Washington, D.C. — As congressional leaders finalize a new COVID-19 relief package, the American Economic Liberties Project, the Action Center on Race & the Economy, Good Jobs First, the Insight Center for Community Economic Development, the Institute for Local Self-Reliance, the Partnership For Working Families, and Public Citizen, issued the following joint statement in support of direct payments to working people and families.

“Though much more assistance is desperately needed, the direct payments to workers and families championed by Senators Sanders and Hawley will bring immediate relief and must be kept in the next COVID-19 package.

“Nearly nine months after the CARES Act passed, it’s time we learn its lessons. Direct payments help people directly. Even as joblessness skyrocketed and the pandemic raged during the spring, households were able to continue to put food on the table and keep a roof over their heads without wait because of the direct aid payments made in the CARES Act – an achievement for which government intervention is directly responsible.

“By contrast, every other economic provision of the CARES Act, from aid to hospitals, support for states and cities, loans to small businesses, and credit programs for large businesses, had to travel through a concentrated banking and health care system, and thus served to concentrate wealth and power.

“The crisis Americans, especially BIPOC communities and frontline workers, are facing, demands policymakers act now. At some moments, choosing the wise path means choosing the moral path. This relief bill is one such moment. Direct payments are both wise and moral.”

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Economic Liberties works to ensure America’s system of commerce is structured to advance, rather than undermine, economic liberty, fair commerce, and a secure, inclusive democracy. Economic Liberties believes true economic liberty means entrepreneurs and businesses large and small succeed on the merits of their ideas and hard work; commerce empowers consumers, workers, farmers, and engineers instead of subjecting them to discrimination and abuse from financiers and monopolists; foreign trade arrangements support domestic security and democracy; and wealth is broadly distributed to support equitable political power.