Loudoun County Chamber of Commerce issued the following announcement on Aug. 5
Dear Members of the Virginia General Assembly,
The Loudoun Chamber, which collectively represents over 1,100 member businesses and tens of thousands of employees across the region, would like to express our support for your investment priorities for the American Rescue Plan (ARP) Funding. Specifically, we support your prioritization for secondary education affordability, full funding of the Rebuild Virginia small business recovery plan, funding of the Unemployment Trust Fund, and creating more equitable access to broadband for Virginia’s citizens. We also ask that you would consider an increase to the Rebuild Virginia Recovery Fund in order to support a greater number of new applicants in the tourism and hospitality industry most impacted over the past year.
Providing $944 million in ARP funds to Virginia’s colleges and universities, with to help keep tuition costs low, especially for lower income students, will help thousands of students to achieve a degree or certification to begin refilling Virginia’s talent pipeline.
The pandemic has put a spotlight on the need for equitable and reliable access to broadband. From the most rural areas to just being on the wrong side of a suburban road, broadband access allows workers more choice for employment opportunities and students across the Commonwealth to access their curriculum from home. This investment to full deploy broadband across Virginia will do just that.
Full funding of Rebuild Virginia and increased funding of the Unemployment Trust Fund will be critical to sustain our small businesses most impacted by the pandemic. Though, on July 12th in Virginia Beach, the Governor announced that over $353 million in additional relief would be directed to this industry. Of this, per calculations by the VRLTA, only $90 million will be available for new applications. The remainder of the balance is reserved to fund all previously submitted applications.
For these reasons, the Loudoun Chamber respectfully requests that you increase funding to the Rebuild Virginia Recovery Fund to provide relief for previous applications as well as a greater number of tourism and hospitality businesses that will apply for the first time after being previously ineligible.
On behalf of our members and the business community across the Commonwealth. Thank you for your investment and consideration in these critical areas through the American Rescue Plan Funding.
Original source can be found here.
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