Chamber Members:
First, a quick reminder for those applying for the Restaurant Revitalization Funds – the site closes tonight at 7 PM!
Things are really heating up in Springfield with the hot topic today being the new district map that was released Friday evening. See below for full coverage and the announcement of four hearings this week. Also, in this last scheduled week of session in Illinois, a handful of topics will receive the most attention.
Additionally, we look at the federal to-do list over the summer, how states are turning to a lottery to help with vaccines, and the CDC says if fully vaccinated then you can skip testing.
*Daily Coronavirus update brought to you by Silver Cross Hospital
Preliminary Redistricting Maps Officially Shared
The new maps are out for General Assembly seats and Republicans are not at all happy. In a classic off-hours news dump, Illinois legislative Democrats late Friday released their proposal as to how to reapportion state Senate and House districts for the first time in a decade. Though Republicans instantly howled, the Democrats gave every indication of enacting the map as soon as this week, scheduling a series of formal hearings next Tuesday and Wednesday, May 25 and 26.
Rising population estimates that show declines downstate, Democrats have consolidated districts, forcing some incumbents — mostly Republicans — to face each other in 2022. (Here’s another version of the map.)
The most dramatic is in the new 107th District, which could see a primary between four sitting Republican representatives: Dan Caulkins (R-101), Brad Halbrook (R-102), Blaine Wilhour (R-107) and Adam Niemerg (R-109). Political analyst Andrew Ellison has pulled together a map of what the new district could look like once approved.
With just one full day to go until they take the first step toward passage, Springfield Democrats are still withholding key details of the proposed new Illinois Senate and House maps they quietly released Friday night. Key demographic data—how Black or White a district is, and how many Latinos and Asian Americans live within its borders—is not available. Nor is data on the political party makeup of each district.
Democrats surely have all of that, but they haven’t released it. And so far, except for a statement Friday night, they haven’t said much or answered questions. All of that is drawing outrage from Republicans and some outside groups, who charge that the Democrats and Gov. J.B. Pritzker are going back on promises to have an open and transparent remap process that is fair to all sides.
“There’s no way you can look at this process and how it’s played out and say it’s transparent or bipartisan,” said Rep. Ryan Spain, a Peoria Republican who serves on the House remap panel that’s scheduled to begin holding hearings on the proposed map tomorrow.
Republicans, who have spent weeks calling for an independent process, were quick to condemn the maps and called on Governor Pritzker to veto them. “When politicians like the House Democrats are allowed to draw their own maps, they will only work to preserve their power,” House GOP spokeswoman Eleni Demertzis said.
“It is a new day,” House GOP Leader Jim Durkin said this morning, “and that day is worse than what we witnessed under Madigan.” “The Democratic Party, the party of ‘transparency,’ won’t even show the data they used to shape these (proposed) maps,” Durkin said. “Democrats have hit a new low,” with the initial version of the maps “kindergarten work” based on American Community Survey data that “means minorities will be under-represented.”
Earlier, a coalition of civic groups including Change Illinois, a nonpartisan government watchdog, released a statement making the same argument: This is not what was promised or what voters deserve.
Democrats defended the maps: “This is a fair map that reflects the great diversity of our state and ensures every person receives equal representation in the General Assembly,” Sen. Omar Aquino, who chairs the Senate Redistricting Committee said.
Public hearings – There will be four of them and they’ll be open for in-person and virtual testimony:
- May 25 at 4 p.m. – Joint House and Senate Hearing
- May 25 at 6 p.m. – House Hearing
- May 26 at 4 p.m. – Joint House and Senate Hearing
- May 26 at 6 p.m. – Senate Hearing
Per the Illinois Constitution, the General Assembly is required to create and approve of the new maps by June 30. If no redistricting plan is approved by June 30, a Legislative Redistricting Commission must be created by July 10. That commission will consist of eight members, four from each political party. The speaker of the House, the House minority leader, the Senate president and the Senate minority leader can each appoint one lawmaker and one other person who is not a member of the General Assembly.
By August 10, that commission would be required to file a redistricting plan with the Illinois Secretary of State that is approved by at least five members. If the commission can’t come to an agreement or fails to file new maps by that deadline, the Illinois Supreme Court then submits two people of different political parties to the Secretary of State by September 1.
