Ep. 07: New laws – including the CARES Act – and houses of worship

As the country continues to grapple with the coronavirus, Congress passed and the president signed stimulus packages that impact businesses and nonprofits. But, what does this mean for houses of worship? On this week’s Respecting Religion, Amanda Tyler and Holly Hollman review the Families First Coronavirus Response Act (starting at 5:35), provisions of the CARES Act (15:45) – including the Paycheck Protection Program Loans (20:10) and increased charitable giving incentives – and more. They discuss new requirements and opportunities for nonprofits and what houses of worship need to consider when determining whether to apply for financial relief programs. In the third segment, Amanda and Holly explore how religious communities are caring for people in new ways during this time.

Read BJC’s analysis of the COVID-19 stimulus packages in a piece written by Holly on our Medium channel at this link.

Read the text of the Families First Coronavirus Response Act at this link.

For more on how the provisions apply to nonprofit organizations, check out the helpful resources from the National Council of Nonprofits at this link. The webinar Amanda referenced can be found at this link.

The resource memo from the United Church of Christ (UCC) on the Families First Coronavirus Response Act is available at this link. The UCC webinar that Holly referenced can be found at this link.

Resources from the Department of Labor on COVID-19 and the American Workplace are available at this link.

For additional resources, check out the links in BJC’s analysis on Medium.

Segment 2: CARES Act and Paycheck Protection Program (starting at 15:44)

Read the text of the CARES Act (Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act) at this link.

To access resources on previous cases on BJC’s website, visit this link.

Segment 3: Church daycare programs and how religious communities are caring for others (starting at 38:00)

Each week, Amanda and Holly talk about how they are seeing religion respected in the world around us.

Amanda mentioned this NPR story by Lulu Garcia-Navarro: Hospital Chaplains Bring Hope And Solace To COVID-19 Patients And Staff.

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