A group of Senate Republicans yesterday backed extending a $25 billion payroll assistance program for U.S. airlines after warnings that carriers may be forced to cut tens of thousands of jobs without government action, Reuters reported. The letter, spearheaded by Sen. Cory Gardner (R-Colo.) and addressed to Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and copied to Treasury Secretary Steve Mnuchin, was the first public disclosure of significant support in the Republican-led Senate for additional emergency funding for U.S. airlines. A spokesman for McConnell declined to comment. Senators Marco Rubio (R-Fla.), Roger Wicker (R-Miss.), James Inhofe (R-Okla.), James Risch (R-Idaho), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Todd Young (R-Ind.), Susan Collins (R-Maine), Martha McSally (R-Ariz.), Shelley Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) and others who signed the letter said that they backed a new six-month extension of the $25 billion payroll support program “to avoid furloughs and further support those workers.”
