The US Senate yesterday finally passed the $2 trillion “Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act” (CARES Act) by a rare bipartisan and unanimous vote, but the unprecedented stimulus bill faces some challenges in the US House. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi originally had hoped to pass the legislation by unanimous consent (avoiding recalling the House…
Read More »We want to emphasize that any analysis of the pending $2 trillion “Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act” (CARES Act) that you may read – whether provided by DDIFO or any other organization is NOT YET FINAL, as the legislation is still pending in Congress. That said, we have a preliminary summary from the…
Read More »Join the Coalition of Franchisee Associations (CFA) and the International Franchise Association (IFA) at 11:45 a.m. ET this morning for a webinar providing a more detailed look at the Paid Leave requirements of the Families First Coronavirus Relief Act, signed into law by the President last week along with some of the provisions pending in…
Read More »Aside from the loan and other financial components contained in the pending federal CARES Act, a number of states and cities are also looking to create and fund business loan programs to help get the economy back on track. Toward that end, 10 days ago the Florida Small Business Emergency Bridge Loan program was launched…
Read More »In addition to CARES Act funds and state loan programs, a number of municipalities around the country have also launched recovery loan fund programs of some sort. The City of Chicago topped the nation in funding when Mayor Lori Lightfoot announced the creation of the $100 million Chicago Small Business Resiliency Loan Fund recently. The…
Read More »The Families First Coronavirus Response Act (FFCRA) may only be one week old, but the Department of Labor has already issued a further guidance on the law that effectively changes some of the provisions of the statute. For openers, the latest DOL Guidance states that the law now takes effect on April 1st and that…
Read More »Two weeks ago, President Trump declared a national emergency with regard to COVID-19. Acting on that declaration, the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) last week postponed the April 15 tax filing deadline for an additional 90 days – until July 15, 2020. As welcome as that postponement may have been, the agency also limited tax deferments…
Read More »Last week, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) issued a new guidance on the American with Disabilities Act (ADA) and the Rehabilitation Act, as both of them relate to the COVID-19 pandemic. It advises that it will continue to enforce anti-discrimination laws as they relate to reasonable accommodations about medical inquiries and encourages employers to…
Read More »This week’s unemployment report from the Bureau of Labor Statistics was released yesterday with new jobless claims setting an all-time record. In the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic shutting businesses down across the country, the BLS reported a seasonally-adjusted total of just under 3.3 million individuals filed new claims for the week ending March 21,…
Read More »Starbucks announced this week that it had reopened 95% of its stores in China including a number of them in Wuhan, Hubei Province – where the coronavirus originated. McDonalds Corp. this week announced that as of Monday, March 23, it had closed all 1,270 of its stores, drive-thru included, in the United Kingdom and Ireland.…
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