PIA National has continued to push back against any proposal to retroactively change business interruption (BI) provisions to have them cover coronavirus-related losses. Last week, we worked with a group of Senators on a letter to the administration, highlighting their concerns with that approach. This week, we were pleased to support two letters from U.S. House Members to the White House asking them to reject any BI proposal.

The first letter was led by Rep. Ted Budd (R-NC) and signed by 12 House members. The second letter was led by Rep. Steve Stivers (R-OH), the top Republican on the House Financial Services Committee. Ranking Member Stivers’ letter gained the support of 22 members of the committee. PIA National worked with both offices on their letters and is supportive of each.

These letters are part of PIA National’s ongoing work against the BI proposals, which would not help all small businesses; only one in three small businesses even has business interruption coverage. As such, only a small percentage of businesses would benefit from these proposals, and thousands of small businessowners would be left struggling.

While PIA National is working against the BI proposal, we are also advocating for a solution that will help all U.S. businesses, without undermining existing insurance contracts: the creation of a COVID-19 Business and Employee Continuity and Recovery Fund within the U.S. Department of the Treasury, modeled on the September 11th Victim Compensation Fund. PIA National is working with congressional allies to develop a bill creating the Recovery Fund to be included in the next coronavirus package.