tester wants aid directed to hospitality industry

As Congress continues to negotiate the next COVID-19 rescue package, U.S. Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., said he isn’t hopeful a final bill will be ready anytime soon.

In a virtual meeting with the Daily Inter Lake editorial board on Tuesday, Tester said he’d be “shocked” to see anything before the Senate goes home at the end of the week.

“I will also tell you that dealing with a trillion dollar COVID package at the 11th hour is probably not the way the forefathers intended for democracy to work,” Tester said. “It opens us up to real potential mistakes.”

While agreement between Republicans and Democrats appears to be reached on another round of $1,200 direct payments and changes to the Paycheck Protection Program, a sticking point continues to be a $600-a-week jobless benefit and the overall cost of the aid package.

Tester said he’s personally advocating for financial assistance directed to the hospitality industry, which he said has been among the “hardest hit” sectors.

“Cafes, hotels, motels, breweries and bars — make sure there’s help for them,” Montana’s senior senator said.

He also wants to make sure those who are out of work have appropriate financial assistance, and to “make sure we’re encouraging the folks that do have their jobs offered back, that they do go back to work.”

He said the economy is in an even more precarious place than during the Great Recession, when U.S. unemployment peaked around 10.5%. For comparison, the jobless rate shot up to nearly 15% in April and May following the virus-induced shutdown.

“In an economic downturn time … you have to infuse enough money to keep the economy afloat,” he said of the potential rescue package. “Otherwise, you could very well go into a situation where the economy is so bad coming out of the pandemic it could take a decade to get it back.”

He said he’s seen some in the Senate willing to work across the aisle on the COVID response, naming Sen. Roy Blunt, R-Missouri, and Sen. Roger Wicker, R-Miss.

“There’s people over there that are working,” Tester said of Republicans. “There are other people that think we absolutely have no business putting any more money out.”

No matter what the final rescue package includes, Tester said adequate and timely COVID-19 testing would go a long way in helping to stabilize the economy. Test results can’t take weeks — as is the case for many areas of the country.

“The turnaround has to be days, not weeks,” he said.

Tester said he encouraged President Trump to enact the Defense Production Act to expedite more personal protective equipment and to enhance virus testing, “and he chose not to do that, and I think that’s the ramification of not leading when you have the chance.”

The senator said Montana Gov. Steve Bullock’s mask directive “was the right thing to do” and that he wants “every school to open up if it’s possible, but you’ve got to take the science and health care into it.”

Prior to his work in Congress, Tester was a music teacher in Big Sandy where he lives.

“I can tell you those kids are right on top of you in certain times of the day,” he said. “It puts our teaching professionals at risk and puts the families at home at risk.”

President Trump has been vocal about reopening all schools across the country, tweeting Aug. 3, “Cases up because of BIG Testing! Much of our Country is doing very well. Open the Schools!”

Tester, however, said that local school districts should be making the final decision about how and when to reopen schools.

“That’s where the decisions should be made,” Tester said. “It should be based on what [each school district] believes is the right course of action for their schools — not by threats from the federal government.”

Tester does remain optimistic that the country can move on from the pandemic if testing and treatments are enhanced, and a vaccine is made widely available.

“I think we’re going to be stronger on the other side than we were before the COVID crisis,” he said. “But it’s going to depend a lot on how we handle this, and I will tell you that I don’t think it’s been handled very well up to now.”