A ‘McCongressman’ May Get a Coronavirus Bailout for His Business
Small need not mean small — if your business is a franchise.
U.S. Representative Kevin Hern of Oklahoma.
Photographer: Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images
On March 24, as Congress struggled to authorize a massive federal rescue of an economy sinking beneath the weight of the coronavirus pandemic, four legislators sent a letter to the senators in charge, Mitch McConnell and Charles Schumer.
The letter asked that the bill significantly increase taxpayer funds available to struggling franchise operators — the folks who run McDonald’s outlets and other fast-food eateries, for example. The legislation already envisioned spending hundreds of billions to help small businesses cover about two and a half months of payroll and other operating expenses. But the letter-writers requested four months of such coverage for franchisees.