Republican senators Mike Braun and Todd Young were selected by President Trump to serve on the “Opening up America again” congressional task force.
The bi-partisan panel will work with the nation’s governors and the Trump administration on when and how to reopen the economy in the wake of the COVID-19 crisis.
“American families, workers, and job creators have suffered immensely as a result of the coronavirus,” Senator Young said in a statement posted on his senate website.
“We must carefully examine how to safely and effectively re-open our economy and get our people back to work while heeding the guidance of public health experts,” Young says.
Senator Braun, who started a turkey farm and ran a trucking parts business before getting elected to the senate, says the government can only prop up the economy for so long during the pandemic.
However, Braun does support replenishing the $349 billion stimulus package for small businesses - that fund has been tapped out.
“I want to make sure the smallest of the small businesses get access to it, because even within the realm of small business, when you are a one, two or three horse operation, many of them didn’t get served at the table on this first serving,” Braun says.
Braun says sectors such as agriculture and trucking should reopen first since workers in those industries don’t have to worry about social distancing.
“Everyone that I’ve talked to doesn’t want to go back to what it was in terms of your behavior, pre-COVID-19, they just want to get back into their business, back into their routine, in respecting the disease accordingly.”
Republican Congresswoman Susan Brooks is the other Indiana lawmaker serving on the committee.