Investments for Each County, Community in the Fifth District

Resources for NJ Frontline Workers, Local Businesses, First Responders

Hazard Pay for Health Care Workers, First Responders on the Front Line

More Flexibility for Small Business Owners and PPP Loan Forgiveness

On May 13, 2020, U.S. Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5) announced North Jersey priorities in the new U.S. House of Representatives coronavirus rescue, relief, and tax cut package — including hazard pay for first responders and frontline health care workers, improvements to the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) to help local businesses, and investment and resources for our state, county, and local governments to protect our firefighters, EMS, and law enforcement.

As Gottheimer has also highlighted, this new package includes a full reinstatement of the State and Local Tax (SALT) deduction for 2020 and 2021.

“North Jersey has been at the epicenter of this coronavirus storm, and I’m focused on ensuring new packages that Congress is working on get resources and economic assistance to Jersey’s frontline workers and first responders, to our local businesses that need more support to keep their employees on payroll, and to the State of New Jersey, our counties, and local governments, so we can protect our firefighters, teachers, and law enforcement,” said Congressman Josh Gottheimer (NJ-5). “While no bill is perfect, this legislation reinstates our SALT deduction — which I’ve been fighting for Congress to do for years — and gets resources and help to New Jersey, so we can fight this virus and recover.”

The new coronavirus rescue, relief, and tax cut package announced this week includes significant support for North Jersey, including:

• Hazard pay for North Jersey’s frontline health care workers, first responders, and essential workers — with federal investment to ensure essential workers who are risking their lives to keep North Jersey communities safe during this crisis receive hazard pay;

• Support for North Jersey’s small businesses and nonprofits — by making important fixes to strengthen the Payroll Protection Program (PPP) and providing $10 billion nationally for COVID-19 emergency grants through the Economic Injury Disaster Loan program;

• Resources for the State of New Jersey and local North Jersey governments — with federal investment for state, county, local, and tribal governments, and to help states and local communities pay the frontline health care workers, police officers, firefighters, transportation, EMS teams, and teachers who keep our communities going.

In recent weeks, Gottheimer, along with Congressman Fred Upton (MI-6), led a group of lawmakers in sending a bipartisan letter to Congressional leadership urging Congress to fully fund the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) so long as small businesses need this critical funding. 74 members signed the letter

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