Washington, DC –The American Bus Association – the industry leader advancing North American motorcoach travel and tourism – released a statement of support today for S. 4008, Small Business COVID Relief Act of 2022. The legislation introduced by Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.) to provide COVID relief to restaurants and other small businesses – including motorcoaches.
This legislation provides an additional $2 billion in grant funding for the Coronavirus Economic Relief for Transportation Services (CERTS) program, supporting motorcoaches, school buses and passenger vessels.
“The motorcoach industry recorded an 82.6 percent record loss of business in 2020 because of the COVID pandemic,” said Peter Pantuso, ABA president & CEO. “While we saw some recovery happening in 2021, the Delta and Omicron variants slowed it down and caused the industry to suffer another 62 percent loss in 2021. This pandemic is not over yet, and with concerns for still another variant wave, we won’t see recovery until at least 2023.”
ABA thanks Sens. Cardin and Wicker for their hard work in crafting this important legislation and their commitment to helping the nation’s small businesses recover from this pandemic and urges Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to act on this vital legislation as soon as possible.