AUG. 5 ARA MEMBER UPDATE

 Now Accepting Nominations for At-Large Director Seat Representing Canada
The ARA Nominating Committee is now accepting nominations for the At-Large Board of Directors position representing Canada.  Current Board member Dalbert Livingstone’s term will conclude at the upcoming Annual Convention in November and ARA greatly thanks Dalbert for his leadership for the past four years.  The Director must be an automotive recycler and ARA member in good standing.  To recommend someone, please email [email protected].

Congress COVID-19 Relief Legislation:
Congress is no closer to reaching an agreement on a new COVID-19 relief bill as negotiators from both parties have been unable to agree upon how much federal unemployment supplementation should be provided to those drawing state unemployment benefits. House Democrats have drawn a line in the sand saying that anything short of $600 per-week is unacceptable. Under the CARES Act passed in March, the federal government supplemented state unemployment benefits by $600 per-week until its expiration at the end of July. Democrats are arguing that Republican efforts to reduce the amount of federal supplementation of unemployment benefits will further damage the economy due to reduced consumer spending and that state unemployment systems cannot quickly adapt to a change in unemployment benefits. On Tuesday, Senate Majority Leader McConnell (R-KY) stated that he would be open to extending the $600 per-week benefit so long as the White House and House Speaker Pelosi agreed. This is a major development considering Senate Republicans have previously been hesitant to extend the benefits due to some workers making more money on unemployment than at work.
  
Additionally, as part of Senate Republicans’ proposed relief bill, Senators Marco Rubio (R-FL) and Susan Collins (R-ME) introduced S. 4321. The proposed bill would allow for a second round of Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans to be distributed to businesses that can show their gross receipts have been reduced by 50% due to COVID-19 – a provision that is being heavily contested by businesses. While the second round of PPP loans is the hot topic of conversation, the bill also permits prior PPP loan recipients who received $150,000 or less to have their loans forgiven if they submit an attestation to their lender that they made a good faith effort to comply with PPP loan requirements (businesses will also need to maintain records relevant to compliance for three years).

ARA:
Last week, ARA joined a group of more than 480 trade groups representing a broad range of industries to urge Congress to support the business liability protections contained in the SAFE TO WORK Act (S. 4317). ARA has been working with the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s COVID Liability Coalition to educate Congress on the need for business liability protections due to the COVID-19 pandemic. For a link to the letter sent to Congress click here.
 
Automotive:
Last Wednesday, General Motors announced that it had lost roughly $800 million in the second quarter. According to CNBC, the loss reflected a 34% decrease in vehicle sales that can be attributed to a decrease in demand and tight dealer inventories.
    
Ford Motor Company posted a net income of $1.1 billion due to a $3.5 billion gain on an investment in self-driving software Argo AI. However, the automaker took a $1.9 billion hit to its pre-tax earnings during the second quarter independent of its investment in self-driving technology.

If you have an article or piece of news that you think is important to automotive recyclers send an email to [email protected].

FOR MORE IMPORTANT INFORMATION, VISIT ARA's COVID-19 DASHBOARD