AUSTIN – Today the Texas Public Policy Foundation published The Workforce Recovery Act: A Public-Private Partnership Solution White Paper.   

“Purposeful or not, government is responsible for much of the economic damage that is afflicting the country,” said TPPF’s Executive Director Kevin Roberts. “While the harm inflicted cannot be retroactively corrected, we can move forward to help individuals, businesses, and families recover from this unprecedented situation.”   

The Texas Public Policy Foundation proposed the Workforce Recovery Act to restore confidence in the American economy at all levels.  

The act would implement a national business-interruption insurance plan that can help solve the crisis that threatens the loss of millions more American jobs. The plan follows and expands on existing precedents for national coverage of risks that are uninsurable by the private sector, such as the Terrorism Risk Insurance Act. By utilizing existing avenues and structures for payment of claims, funds provided to businesses can allow them to remain viable until the shutdown ends.  

“The economic harm as a result of this pandemic is immense, but we don’t need to create an entirely new governmental structure to assist in our economic recovery,” said Rod Bordelon, senior fellow and director of the Center for Fiscal Policy with the Texas Public Policy Foundation. “This is America; we have vast resources available. This program would be a true public-private partnership by combining the resources of the federal government with the expertise and vast claims processing functions of the insurance industry.”   

The plan would pay for 90 percent of operating-revenue losses by businesses for time periods beginning March 1, 2020. Claim funds would be earmarked and restricted to pay payroll, operating costs, and rent and debt payments. There would be no coverage for lost profits.  

The Workplace Recovery Act will rely on the federal government to fund all payments but will utilize existing private-market structures to process claim payments where available and rely on government structures for such processing only where necessary.  

To read The Workplace Recovery Act in full, please visit: 

https://www.texaspolicy.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Bordelon-Annotti-Workplace-Recovery-Act.pdf