By September 5, the Secretary of State is then required to publicly draw the name of one of those two people at random to serve as the ninth tie-breaking member of the commission. The commission would then be required to submit a redistricting plan with approval of five of the now-nine members by October 5.
This year, the release of U.S. Census data was delayed by the coronavirus pandemic, with what’s known as “block-level” population and demographic data from the 2020 Census not scheduled to be released until mid-August at the earliest, then in the properly formatted file for states’ redistricting process by Sept. 30 at the latest.
That data is usually given to states in March each year following the Census, in time for states to use it in the redistricting process. But this cycle’s delay puts the data release well after the June 30 deadline for new maps that’s mandated in the Illinois Constitution – so lawmakers said they turned to other sources in creating the draft maps.
Democrats said in releasing the proposed maps on Friday that the redistricting committees created the maps using information from the American Community Survey’s five-year estimate for 2019, which they said varies by 0.3% from Illinois’ official population count released by the Census Bureau in April.
No congressional maps yet: A source close to the process said because there’s no immediate deadline for a congressional map, state lawmakers didn’t feel the urgency to finish them before the legislative session ends May 31. Also, state lawmakers wanted to know first how their own districts would shape up be before they tinkered with congressional maps.
The new maps take effect in the upcoming 2022 election cycle, when every candidate in the statehouse and U.S. House is on the ballot. Members of both the Illinois House and the U.S. House run every two years, while Illinois Senate seats operate on a staggered, alternating schedule of two four-year terms and one two-year term.
Candidates can begin circulating petitions to get on the ballot in the March 2022 primary elections as early as Aug. 31, according to the Illinois State Board of Elections. If the legislature doesn’t have the new maps ironed out by then (or if lawmakers don’t move that date back), it’s possible some candidates could begin circulating petitions for districts that haven’t even been officially drawn yet.
What to Watch for as Session Winds Down in Illinois: Budget, Ethics, Relief Aid, Police Reform, and Energy
A year after most legislative initiatives were sidetracked by the COVID-19 pandemic, Illinois lawmakers are approaching the end of this year’s spring session facing a backlog of significant and as yet unresolved issues. Paramount on the list is a new state budget, as legislators look for ways to close a $1.3 billion deficit.
Also on the table are efforts to move forward on clean energy and to make electric utilities more accountable in the wake of the Commonwealth Edison scandal, along with a push for legislative ethics reform.
There has been discussion about modifying a policing reform law that is set to take effect in July in the face of scorn from the law enforcement community. Add to all that something new this year, arguments about how to spend more than $8 billion in federal coronavirus relief money.
Despite pandemic masking and testing requirements still in place inside the Illinois statehouse, the jumble of the legislature’s last-minute agenda in some ways represents a return to normalcy for a General Assembly where controversial issues are put off until close to the closing bell.
State budget and federal pandemic relief
The annual budget negotiations in some ways are being overshadowed by discussions of how to spend $8.1 billion in federal coronavirus relief the state is receiving from President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
There was broad consensus that the state should use the money to repay the outstanding $2 billion balance on $3.2 billion borrowed from a special Federal Reserve program to plug holes in the last two budgets. But the Treasury Department’s preliminary rules prohibited states from using the money to pay down debt.
On Thursday, Pritzker and Democratic House and Senate leaders as well as Comptroller Susana Mendoza agreed on a plan to use state money to pay off the Fed loan.
Pritzker credited factors including the state’s investments in small businesses and childcare providers for stronger than expected revenues. He said the improved state economic performance coupled with effective cash management will allow the state to pay down the outstanding federal debt within the next budget year rather than December 2023 as scheduled, saving $100 million in interest.
Pritzker and some lawmakers in both parties have cautioned against using the federal COVID relief money to set up programs that would create an ongoing expense for the cash-strapped state. A possible one-time use being discussed is replenishing the pandemic-depleted unemployment insurance trust fund. Some want to take more time in deciding how to use the money, which can be spent over several years.
House Majority Leader Greg Harris, a lead Democratic budget negotiator, said Thursday that budget teams are looking at two separate paths to deal with the $1.3 billion deficit. One is spending cuts, the other is following Pritzker’s proposal to raise $932 million in new revenue by making a series of changes to business tax policies. Those tax changes are opposed by Republicans and do not have universal Democratic backing.
Harris indicated a combination of cuts and new revenue was the likely conclusion. Choosing only to make cuts to close the gap means “nothing is left unscathed — education will be cut, colleges and universities will be cut, severe cuts to our human services. It’s a very bad scenario.”
