Policy Alert – COVID-19 & Nonprofits

​Over the weekend the Idaho Nonprofit Center has been working on policy related issues to the COVID-19 outbreak and its potential impacts on the nonprofit sector in Idaho. To that end, chief executive officer Amy Little sent a letter to the governor’s office, and you can read the content of that letter here.

In addition, we are now tracking H.R. 6201 at the Federal level, please read on for more information about this legislation and how you can engage with our senate delegation in Washington DC in support.

As this is a rapidly evolving situation, we promise to keep you informed and will be mindful of the amount of information that we do share with you. We are proud to demonstrate our ability to fulfill the advocacy portion of our mission for you in these challenging times.

We are all in this together.

Updated Version of H.R. 6201 Moves to Senate*

By a vote of 363 – 40 the House passed an updated version of H.R. 6201, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, that includes provisions protecting nonprofits (see summary). In a tweet Friday evening, the President encouraged Republicans and Democrats to vote yes on the bill. The Senate is now expected to bring it up as early as today, Monday, March 16.
 
The bill was negotiated Friday by Speaker Pelosi and Treasury Secretary Mnuchin of the past two days. It provides free testing for COVID-19, $2 billion in unemployment assistance, $1 billion in food aid, and increased federal funding for Medicaid. It also suspends the SNAP work requirements and grants grater waiver authority to the states during the crisis.
 
The most difficult negotiations focused on mandated paid sick and family leave, which are explained in more detail here.
 
Emergency Paid Sick Leave (Section 5102): The bill requires employers to provide employees two weeks of paid sick leave, paid at the employee’s regular rate, to quarantine or seek a diagnosis or preventive care for the coronavirus. It also requires payment at two-thirds the employee’s regular rate to care for a family member for those purposes or to care for a child whose school has closed, or child care provider is unavailable, due to the coronavirus.

• Section 7001 provides employers a refundable tax credit equal to 100 percent of qualified paid sick leave wages paid by an employer. The tax credit is allowed against the employer portion of payroll taxes and any paid leave costs that exceed the amount of payroll taxes owed will be refundable to the employer at the end of each quarter. 
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Emergency Family and Medical Leave Expansion (Section 3102): The bill also expands the number of workers who can take up to 12 weeks of leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. After the two weeks of paid leave, employees will receive a benefit from their employers that will be no less than two-thirds of the employee’s usual pay. The qualifying reasons for the emergency leave are a current diagnosis of COVID-19, self-quarantine, caring for another person with the disease or who is under quarantine, or caring for a child due to COVID-19 related closing of school, or other care facility.

• Section 7003 of the bill provides a refundable tax credit equal to 100 percent of qualified family leave wages paid by an employer for each calendar quarter, allowed against the employer portion of payroll taxes.
  
  

Importance of the Refundable Payroll Tax Credit: The application of the credit to nonprofits is a significant development. Typically, Congress enacts income tax credits for employers, which are incentives that tax-exempt employers are not able to redeem since they don’t pay income taxes. The new provision in the bill on the House floor Saturday morning will ensure that all types of employers (with 500 or fewer employees) are able to recoup the costs of these paid leave mandates. The emergency paid leave benefit (Section 5102) and of the credits (Sections 7002 and 7003) expire on December 31, 2020.

Call to Action: Please consider reaching out to Senator Crapo and Senator Risch this weekend. Feel free to use this language: 

• Idaho’s charitable nonprofits provide nearly 56,000 jobs, employing more than 10% of the state’s workforce. We pay over $3 billion in total annual compensation to Idahoans. Thank you for ensuring any consideration given to employment-focused relief or stimulus includes Idaho’s nonprofit employers. 
• Concerned citizens are asking what they can do to help our state’s more vulnerable citizens. Your support of targeted temporary giving incentives will directly increase the amount of money nonprofits have to direct toward the most pressing needs of the communities we serve. 

*Special thank you to the Montana Nonprofit Association and the National Council of Nonprofits for allowing us to edit and share their communications with you. 

​Other COVID-19 Resources