The CARES Act provides more than $500 billion of emergency relief in the form of direct loans, loan guarantees, and tax relief to those industries hit hardest by the novel coronavirus.

This is NOT a bailout. A bailout infers fault; in this case, many industries were forced to close shop by the government. These loans are to be used to keep these job creators afloat so they can keep workers on the payroll and ensure that people have jobs to come back to once we beat the coronavirus.

The CARES Act provides the following direct relief to the airlines industry:

• Direct loans and loan guarantees to provide liquidity—

• • $25 billion to passenger air carriers
  • $4 billion to cargo air carriers

• Direct assistance for employee wages, salaries, and benefits—

• • $25 billion to passenger air carriers
  • $4 billion to cargo air carriers
  • $3 billion to contractors

• Temporary repeal of federal excise taxes until 2021 on commercial aviation—

• • Ticket taxes
  • Cargo taxes
  • Aviation fuel excise taxes

Supporting these employers means they can keep paying their workers, and be positioned to rehire those who have been laid off, once we recover. This is yet another way we can help everyday Americans, too. For the remainder of the year, the airlines industry will no longer collect ticket taxes from its passengers nor cargo taxes from businesses shipping goods. When we unpause our economy, we will need things to move.

The repeal of these taxes will potentially create $4 billion in savings for airline passengers, businesses that ship cargo, and the airline industry.