Energy and ethics
Amid an ongoing federal corruption investigation, the intertwined issues of government lobbying and ethics laws and state energy policy are marquee topics for the spring session. Last summer, ComEd paid a $200 million fine and admitted to federal prosecutors that it gave contracts and jobs to allies of former House Speaker Michael Madigan in an effort to win his favor on legislation, including a 2016 bill that provided major subsidies for two nuclear plants.
The utility’s parent company, Exelon, is back this year again looking for help. The company has threatened to shut down the Byron and Dresden nuclear plants if it doesn’t get hundreds of millions of dollars in additional annual assistance from Springfield. The move creates a bind for Democrats, who are wary of appearing to do the company’s bidding but also facing pressure from their labor union allies to preserve jobs at the plants.
Pritzker has put forth his own proposal, which pairs more limited subsidies with what he describes as strong ethics and accountability provisions. The plan also calls for the state to get 100% of its power from carbon-free sources by 2050 and aims to ramp up electrical vehicle infrastructure. But the Pritzker administration has yet to say what the package would cost ComEd customers and the state’s other electric utilities, and negotiations among the governor’s office, lawmakers, the utilities and various other interests are ongoing.
Exelon has pushed for subsidies for all four of its nuclear plants that didn’t receive assistance in a 2016 legislative package, a position that’s in line with a rival energy bill back by the company’s allies in organized labor. “Exelon must move closer to where the General Assembly is on this and to where the package is that I put forward to try to bring the parties together for us to end up with a solid energy package … that does well by ratepayers,” Pritzker said Wednesday.
The governor also has called for an overhaul of state ethics laws but recently has played up the utility accountability provisions in his energy proposal when asked about the progress of reform in Springfield.
House Republican leader Jim Durkin of Western Springs said there are necessary changes that need to happen outside of the debate over energy policy, such as banning legislators from working as lobbyists at other levels of government and giving more independence to the General Assembly’s watchdog. “There’s no surety of whether we’re going to even get an energy bill done by the end of the month,” Durkin said.
The issues at hand have been discussed for close to two years, since federal authorities raided the Capitol office of then-Sen. Martin Sandoval in September 2019 and arrested then-state Rep. Luis Arroyo on a bribery charge about a month later, Durkin said. “I don’t know what else it will take for (Democrats) to get off the dime on easy issues,” he said.
Senate Democrats introduced a broad ethics overhaul last month, but it was greeted with skepticism by Republicans, good-government groups and Legislative Inspector General Carol Pope, and it hasn’t advanced out of committee.
The bill’s sponsor, Sen. Ann Gillespie of Arlington Heights, did not respond to requests for comment. House Democrats, meanwhile, have said they’re waiting for the Senate package.
Law enforcement reform
Negotiations have been ongoing since lawmakers in January passed and Pritzker a month later signed landmark legislation that made sweeping changes in the criminal justice and policing system.
Provisions of the new law, a major plank of the Illinois Legislative Black Caucus social justice platform, included a ban on police chokeholds, a requirement that police wear body cameras by 2025 and expanded training on use of force and crisis intervention. It also allows for anonymous police misconduct complaints.
Law enforcement groups were nearly united in their opposition to some aspects of the policing changes in the measure, and supporters said they were willing to make changes to prevent unintended consequences for law enforcement. The Illinois Law Enforcement Coalition, a group representing several police unions, has been in negotiations with lawmakers.
The coalition has composed a lengthy checklist of changes, which include provisions that anonymous complaints of police misconduct be supported by objective and verifiable evidence. The coalition also wants to allow prosecution of people who make false statements in alleging police misconduct.
The coalition also recommends changes in some use-of-force prohibitions, noting the law is inconsistent with accepted police training procedures in some circumstances. It also proposed that in pattern-or-practice investigations of a police force, it must focus on systemic police misconduct rather than isolated cases of wrongdoing and focus on the law enforcement agency rather than on individual officers.
Because of the high-stakes nature of the original law’s passage, some lawmakers privately questioned whether the General Assembly would consider follow up legislation requested by law enforcement.
Summer To-Do List
Social media has all kinds of reference to what “type” of summer it will be, but these next few months will hardly be a vacation for congressional Democrats who have a long list of legislative priorities and a series of looming deadlines hitting in the next few months. Time, in other words, is not on their side.
