More than 150 New York chief executives urged Congress to pass President Joe Biden‘s $1.9 trillion Covid stimulus package in a letter Wednesday.
“Previous federal relief measures have been essential, but more must be done to put the country on a trajectory for a strong, durable recovery,” the letter said. “The country’s business community is prepared to work with you to achieve these critical objectives.”
Notable signatories include Goldman Sachs’ David Solomon, BlackRock’s Larry Fink, Deutsche Bank Americas’ Christiana Riley, and Blackstone‘s Steve Schwarzman — who previously backed former GOP President Donald Trump.
“It’s an important signal of the kind of breadth of support that we’re seeing for this rescue plan,” top Biden economic advisor Brian Deese said about the letter Wednesday on MSNBC.
The Business Roundtable, a group consisting of CEOs of the largest companies in America, also wrote a letter Tuesday supporting quick passage of a Covid relief bill.
CNBC reported earlier in February that the White House had been reaching out to executives in several industries to rally support for the Biden’s American Rescue Plan.
The letter comes as the Democratic-controlled House is set to vote on the bill this week, where it is widely expected to pass and advance to the Senate.
Democrats will attempt to pass the package in the Senate through budget reconciliation, which requires only a simple majority instead of the usual 60 votes necessary to pass a bill.
Read the letter and the list of signatories below:
Dear Majority Leader Schumer, Speaker Pelosi, Minority Leader McConnell and Minority Leader McCarthy:
We write to urge immediate and large-scale federal legislation to address the health and economic crises brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic. More than a year after the first coronavirus case was reported in the United States, our nation is still struggling to combat the spread and reverse its economic fallout.
Previous federal relief measures have been essential, but more must be done to put the country on a trajectory for a strong, durable recovery. Congress should act swiftly and on a bipartisan basis to authorize a stimulus and relief package along the lines of the Biden-Harris administration’s proposed American Rescue Plan.
Strengthening the public health response to coronavirus is the first step toward economic restoration. The American Rescue Plan mobilizes a national vaccination program, delivers economic relief to struggling families, and supports communities that were most damaged by the pandemic.
More than 10 million fewer Americans are working today than when the pandemic began, small businesses across the country are facing bankruptcy, and schools are struggling to reopen. The most vulnerable Americans — including women, people of color and low wage workers — are experiencing the worst of the pandemic, with unprecedented job loss, childcare burdens and food insecurity. States and cities have been crushed by pandemic-related expenses and revenue losses.
The American Rescue Plan provides a framework for coordinated public-private efforts to overcome COVID-19 and to move forward with a new era of inclusive growth. The country’s business community is prepared to work with you to achieve these critical objectives.
Sincerely,
Yo Akatsuka, President & CEO, Nomura Holding America Inc.
Ellen Alemany, Chairman & CEO, CIT Group Inc.
Simon Allen, Chief Executive Officer, McGraw-Hill Education, Inc.
Jeffrey H. Aronson, Managing Principal, Centerbridge Partners
Neil Barr, Managing Partner, Davis Polk & Wardwell LLP
Rich Barton, Co-Founder & CEO, Zillow
Candace K. Beinecke, Senior Partner, Hughes Hubbard & Reed LLP
Charles R. Bendit, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Taconic Investment Partners LLC
Stephen Berger, Chairman, Odyssey Investment Partners, LLC
William H. Berkman, Co-Chairman & CEO, Radius Global Infrastructure, Inc.
Frank J. Bisignano, Chief Executive Officer, Fiserv
Jeff T. Blau, Chief Executive Officer, The Related Companies, L.P.
Kathy Bloomgarden, Chief Executive Officer, Ruder Finn, Inc.
Lora Blum, Chief Legal Officer & Secretary, Survey Monkey
Adam M. Blumenthal, Managing Partner, Blue Wolf Capital Partners
John Borthwick, Founder & CEO, Betaworks
Ari Buchalter, President & CEO, Intersection
Martin S. Burger, Chief Executive Officer, Silverstein Properties, Inc.
Anthony Casalena, Founder & CEO, Squarespace, Inc.
Timothy Cawley, President & CEO, Con Edison, Inc.
Rodgin Cohen, Senior Chairman, Sullivan & Cromwell LLP
Maria Colacurcio, Chief Executive Officer, Syndio Solutions
Richard A.C. Coles, Founder & Managing Partner, Vanbarton Group LLC
Marc Cooper, Chief Executive Officer, PJ Solomon, L.P.
Cromwell Coulson, President & CEO, OTC Markets Group
Todd C. DeGarmo, Chief Executive Officer, STUDIOS Architecture
Annemarie DiCola, Chief Executive Officer, Trepp, LLC
William R. Dougherty, Chairman, Executive Committee, Simpson Thacher & Bartlett LLP
Russell Dubner, President & CEO, Edelman US
Douglas Durst, Chairman, Durst Organization Inc.
