House Passes and President Signs Stimulus Bill Into Law
The House overwhelmingly passed the $2 trillion coronavirus economic relief package, and President Trump signed the bill into law this afternoon.
We will discuss the provisions of the bill in depth on our next coronavirus call on Tuesday, March 31st at 2:00 p.m. EDT.
The 883-page bill (CARES Act) includes the following economic measures:

  • $500 billion in loans, loan guarantees, and other investments to businesses: In order to receive a loan, stock buybacks are prohibited and there are caps on total compensation for executives. Borrowers must also maintain existing payroll as of March 13th to qualify.

  • Small business relief: Businesses with 500 or fewer employees can receive up to 8 weeks of cash flow assistance. If the employer maintains payroll, certain portion of the loans could be forgiven.

  • Delayed Payroll Tax Payments for Employers: Employers have the ability to delay the payment of their 2020 payroll taxes until 2021 and 2022.

  • "Unemployment on steroids." The bill will provide $600 a week to furloughed workers for four months on top of the state unemployment compensation they receive. It expands unemployment benefits to independent contractors and self-employed workers.

  • Stimulus checks: Individuals with incomes up to $75,000 will receive a direct payment of $1,200 and married couples with incomes up to $150,000 will receive a direct payment of $2,400, plus $500 per child. The amount is phased out for those making above the threshold. Individuals making $99,000 and married couples making $198,000 do not qualify.
FDRA has led and supported a number of letters to the Administration as it prepares coronavirus economic relief measures, which you can read here:






On March 25th, FDRA also contacted the Federal Reserve in support of relief for footwear companies.
Update on CBP Duty Deferral
Yesterday, March 26th, Senators Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Pat Toomey (R-PA) and House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) led a bipartisan letter to President Trump urging him to defer duty payments. The letter calls on the President to "immediately issue a directive to U.S. Customs and Border Protection to defer all tariffs for at least 90 days, or until the crisis passes." It follows a separate Senate Finance Committee Republican letter sent to the President Wednesday recommending a number of trade policy solutions to address the economic harm from the coronavirus, including a recommendation to defer duty payments.

On March 26th, U.S. Customs & Border Protection (CBP) sent out a notice through the Cargo Systems Messaging Service (CSMS) that it will no longer accept requests for duty deferment. CBP announced just last Friday (March 20th) that it was approving requests on a case by case basis because of the coronavirus. We discussed this on our quarterly call with CBP officials yesterday, and the reason for the sudden policy change is still unclear. FDRA will provide more information on this key issue as soon as we have it.
Take Action TODAY for Footwear Relief in the Economic Response to the Coronavirus Crisis
Footwear employees have sent over 5600 letters to Congress. WE NEED YOUR HELP to make the industry's voice heard.
The Administration plans to advance a number of measures to help stimulate the U.S. economy during the coronavirus outbreak. FDRA is advocating that the relief package should include tools to help footwear companies and retailers manage their operations during the crisis.

You can send a letter below ( Due to the volume of footwear employees currently sending letters, it may take just a few minutes for the embedded widget that populates the form to load the form so that you can enter the information ). Please make your voice heard and send a strong message to Congress on behalf of the footwear industry.
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