May 25: The most pressing — albeit soft — deadline is the one Biden gave for overhauling policing laws, the anniversary of George Floyd’s death, which is now only a day away. Negotiators say they are making “meaningful” progress” but there are significant sticking points, such as qualified immunity.
May 31: The Biden administration offered Memorial Day as a soft deadline to determine if a deal is possible with Senate Republicans on infrastructure, so we may soon have an answer of which path Democrats plan to pursue in getting this big agenda item passed. The White House’s latest offer on Friday showed the two parties are roughly $1.5 trillion apart on their tax and spending plans. Some progressives are starting to lose patience.
“You could do police, S. 1 and infrastructure between now and July,” said Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.). But he acknowledged: “For the Senate, it’s a pretty heavy lift.”
June: Democrats are expected to use the month of June to figure out how to pass a budget, which gets especially tricky with tight margins.
July 4: Speaker Nancy Pelosi is eyeing this holiday for passage of Biden’s infrastructure plan, though some congressional Democrats are starting to suggest that the deadline may be slipping.
August: Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer is vowing to bring Democrats’ major elections and ethics bill, known as S. 1, to the floor by August. The problem: Democrats need to see if Sen. Joe Manchin (W.Va.) can be convinced to support the legislation — they need his vote amid unanimous GOP opposition. Senate Dems are having another caucus meeting focused on S. 1 this Wednesday, according to a Senate Dem aide.
September 6: “Before summer’s end, Democrats also must determine the fate of pandemic-related unemployment benefits, with an extra $300 per week in federal jobless benefits set to expire Sept. 6. It’s likely to be a divisive issue, even among Democrats, with moderates and liberals at odds over whether to extend the aid as vaccinations increase, but the nation continues to see troubling economic indicators. Republicans aren’t expected to support an extension, arguing that the benefits discourage returning to work,” my colleagues report.
September 30: Democrats must work to avert a showdown over both the federal budget and the debt limit by September, and they need to be in lock step in order to do it. Debt limit doesn’t have a specific date but it is coming to a head around August and September and Sept. 30 is when current government funding expires.
More States Turn to Lotteries in Vaccine Hesitancy Fight
States are increasingly turning to lotteries as a way to try to get hesitant people vaccinated against the coronavirus and boost lagging numbers. New York and Maryland on Thursday announced that residents who get the COVID-19 vaccine will be eligible for prize money, with Oregon unveiling similar plans on Friday. All three states are following in the footsteps of Ohio, which launched a lottery-focused campaign earlier this month.
Health officials in the Buckeye State are already reporting some promising results: Vaccinations for people 16 and older increased 28 percent the weekend after the lottery announcement, compared to the previous weekend. Dan Tierney, a spokesman for Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine (R), said vaccinations had been trending down before the lottery. “Really the only thing that has changed was the availability of the Vax-a-Million incentive,” Tierney said.
Vaccinated residents in Ohio will be entered to win one of five $1 million prizes. The approach is garnering interest in other parts of the country. About 10 other states have talked to DeWine or his staff about the lottery incentive, Tierney said.
The White House also gave its support to the idea on Friday. “From the data we’ve seen, they appear to be working,” White House senior adviser for the COVID-19 response Andy Slavitt said during a press briefing. “I think the reason they work is because the vast number of people who are not yet vaccinated are actually not opposed to getting vaccinated,” he added. “They’re just not prioritizing it very high. There are other things going on in their lives. Things that draw attention to it, like the lotteries in those states you mentioned, are, not surprisingly, very effective. And so we’re enthusiastic.”
Health officials are looking for new ways to spur people to get vaccinated, now that the most eager Americans have already received their shots. Nationally, vaccinations have fallen from over 3 million per day in April to about 1.8 million per day, according to Our World in Data.
Still, some experts cautioned that the lotteries are not a cure-all. While lotteries can prompt people who have not gotten around to getting a vaccine yet, they do not address underlying issues like concerns about safety or worries about taking time off work to get vaccinated.
“It doesn’t at all deal with the structural obstacles that might still be there,” said Micah Berman, associate professor of public health and law at The Ohio State University. “It certainly creates a buzz. It just can’t be the only thing that the state does,” he added.
