Sen. Capito: Further Efforts Needed to Restore Economy

Further efforts are necessary to restore the nation's economy, including further paycheck protection funds and looking at the flexibility of state and local entities concerning enhanced unemployment payments, which are due to end at the end of July, Sen. Shelley Moore Capito said Friday. 

"I think we'll probably look at PPP and probably try to tailor it more to the remaining businesses that have yet to reopen or be able to bring as many people back as they need to have a full economy," the West Virginia Republican said on CNBC's "Squawk Box."

She added that the enhanced unemployment payments are a concern on two fronts. 

"It's a source of concern of those who are still unemployed, but also trying to get people back to work we're going to try to weave something there where we can get people back to work but also help those that still can't go back," said Capito.

"I think we're going to look at the issue of flexibility of state and local. My governor's received $1.25 billion. He needs to have the flexibility to say to our cities and counties that you can use that to replace lost tax liabilities. We need to have a ceiling on how high we're going to go here. We can't keep throwing trillions and trillions. We need to be very targeted in our relief."

It's also an issue that businesses aren't able to reopen fully, whether it's being able to have a "full house of customers" or looking forward to the fall and winter months, Capito agreed. 

"We've got to figure out some way to keep those folks connected to their employee like we originally envisioned with the PPP," said Capito, adding that large employers must also be considered. 

"I think the best thing that we can do is keep our foot on the pedal in terms of the development of the vaccine and the testing equipment," said Capito. "Obviously development of the vaccine is very, very critical here as we see the spread start to pop up in certain areas I am concerned about large layoffs."

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