Shaheen to Yahoo! Finance on Partisanship Delaying COVID-19 Relief: ‘We don’t have any more time to mess around’

**On Monday, Shaheen shared details on bipartisan COVID-19 emergency relief that she wrote with a bicameral group of lawmakers and delivered as a blueprint to congressional leaders**

**A senior member of the Senate Committee on Small Business & Entrepreneurship, Shaheen once again helped negotiate provisions to assist small businesses impacted by the COVID-19 crisis & also steered negotiations on nutrition assistance and support to address the substance use disorder epidemic**

(Washington, DC) – Yesterday, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), a senior member of the Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship, sat down with Yahoo! Finance to discuss her role as a negotiator on new COVID-19 emergency relief. On Monday, Shaheen and the bipartisan group of lawmakers shared additional details for the Bipartisan COVID-19 Emergency Relief Act of 2020, which would provide as much as $748 billion in relief to American students, families, businesses, workers and health care providers during this crisis. The bicameral group of lawmakers have been part of ongoing bipartisan talks over the past month to deliver urgently needed COVID-19 emergency relief.

In her conversation with Yahoo! Finance, Shaheen discussed the bipartisan efforts that led to the legislation she and fellow negotiators shared on Monday with congressional leadership to serve as a blueprint for long overdue relief to help Americans struggling during this crisis. As congressional leadership continues to resolve differences to finalize a COVID-19 relief bill, Shaheen underscored the urgent need to reach a compromise as swiftly as possible, stating, “We don’t have any more time to mess around…It's time to get this deal done. The American people have been waiting for months and it’s getting late.”

Senator Shaheen helped lead negotiations on the small business relief programs that were established in the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act that was signed into law in March, and includes the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). The PPP has been a lifeline for businesses and nonprofits in New Hampshire, with over $2.5 billion in assistance disbursed to more than 25,000 businesses across the state. Shaheen has been intricately involved in the bipartisan talks that led to this new bipartisan, bicameral legislation, of which she once again helped lead negotiations on portions that would provide help to small businesses. Shaheen also worked with Senator Joni Ernst (R-IA) to write the measures to assist child care providers, and she helped steer negotiations on nutrition assistance and support to address the substance use disorder epidemic, which has been exacerbated by COVID.

Read the story by Jessica Smith at Yahoo! Finance here.