Pence: Next coronavirus relief bill would need legal shield for businesses

by Justine Coleman - 05/24/20 12:32 PM ET

Vice President Pence said the next coronavirus relief bill would need to provide a legal shield for businesses in order for the country to be able to reopen.

The vice president told Breitbart News in an interview that aired Saturday the administration wants to provide a “safe harbor” to businesses that follow Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidelines so they can avoid “frivolous lawsuits” and reopen “with confidence.”

“What we want to do is make it possible if businesses or professional sports reopen and begin to operate consistent with CDC guidelines that they can do that with confidence and that they will have liability protection,” he said.

“What we don’t want, in the midst of a recovering economy, we don’t want it to be saddled down with thousands of frivolous lawsuits filed all over the country,” he added.

Pence also pushed for a payroll tax cut he said would increase workers’ take-home pay by 7.6 percent and stimulate the economy.

The vice president said discussions with Republican leaders on how to move forward with pandemic relief are still “very preliminary,” adding Congress has already approved billions of dollars in relief. Pence said going forward, “the focus is going to be on the American people.”

“We really do believe that whatever else might be necessary to get the American people and families and small businesses through his time, we’ve got to have provisions that will promote economic growth and accelerate this recovery in the second half of this year and in 2021,” he said.

Breitbart News interviewed the vice president after he met with business leaders and Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp (R) about reopening.

Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) has said that a coronavirus relief package would need liability protections in order to pass the Senate.

McConnell and other Republican senators rejected the $3 trillion coronavirus bill passed by the House earlier this month, saying more “narrowly targeted legislation” was needed.