The Stimulus Bill Subsidizes Defense Contractors While Denying Direct Payments to Workers
The stimulus bill currently under consideration in Congress does not include direct payments to the millions of workers struggling to survive. That’s an outrage — and, as a further slap in the face, the legislation subsidizes defense contractors.
The Pentagon, headquarters of the United States Department of Defense, taken from an airplane in January 2008.David B. Gleason / Wikimedia
Earlier this year, Republican senators slammed the idea of spending money to pay Americans not to work during the pandemic. Only a few months later, a group of GOP senators has signed onto stimulus legislation that would authorize the government to pay idle defense contractors to not work, even as those contractors rack up big profits during the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the same bill excludes bipartisan provisions authorizing direct payments to millions of Americans struggling to survive.
The stimulus legislation released by Republican and Democratic senators yesterday afternoon includes an extension of a program to replace the wages of certain government contractors who miss work due to COVID-19. The program, Section 3610 of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, allows federal agencies to reimburse contractors who are unable to work in person due to the pandemic, and whose jobs do not allow telework, for up to forty hours per week of lost wages. In effect, the program uses government money to reimburse defense contractors for giving paid leave to their employees.
This article is for subscribers only. Please login or subscribe to access our full archives and beautiful print and digital magazine starting at just $3 a month.