Source: Congressman Brian Fitzpatrick Press Release
April 24, 2020
LANGHORNE, PA— Congressmen Brian Fitzpatrick (PA-01), Gil Cisneros (CA-39), Will Hurd (TX-23), and Tom Suozzi (NY-03) introduced the Bipartisan H.R. 6497, the Never Again Small Business Protection Act, to provide small businesses access to business interruption insurance that will help keep them afloat during national emergencies. Countless business interruption insurance policyholders across the country who have been paying their premiums for many years have discovered in recent weeks that their policies do not cover government-ordered business shutdowns caused by a national emergency, in this case, the COVID-19 pandemic.
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“As government travel restrictions to curb transmission of COVID-19 began to take their toll on the nation’s hotel owners, we expected to rely on our business interruption insurance to help pay our bills and keep our staff employed. Hoteliers faithfully pay our premiums to have peace of mind that our livelihoods will be secure in the case of unexpected misfortune, through no fault of our own,” said Jagruti Panwala, Chairwoman of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association. “Unfortunately, so many of us have been told our policies do not cover shutdowns such as those ordered by the government in response to this pandemic. We are grateful to Congressman Fitzpatrick for working to right this wrong so that, going forward, no small business owner will be blindsided by fine print or unimaginable circumstances such as the measures taken to flatten the curve which have devastated our industry.”