Blair W. Effron, Co-Founder, Centerview Partners
Joel S. Ehrenkranz, Partner and Co-Founder, Ehrenkranz Partners L.P.
Douglas F. Eisenberg, Founder and CEO, A&E Real Estate, LLC
Steven M. Ellis, Chairman of the Firm, Proskauer
Helmy Eltoukhy PhD, Chief Executive Officer, Guardant Health
Alexander Farman-Farmaian, Vice Chairman, Portfolio Manager, Edgewood Management LLC
Ziel Feldman, Chairman & Founder, HFZ Capital Group
Laurence D. Fink, Chairman & CEO, BlackRock
Peter Finn, Founding Partner, Finn Partners
John Fish, Chairman & CEO, Suffolk
Winston C. Fisher, Partner, Fisher Brothers
William E. Ford, Chairman & CEO, General Atlantic LLC
Lynne Fox, Board Chair, Amalgamated Bank
Paul Fribourg, Chairman & CEO, Continental Grain Company
Ryan Gellert, CEO, Patagonia
Pat Gelsinger, Chief Executive Officer, Intel Corporation
Dexter Goei, Chief Executive Officer, Altice USA
Timothy Gokey, Chief Executive Officer, Broadridge Financial Solutions, Inc.
Perry Golkin, Chief Executive Officer, PPC Enterprises LLC
James P. Gorman, Chairman & CEO, Morgan Stanley
Barry M. Gosin, Chief Executive Officer, Newmark
Jonathan N. Grayer, Chairman & CEO, Weld North LLC
David J. Greenwald, Chairman, Fried, Frank, Harris, Shriver & Jacobson LLP
Efraim Grinberg, Chairman & CEO, Movado Group, Inc.
Stewart KP Gross, Managing Director, Lightyear Capital
Robin Hayes, Chief Executive Officer, JetBlue Airways Corporation
Leslie W. Himmel, Managing Partner, Himmel & Meringoff Properties, Inc.
Barbara Humpton, President & CEO, Siemens USA
Frederick J. Iseman, Chairman & CEO, CI Capital Partners LLC
Jerry Jacobs, Chief Executive Officer, Delaware North Companies, Inc.
Kenneth M. Jacobs, Chairman & CEO, Lazard
John Josephson, Chairman & CEO, Sesac
Brad S. Karp, Chair, Paul, Weiss, Rifkind, Wharton & Garrison LLP
Charles R. Kaye, Chief Executive Officer, Warburg Pincus LLC
Jason Kelly, Founder & CEO, Gingko Bioworks
Alfred F. Kelly, Jr., Chairman & CEO, Visa Inc.
Anthony S. Kendall, Chairman & CEO, Mitchell & Titus, LLP
Richard A. Kennedy, President & CEO, Skanska USA Inc.
Michel A. Khalaf, President & CEO, MetLife, Inc.
Brian Kingston, CEO of Real Estate, Brookfield Asset Management
Scott Kirby, Chief Executive Officer, United Airlines
Philip Krim, Co-Founder & CEO, Casper
Barbara Armand Kushner, President, Armand Corporation
Christopher Larsen, Chief Executive Officer, Halmar International, LLC
Michael Lastoria, Founder & CEO, &pizza
William P. Lauder, Executive Chairman, The Estée Lauder Companies, Inc.
Rochelle B. Lazarus, Chairman Emeritus, Ogilvy & Mather Worldwide
Richard S. LeFrak, Chairman & CEO, The LeFrak Organization
Rich Lesser, President & CEO, Boston Consulting Group
Max Levchin, Founder & CEO, Affirm, Inc.
Aaron Levie, Chief Executive Officer, Box
Jeffrey E. Levine, Chairman, Douglaston Development
Pamela Liebman, President & CEO, The Corcoran Group, Inc.
Martin Lipton, Senior Partner, Wachtell, Lipton, Rosen & Katz
Robert P. LoCascio, Founder & CEO, LivePerson, Inc.
Roger Lynch, Chief Executive Officer, Condé Nast
Mehdi Mahmud, CEO & President, First Eagle Investment Management, LLC
Anthony Malkin, Chairman, President & CEO, Empire State Realty Trust
Anthony E. Mann, President & CEO, E-J Electric Installation Co.
Sandeep Mathrani, Chief Executive Officer, WeWork
Peter W. May, President & Founding Partner, Trian Partners
Andrew McMahon, President & CEO, The Guardian Life Insurance Company of America
Anish Melwani, Chairman & CEO, LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton Inc.
