‘I think there’s a very high likelihood’ the bill will pass today: Patrick McHenry

Patrick McHenry, U.S Representative from North Carolina joins the On The Move panel to discuss how the stimulus package will impact businesses and individuals.

Video Transcript

ADAM SHAPIRO: We are keeping our eyes on Capitol Hill because the House is debating the historic $2 trillion stimulus package that was passed by the Senate. I want to bring into this discussion our correspondent in Washington, DC. That's Jess Smith, as well as representative Patrick McHenry from North Carolina.

Representative, let me start with you. What are the chances we're going to get that vote in the House today and that it will pass? Because I know that some members of Congress have said they might hold it up.

PATRICK MCHENRY: I think there's a very high likelihood it gets done today. And if it's delayed at all, it still means we get this done before the weekend is out and signed into law. The executive branch agencies are already under way implementing this, because they know the contents of the bill. And the bill will be unchanged, even if there is a vote. So I have confidence we'll get this thing done.

JESSICA SMITH: I just wanted to ask you about the situation that we find ourselves in this morning. I know President Trump has been tweeting about Congressman Massie. I mean, when you have members of Congress choosing between missing this vote or having to scramble back to DC, I mean, what do you make of the situation that we're in?

PATRICK MCHENRY: Well, look, we've got to do our work, I get that. And I'm prepared to go back to Washington. I'm prepared to go back to Washington. But I'm not en route because I think that this bill will pass today. And look, it was a 96 to 0 vote out of the Senate. Very rarely, outside of naming a post office, do you see that type of consensus in this political environment, especially with a bill that is $2 trillion in cost.

The impact that we're feeling in our communities across this country, small business folks and everyone, every family affected in some way, is the reason why we've driven to consensus so quickly, the urgent need to respond to this economic and health crisis.

JULIA LA ROCHE: Congressman McHenry, it's Julia La Roche here. You just mentioned small businesses, which I think is incredibly important. You're talking about almost half the workforce works for a small business, more than 30 million small businesses here in the US. And Goldman Sachs put out a survey recently of their small businesses that they work with, and an overwhelming majority said that they're already feeling the impacts.

So my question for you, because I'm having these conversations, how when we move forward keep up with the capacity when you have so many small businesses that are hurting? Yet we have Josh Brown of Ritz [INAUDIBLE] Wealth Management pointing out that the SBA has less than 3,300 employees, and they approved a total of 58,000 loans last year. How are we going to address the capacity issue?

PATRICK MCHENRY: That is my number one concern for the implementation of this bill, is the capacity of the SBA. I've shared my concerns with everyone from the Treasury Secretary directly to key members of the White House. Everyone understands the capacity issue of the SBA. And they're working around the clock to address that.

There are two avenues here within this bill. If you have 500 or fewer employees, the SBA route is the quickest route for you to get a loan on an emergency basis and therefore qualify for the small business grant to keep your payroll for eight weeks. For businesses of all sizes, though, we're going to have multiple programs that are going to be stood up between Treasury and the Fed.

Those facilities are already underway to ensure that banks can continue to lend to businesses of all sizes. In particular, there will be a large scale program to ensure that we have small business lending through traditional routes of bank and credit union and finance. Those things are underway.

JULIE HYMAN: Congressman, Julie Hyman here. I want to ask you as well about the Defense Production Act. The president's been tweeting about that this morning and urging General Motors to produce more ventilators more quickly. He says in one of his tweets invoke P, which he later clarified to mean Defense Production Act. But he hasn't invoked it yet. Should President Trump invoke the DPA to get American businesses making this stuff that hospitals need right now?

PATRICK MCHENRY: Well, the Defense Production Act is a powerful tool that says that the federal government can be prioritized over all contractual obligations of businesses. It's a powerful tool. The president says that he does not want to use this unless he has to. We've had great compliance, a great willingness from manufacturers from textile and furniture manufacturers in my district that are reorienting their workforce around cutting some operations for masks.

So I mean, we have folks that are doing this voluntarily, great American business folks saying that they want to comply voluntarily. So I don't think the president has to invoke it unless it becomes necessary. After all, we want voluntary compliance. We want good Americans doing great things.

ADAM SHAPIRO: Representative Patrick McHenry of North Carolina, we appreciate your insight here on Yahoo Finance. Thank you for joining us.