While there appears to be a short-term increase in vaccinations after the announcement, he noted, it is also unclear whether that will be sustained over the longer term. “If someone is concerned about the safety of the vaccine, will a lottery push them over that tipping point such that they would get the vaccine? I think we’ll need to see,” said William Moss, executive director of the International Vaccine Access Center at Johns Hopkins University. “My guess right now is that the impact’s going to be marginal of these kinds of incentives, given our understanding of what the reasons underlying the reluctance [are].”
Still, governors noted that some people are not firmly opposed to getting a vaccine, they just might not have gotten around to it yet. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll in April found that while 13 percent of adults said they would “definitely not” get the vaccine, another 15 percent were more persuadable, saying they wanted to “wait and see.”
“The goal is just to get those reluctant folks or people that just haven’t thought about it, hopefully this will get some attention,” said Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan (R) while standing next to a Lotto Ball mascot at a press conference Thursday.
Oregon Gov. Kate Brown (D) on Friday tweeted: “If you’ve been waiting to get a vaccine, or you just haven’t gotten around to it yet, we’re going to give you, Oregon, an extra incentive. How about a chance to win a million dollars?”
There are some slight differences between the state programs. Ohio is doing five drawings for $1 million each; Maryland is doing smaller drawings of $40,000 every day for 40 days, followed by a $400,000 drawing on the Fourth of July; New York is offering scratch tickets with prizes from $20 up to $5 million; and Oregon will have a $1 million prize and three dozen $10,000 prizes, one for each county.
There are also smaller incentive efforts. Erie County, N.Y., worked with a local brewery to offer free beer to people getting vaccinated. Maine is offering L.L. Bean gift cards, among other rewards.
“I know that some may say, ‘DeWine, you’re crazy! This million-dollar drawing idea of yours is a waste of money,’” DeWine tweeted upon making Ohio’s vaccine lottery announcement. “But truly, the real waste at this point in the pandemic — when the vaccine is readily available to anyone who wants it — is a life lost to COVID-19.”
CDC Announces Those Fully Vaccinated Can Skip Virus Testing
Federal health officials’ new, more relaxed recommendations on masks have all but eclipsed another major change in guidance from the government: Fully vaccinated Americans can largely skip getting tested for the coronavirus.
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said last week that most people who have received the full course of shots and have no COVID-19 symptoms don’t need to be screened for the virus, even if exposed to someone infected.
The change represents a new phase in the epidemic after nearly a year in which testing was the primary weapon against the virus. Vaccines are now central to the response and have driven down hospitalizations and deaths dramatically.
Experts say the CDC guidance reflects a new reality in which nearly half of Americans have received at least one shot and close to 40% are fully vaccinated.
“At this point we really should be asking ourselves whether the benefits of testing outweigh the costs — which are lots of disruptions, lots of confusion and very little clinical or public health benefit,” said Dr. A. David Paltiel of Yale’s School of Public Health, who championed widespread testing at colleges last year.
While vaccinated people can still catch the virus, they face little risk of serious illness from it. And positive test results can lead to what many experts now say are unnecessary worry and interruptions at work, home and school, such as quarantines and shutdowns.
CDC Director Dr. Rochelle Walensky said the updated guidelines are based on studies showing the robust effectiveness of the vaccine in preventing disease in various age groups and settings. Even when vaccinated people do contract COVID-19, their infections tend to be milder, shorter and less likely to spread to others. As a result, the CDC says vaccinated people can generally be excluded from routine workplace screening for COVID-19.
But widespread attempts to waive testing for vaccinated people could face the same dilemma seen with the CDC’s new guidelines on masks: There’s no easy way to determine who has been vaccinated and who hasn’t.
Employers can legally require vaccinations for most workers, though few have tested that power, since the vaccines don’t yet have full regulatory approval. Even asking employees to disclose their vaccination status is viewed as intrusive by many employment-law specialists.
For now, testing appears to be continuing unchanged in places that adopted the practice, from offices to meatpacking plants to sports teams.
