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United States Senator John Boozman of Arkansas, along with Senator Tom Carper of Delaware and Senator Rob Portman of Ohio, introduced bipartisan legislation that would expand the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, Economic Security (“CARES”) Act to encompass both recycling and waste collection services.
Senator Boozman and Senator Carper serve as Co-Chairs of the Senate Recycling Caucus.
The CARES Act established the Paycheck Protection Program. The program is implemented by the United States Small Business Administration with support from the United States Department of Treasury.
The program provides small businesses with funds to pay up to eight weeks of pay including benefits through the Paycheck Protection Program. The legislation would amend the CARES Act to designate recycling and waste collection services as allowable expenses under the Paycheck Protection Program.
A June 18th news release from Senator Boozman’s office noted that:
The CARES Act specifies that non-payroll costs include mortgage interest, rent, and utilities (e.g. gas, electric, water). However, waste and recycling collections costs are not listed among the covered utility non-payroll costs. This legislation would designate waste/recycling collection as a non-payroll utility cost.
Senator Boozman and Senator Carper, along with Senators with Ron Wyden and Jeffrey Merkley had sent a June 3rd letter to the Senate Majority and Minority Leaders asking that they:
. . . consider the waste and recycling industries in any future coronavirus relief packages to address this critical infrastructure industry, particularly as we work through issues surrounding Personal Protective Equipment (PPE). . .
The legislation has not yet received a bill number.
The National Waste & Recycling Association in a June 17th news release thanked Senators Boozman, Carper, and Portman for introducing the legislation.
As a side note, Senator Boozman is not the only Arkansas Senator that has introduced legislation to support recycling. Former United States Senator Blanche Lincoln was a principal architect of Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation and Liability Act/Superfund amendments a number of years ago that crafted a common sense exemption from Section 107(a)(3) for the sale of recyclables such as metal, paper, plastic, glass, textiles and rubber. She drafted the original set of amendments in 1994 during her tenure as a United States Representative from Arkansas’s First District. The legislation was subsequently incorporated into a bill jointly introduced by the Senate Majority and Minority leaders and signed by President Clinton in 1999.
A copy of Senator’s Boozman’s legislation; June 18th press release; Senators Wyden and Merkley’s June 3rd letter; and the National Waste & Recycling Association June 17th news release can be downloaded here.