Avner Mendelson, President & CEO, Bank Leumi USA
Heidi Messer, Co-Founder & Chairperson, Collective[i]
Marc Metrick, President & CEO, Saks Fifth Avenue
Danny Meyer, Chief Executive Officer, Union Square Hospitality Group
Michael Miebach, Chief Executive Officer, Mastercard
Edward J. Minskoff, Chairman & CEO, Edward J. Minskoff Equities, Inc.
Steve Mollenkopf, Chief Executive Officer, Qualcomm
Linda Moore, President & CEO, TechNet
Tyler Morse, Chief Executive Officer & Managing Partner, MCR Development LLC
Deanna M. Mulligan, Chief Executive Officer, DM Mulligan, LLC
Daniel Neal, CEO & Founder, Kajeet
Suzanne Neufang, Chief Executive Officer, Global Business Travel Association
Liz Neumark, Chair & Founder, Great Performances
Jon Oringer, Founder & Executive Chairman, Shutterstock, Inc.
Doug Parker, Chief Executive Officer, American Airlines
Douglas L. Peterson, President & CEO, S&P Global
Michael Phillips, President, Jamestown Properties LLC
Sundar Pichai, Chief Executive Officer, Google
Patricia “Patti” Poppe, Chief Executive Officer, PG&E
Deirdre Quinn, Co-Founder & CEO, Lafayette 148 New York
Daniel Ramot, Co-Founder & CEO, Via
Scott H. Rechler, Chairman & CEO, RXR Realty LLC
Christiana Riley, Chief Executive Officer, Deutsche Bank Americas
Brian L. Roberts, Chairman and CEO, Comcast Corporation
Michael Roberts, President & CEO, HSBC Bank USA
James D. Robinson, III, Co-Founder & General Partner, RRE Ventures
James A. Rosenthal, Chief Executive Officer, BlueVoyant
Michael I. Roth, Chairman & CEO, Interpublic Group
Steven Roth, Chairman & CEO, Vornado Realty Trust
Steven Rubenstein, President, Rubenstein Communications, Inc.
William C. Rudin, Co-Chairman & CEO, Rudin Management Company, Inc.
Kevin P. Ryan, Founder & CEO, AlleyCorp
Scott Salmirs, President & CEO, ABM Industries Inc.
Charles Scharf, President & CEO, Wells Fargo Bank, N.A.
Ralph Schlosstein, Co-Chairman & Co-CEO, Evercore Partners Inc.
Michael Schmidtberger, Partner & Chair of the Executive Committee, Sidley Austin LLP
Alan D. Schnitzer, Chairman & CEO, The Travelers Companies, Inc.
Alan D. Schwartz, Executive Chairman, Guggenheim Partners, LLC
Stephen A. Schwarzman, Chairman, CEO & Co-Founder, Blackstone
Frank J. Sciame, Chairman & CEO, Sciame Construction, LLC
Suzanne Shank, President & CEO, Siebert Williams Shank & Co., LLC
Tarek Sherif, Co-Founder & CEO, Medidata Solutions, Inc.
Stanley S. Shuman, Senior Advisor, Allen & Company LLC
Mike Sievert, Chief Executive Officer, T-Mobile US, Inc.
Jonathan Silvan, Chief Executive Officer, Global Strategy Group, LLC
Jacob Silverman, Chief Executive Officer, Kroll
Joshua Silverman, Chief Executive Officer, Etsy, Inc.
David M. Solomon, Chairman & CEO, Goldman Sachs
Jeffrey M. Solomon, Chair & CEO, Cowen
Rob Speyer, President & CEO, Tishman Speyer
John Stankey, Chief Executive Officer, AT&T
Robert K. Steel, Chairman, Perella Weinberg Partners
Alan Suna, Chief Executive Officer, Silvercup Studios
Steven R. Swartz, President & CEO, Hearst
Paul J. Taubman, Chairman & CEO, PJT Partners Inc.
Owen D. Thomas, Chief Executive Officer, Boston Properties
Jonathan Tisch, Chairman & CEO, Loews Hotels & Co.
Daniel R. Tishman, Vice Chairman, AECOM & Principal, Tishman Realty
Jean-Marie Tritant, Chief Executive Officer, Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield
Bridget van Kralingen, Senior Vice President, Global Markets, IBM Corporation
Ellis Verdi, President, DeVito/Verdi
Philip Waterman III, Managing Partner, WatermanClark
Charles Weinstein, Chief Executive Officer, EisnerAmper LLP
David Winter, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Standard Industries Inc.
Kathryn S. Wylde, President & CEO, Partnership for New York City
Rudolph M. Wynter, President-Elect, NY, National Grid
Tony Xu, Chief Executive Officer, DoorDash
Eric Yuan, Chief Executive Officer, Zoom
Strauss Zelnick, Partner, ZMC
John Zimmer, Co-Founder & President, Lyft, Inc.
