Here’s Why You Should Take the CARES Act: One-on-One with Marco Rubio

In a catastrophe like this, where literally no community in the country is unaffected, we wanted to make sure we took care of workers across various sectors.

Ed: Why did you desire to bring churches and other nonprofits into the PPP (Paycheck Protection Program)? What was your role in that and why is it important?

Rubio: We actually didn't have a lot of opposition to it in Congress. I think one of the reasons why is because the design of this program was really to help workers; hence the name, The Paycheck Protection Program. It really wasn't about helping businesses, but to help businesses keep their workers on staff and not have to lay them off. In essence, the choice was between continuing undignified work, or having to stand in line somewhere and try to draw a check from the government. The goal was to keep as many as people as possible connected to their employer.

When you look at the small business sector as the place to start, and then you add to that the independent contractor workers, people who drive for Uber, and the like, the next logical step is this massive sector known as the 501(c)(3) universe of all sorts of organizations and churches as anybody else's. So in a catastrophe like this, where literally no community in the country is unaffected, we wanted to make sure we took care of workers across various sectors.

In a time like this, where there's so much need, uncertainty, fear, and anxiety, many of these organizations are going to step in to fill the void. It's an amazing thing to think about.

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Ed: Tell us broadly what we could expect.

Rubio: I'm not a banking expert. I was talking to the chairman of the Federal Reserve yesterday. I said, "I've learned more about banks in seven days than I ever wanted to know." But the process by which that happens is that anytime you write a law, there are now a set of rules that have to be written ...