Indiana businesses faring well after shutdowns: Braun

U.S. Sen. Mike Braun said Tuesday he is watching Hoosier businesses rebound from the economic fallout of the coronavirus pandemic.

“I think that's clearly because the economy was so strong heading into it. Every week we go forward, you're getting people just figuring out what works for them to keep going,” Braun, R-Ind., said in an interview at 1st Source Center in downtown Fort Wayne.

He said he has talked with “tons of businesses” during visits to his home state this summer. He was scheduled to meet with two dozen officials at the economic development organization Greater Fort Wayne on Tuesday afternoon.

Business sectors outside entertainment and sports are “almost uniformly” on an upswing as state restrictions on commercial activities and public gatherings have been relaxed, Braun said. He noted that the unemployment rate in his home Dubois County was 7.1% in June; it had jumped from 2.2% in March to 10.6% in April.

But some sectors won't recover anytime soon, the second-year senator predicted.

“I think anything that involves large crowds is going to be a long time until you get back to that model. I don't think that's going to happen until you have a vaccine and/or therapeutics that are pretty well eliminating the disease,” Braun said two days after the Indianapolis 500 was run without spectators.

He said Indiana business owners are largely opposed to extending enhanced unemployment benefits that expired July 31. The Federal Emergency Management Agency has approved most states, including Indiana, for a $300 increase in weekly jobless benefits under an order issued by President Donald Trump.

“Most Hoosier employers were probably not interested in seeing any type of enhanced benefit, just going back to the regular one, because of how difficult it was getting people back to work,” Braun said about the earlier $600 bump in weekly benefits.

Braun doubted Congress will approve another round of federal coronavirus relief this summer. The Senate is not scheduled to return from its current recess until Sept. 8.

“The fact is there's nothing that's going to get 60 votes at this stage” in the 100-member Senate, he said. “That's why we haven't been called back.” The Republican-controlled Senate requires 60 votes to limit debate and advance legislation to a final vote requiring a majority for approval.

Braun said he had planned to attend this week's Republican National Convention in Charlotte, North Carolina, until the pandemic turned it into a virtual event attended by a few hundred people. He gave a favorable review of the convention's televised opening night Monday. 

“Good slate of speakers. I was glad they were talking a little more in terms of what the aspirational part of what they intend to do and what they've accomplished,” he said.

Braun is scheduled to make visits today to Whitley and Kosciusko counties.

bfrancisco@jg.net