Democratic and Republican legislators continue to find themselves at an impasse over several key issues in the next round of federal coronavirus-relief legislation. The delay is of particular concern for the travel industry, which has been hard-hit throughout the pandemic.
"It is critical for the travel and tourism industry that Congress comes back next week and tries to come to a resolution to move forward with meaningful relief," said Tori Barnes, the U.S. Travel Association's executive vice president of public affairs and policy.
Once a deal is reached, things will likely move quickly to bring the relief package to fruition, according to Barnes. She identified two main issues holding up legislators: Coming to an agreement on potential liability protection for corporations and schools related to cases of Covid-19, and the extension of unemployment benefits like insurance and a continuation of the extra $600 per week for the unemployed.
It's too early to estimate when the next relief package will be revealed, Barnes said, but she believes that it would likely happen before both political parties' national conventions: Aug. 17 for Democrats and Aug. 24 for Republicans.
"I would underscore the importance, particularly given the devastation that the pandemic has caused on the travel and tourism industry, that they come back together in a meaningful way in the short term, because otherwise we're just going to continue to lose jobs," she said. ASTA, for example, warned Thursday that more than 86% of travel advisors predicted they will have to close their doors within a year without additional federal funding.
Both U.S. Travel and ASTA have been lobbying for a number of measures that would provide relief for the travel industry.
"In 2019, there were 15.8 million travel-related jobs, and we've lost 8.1 million of those as of May 1," Barnes said. "The only way that we're going to be able to bring those jobs back is either through sustained demand growth with incentivizing folks to actually get out there and move, or we're going to have to have continued government assistance for some period of time in the form of relief that enables people to keep folks on the payroll and operate their businesses given that they're not running anywhere near full capacity."