The National Small Business Association (NSBA) congratulates all of the winners of the 2020 elections and looks forward to a productive nonpartisan working relationship that can address the many issues that face the small-business community.

Many small businesses that have been severely impacted by the pandemic are barely treading water at this point, due in-part to politicians’ nonstop electioneering taking a front-seat to legislating.

It’s time to get back to business.

There are near-term actions that Congress must take, top among them is to pass another stimulus bill which would allow the small businesses hardest hit to qualify for a second Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loan. Specifically, America’s small-business community has been extremely hard-hit by the pandemic and ensuing economic downturn, and now — more than ever — we need policymakers to move past the tribalism that has taken over our political process and reach across the aisle.

Some key provisions that should be part of any stimulus are:

• Allow forgiven PPP expenses to be deductible as ordinary business expenses;

• Payroll-tax relief that addresses both employer and employee rates;

• Expand, update, and improve the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC);

• Allow small businesses to qualify for both a PPP loan and an ERTC, but prevent “double dipping;”

• Provide temporary liability protections for businesses that work to follow applicable public-health guidelines;

• Enable forgiveness funds to be used for PPE and other necessary safety modifications.

• Base regulatory impediments by extending filing deadlines where possible and create “grace periods” and/or an enforcement moratorium for rule violations that do not immediately endanger health and safety.

Congress must also deal the rapidly-approaching deadline of the current federal-spending approval and pass a more long-term spending bill by Dec. 11 to avoid what could be a catastrophic government shutdown.

COVID-19 continues to wreak widespread economic hardship and insecurity among small businesses and the 70 million people in the U.S. who run or work for a small business. Small business desperately needs our elected officials to carve a path forward from this pandemic — one that invites confidence in our economy and our collective ability to right this ship.

But first, we need our elected officials to simply do their jobs. Small-business owners rarely get a day off, and we’re not asking lawmakers to work 24/7; we just want them to pause the incessant interviewing for their next job.        

Todd McCracken is president and CEO of the NSBA, which has been representing America’s small-business owners for more than 80 years. The NSBA calls itself “a staunchly nonpartisan organization with 65,000 members in every state and every industry in the U.S.” This article is drawn and edited from an email message the organization issued on Nov. 9.

Having won the election for U.S. President, Joe Biden now has an opportunity to take stock of America, to assess where we have been and where we are going. With voting now behind us, I see several trends that will challenge President-elect Biden and his team.

We do not seem to have a strategy to fight COVID-19. The pandemic has caused over 240,000 deaths in our country, yet we are casting about for a response. President Donald Trump should have led the fight for a strategy, but he did not, and neither did the Congress. 

In health care, the number of Americans with insurance fell by 5 million this year, largely because of job losses caused by the pandemic. The Affordable Care Act — enacted 10 years ago — expanded coverage and provided protection for people with pre-existing conditions, but it urgently needs improvement. President Trump has said for four years that he would replace the law, but he never unveiled a plan to do so. 

On the international scene, our working relationship with allies has been an admired part of American foreign policy since the end of World War II. President Trump, however, has been comfortable with authoritarian leaders like Russia’s Vladimir Putin and China’s Xi Jinping, and has been unwilling to follow our traditional policy of working closely with our allies, especially in Europe. 

President Trump has ignored our advocacy for human rights that had been a distinguishing part of American foreign policy for decades. Nations around the world look to us as a beacon of light on human rights and democracy. 

Another trend is that Americans have less trust in one another, less confidence in the decency of our fellow Americans, making it more difficult to resolve problems. 

America has a remarkable history of meeting our challenges dating from the founding era, when we were a nation of 2.5 million people but produced an astounding array of talented leaders: Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Hamilton, Madison, and others. We need to revisit that history, share, talk and instill its lessons in our citizens. 

By stepping up to these challenges, President Biden will lift our spirits and make us feel better about our country.

Our country and its institutions are, of course, imperfect. Not every challenge can be addressed at once. All of this puts a heavy, but not insurmountable burden on the president-elect. In addressing them, he certainly will need help — and lots of it.

We are the United States of America — an exceptional nation, as we say. If we do not step up, who will?        

Lee Hamilton, 89, is a senior advisor for the Indiana University (IU) Center on Representative Government, distinguished scholar at IU Hamilton Lugar School of Global and International Studies, and professor of practice at the IU O’Neill School of Public and Environmental Affairs. Hamilton, a Democrat, was a member of the U.S. House of Representatives for 34 years (1965-1999), representing a district in south central Indiana.