Program Notices & Reminders – Expanded Information
Will County Announces Round 3 of CARES Act Funding
Will County is pleased to announce Round 3 of the CARES Act Small Business Grant Program for Will County businesses adversely impacted by the recent pandemic. All small businesses physically located in Will County able to demonstrate COVID-19 impact are encouraged to apply for these grants of up to $10,000. The following criteria must be met to determine eligibility:
• Have not received a previous Will County Small Business Grant
• Annual revenues under $5 Million in 2020
• Less than 50 full time employees in 2020
• In operation since February 15, 2020, or earlier
• Have proof of COVID-19 impact
• In good standing with the IRS, State of Illinois, and Will County
• Not currently in bankruptcy
For more information and to apply visit: www.willcountyillinois.com/COVIDbizgrant
All required documents must be included and uploaded with each application. This is a requirement to expedite the review of eligibility and determine approval for the grant monies. Priority will be given to businesses located in the Illinois Department of Commerce and Economic Opportunity (DCEO) Disproportionately Impacted Area (DIA). DIA zip codes in Will County include: 60432, 60435, 60436, 60466, and 60471.
CDC Mask Guidance
The CDC still recommends that unvaccinated people continue to take preventive measures, such as wearing a mask and practicing social distancing. In their latest guidance, the CDC now reports that indoor and outdoor activities pose minimal risk to fully vaccinated people and that fully vaccinated people have a reduced risk of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 to unvaccinated people.
Fully vaccinated people can:
• Resume activities without wearing masks or physically distancing, except where required by federal, state, local, tribal, or territorial laws, rules and regulations, including local business and workplace guidance
• Resume domestic travel and refrain from testing before or after travel or self-quarantine after travel
• Refrain from testing before leaving the United States for international travel (unless required by the destination) and refrain from self-quarantine after arriving back in the United States
• Refrain from testing following a known exposure, if asymptomatic, with some exceptions for specific settings
• Refrain from quarantine following a known exposure if asymptomatic
• Refrain from routine screening testing if feasible
For now, fully vaccinated people should continue to:
• Get tested if experiencing COVID-19 symptoms
• Follow CDC and health department travel requirements and recommendations
Governor Pritzker Mask Changes:
Small Business Administration Restaurant Revitalization Fund
The deadline for this program is Monday, May 24th.
- If you haven’t already, register for an account on the application portal at restaurants.sba.gov. If you are working with Square or Toast, you do not need to register.
- Review the sample application, program guide and cross-program eligibility chart on SBA COVID-19 relief options. SBA also added screenshots of the application portal that are available here.
- Applications must be submitted in English or Spanish. SBA has documents in additional languages to help you understand eligibility requirements, fill out applications, and answer frequently asked questions. See the additional languages and materials here.
- If you were unable to attend one of the webinars held last week which covered program details and a demonstration of the application portal, you can watch the recording here.
For more information, visit sba.gov/restaurants.
Details on application requirements, eligibility, and a program guide are now available in English at www.sba.gov/restaurants or in Spanish at www.sba.gov/restaurantes.
As the SBA builds and prepares to roll out the program, this dedicated SBA website is the best source for up-to-date information for eligible restaurants interested in the RRF.
Small Business Administration Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program
The SBA has completed rigorous testing and the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant application portal reopened on Saturday, April 24 at 12:30pm ET. Updated guidance documents have been posted below. Applicants may continue to register for an application portal account.
Supplemental documents
- FAQ regarding Shuttered Venue Operators Grant
- SVOG preliminary application checklist
- Cross-program eligibility on SBA COVID-19 relief options
- SVOG-specific version of IRS Form 4506-T
- SVOG applicant user guide
Small Business Administration Paycheck Protection Program
As of May 6, 2021, funding for the Paycheck Protection Program has been exhausted. The SBA will continue funding outstanding approved PPP applications, but new qualifying applications will only be funded through Community Financial Institution, financial lenders who serve underserved communities
Finally, Congresswoman Lauren Underwood and her team want to check in with you, our members to hear about your experience during COVID-19 and federal relief programs. Her office has developed a short survey to allow businesses in the 14th District of Illinois to provide feedback to Congresswoman Underwood about their experience with COVID-19 federal relief programs for businesses including PPP, EIDL, Shuttered Venue, and Restaurant Revitalization Fund; how federal relief programs have benefitted the local small business community; and what assistance they continue to need going forward. The survey can be found here.
We know that a great majority of you do not fit into the 14th District, but there is a sliver and I’m sure they won’t mind the extra feedback even from those out of district since they’ve asked. The survey deadline is May 26 by 6:00 p.m. CT.
Stay well,
Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry Staff and Board of Directors
Mike Paone
Vice President – Government Affairs
Joliet Region Chamber of Commerce & Industry
[email protected]
815.727.5371 main
815.727.5373 direct