from the san francisco chamber of commerce. on behalf of the san francisco chamber of commerce, i would like to note that we are proudly supportive of this resolution. we sincerely thank supervisor mar to work with his efforts to work with the san francisco chamber of commerce and offering clarifications on specifics of the ordinance and we thank supervisor stefani for her support and we appreciate the clarity around the hours and voluntary paid leave credit [inaudible] mandate. and also clarification that [inaudible] will not occur and compensation for companies that however unlimited leave qualify. thank you for your support and efforts during this public health crisis. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> you have one question remaining. >> hello, my name is chris wright. i'm the executive director of the committee on jobs and association that represent the city's largest private sector employers. much of [inaudible] has been focused on our city's small businesses who are struggling. that said, every employer is suffering i

from the san francisco chamber of commerce. on behalf of the san francisco chamber of commerce, i would like to note that we are proudly supportive of this resolution. we sincerely thank supervisor mar to work with his efforts to work with the san francisco chamber of commerce and offering clarifications on specifics of the ordinance and we thank supervisor stefani for her support and we appreciate the clarity around the hours and voluntary paid leave credit [inaudible] mandate. and also clarification that [inaudible] will not occur and compensation for companies that however unlimited leave qualify. thank you for your support and efforts during this public health crisis. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> you have one question remaining. >> hello, my name is chris wright. i'm the executive director of the committee on jobs and association that represent the city's largest private sector employers. much of [inaudible] has been focused on our city's small businesses who are struggling. that said, every employer is suffering i

from the san francisco chamber of commerce. on behalf of the san francisco chamber of commerce, i would like to note that we are proudly supportive of this resolution. we sincerely thank supervisor mar to work with his efforts to work with the san francisco chamber of commerce and offering clarifications on specifics of the ordinance and we thank supervisor stefani for her support and we appreciate the clarity around the hours and voluntary paid leave credit [inaudible] mandate. and also clarification that [inaudible] will not occur and compensation for companies that however unlimited leave qualify. thank you for your support and efforts during this public health crisis. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> you have one question remaining. >> hello, my name is chris wright. i'm the executive director of the committee on jobs and association that represent the city's largest private sector employers. much of [inaudible] has been focused on our city's small businesses who are struggling. that said, every employer is suffering i

[applause] >> we have the vice president of the chinese chamber of commerce. >> on behalf of china town chinese chamber of commerce. we are so glad that the mayor and supervisor are proactive with action against this virus. to promote the businesses in the community. i hope the community around the chinatown and san francisco we have to do something else. we have to do the business in our part. we come out to shopping, we come out to eat, to support the local business. we are working together, we can overcome this difficult time. now let me use a chinese word. [speaking chinese] (applause) >> now, i would like to ask our recorder to say a few words. >> i would like to ask our treasure to stand beside me. the leaders today not only the mayor and board of supervisors and state representatives but jose and i have been working around the clock to figure out ways to help to support our community. a lot has been said already about the importance of all of us taking decisive action to make sure we are doing all we can to support local businesses. one thing to say is that this is not the last a

chamber of commerce. s.elcome our we are going to talk with suzanne clark, president of the u.s. chamber of commerce. she is here because she has a new program, the chamber has a new program, to help the president figure out how to get the economy started. tell us about your program. >> thank you for having me, david. the chamber is lucky. we have unique vantage point, members in every sector and of every size. and a great network of state and local chambers. we have put out a call to all of those members so that we can get their input, their questions, concerns to develop a framework so that we can guide both policymakers and businesses. process workll the and how long will it take? >> there is no precedent for this. there is no playbook for the public health prices -- crisis or the economic crisis. we are looking at new processes, new restrictions, new requirements, and even the risks. every ceo is asking those questions. in terms of how long, the better we are in the planning phase, the faster ceos can

are leaders in these local chambers of commerce. you a great example that happened just the other day. one of the leaders is the salt lake city chamber of commerce in utah. bank, thehe head of a mountain america credit union. pppaw one of the first loans coming from that credit union to a small business owner who is a member of the chamber. of what theample small businesses operate in. the first thing is to talk with your lender. the second thing is to look at what the treasury has made available, and it has different types of calculations that lead up to the loan amount. that calculation, basically, as you take last years payroll, take an average monthly payroll, and i could be payroll for folks who are earning up to $100,000. once you take that average monthly payroll, multiplied by 2.5, and that is your loan amount. the most attractive part of this getinterest loan but you from private banks is that at the end of june, you can convert that loan into a grand. in order to do that, you have to show at least 75% of that loan was to ac

from the san francisco chamber of commerce. on behalf of the san francisco chamber of commerce, i would like to note that we are proudly supportive of this resolution. we sincerely thank supervisor mar to work with his efforts to work with the san francisco chamber of commerce and offering clarifications on specifics of the ordinance and we thank supervisor stefani for her support and we appreciate the clarity around the hours and voluntary paid leave credit [inaudible] mandate. and also clarification that [inaudible] will not occur and compensation for companies that however unlimited leave qualify. thank you for your support and efforts during this public health crisis. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> you have one question remaining. >> hello, my name is chris wright. i'm the executive director of the committee on jobs and association that represent the city's largest private sector employers. much of [inaudible] has been focused on our city's small businesses who are struggling. that said, every employer is suffering i

chamber of commerce. >> i'm joined now by suzanne clark, president of the u.s. chamber of commerce, the world's largest business organization. she has been in the trenches, i got to know her when she was running her own company as president and coo. she has a ba and mba in georgetown. madam president, welcome to axios. >> thank you. suzanne, congress just replenished the money in the payment protection fund to help small businesses stay in money. his round number two going to be >> that's a good question, mike. we hear from small businesses across the country every day. some of them in tears. they cannot get over the impact on their family, their community, on their customers. are glad congress got this done, but no, it won't be enough. and they cannot start working on the rest -- the next round fast enough. >> we spend all day talking to businesses of all sizes. talking to small businesses, what's the most common thing that you hear? the most common worry that they find? >> first of all it's just staying afloat, you know? they know firsthand what a job means to

chamber of commerce. here is suzanne clark. we are joined by suzanne clark, president of the u.s. chamber of commerce. suzanne has been in the trenches. i first got to know her when she was running her own company. she has a ba and mba from georgetown. welcome to axios. thank you.: >> congress just replenished the money that is in the payment reached -- payment protection fund to help small businesses stay in money. his round two going to be enough? -- is round two going to be enough? pres. clark: we hear from small businesses across the country every day. some of them are in tears. they cannot get over the impact of their family, communities and customers. we are glad congress got this done. it will not be enough. they cannot start working on the next round fast enough. >> you spend all day talking to businesses of all sizes. as you talk to small businesses, what is the most common thing you hear? what is the most common worry they confide to you? pres. clark: first of all, it is staying afloat. job know firsthand what a means to a family, what a job means to a community. what a j

most of the cases on the chambers a list fall into that category were at least debatable. what i say in the book is best. if in five years the united states chamber of commerce can only find three class action cases that are clearly meritless, we do not have a problem with meritless cases in our system. but i'm willing to make the chamber halfway into one of the things i propose in the is we content down even further on meritless cases. if enough happy with twombly are other things we can do that would put an automatic stay of discovery in place when a motion to dismiss is pending. most judges do this now but some don't. we can make it automatic. i'm willing to give defendants and interlocutors appeal in a ia class action case when the motion to dismiss is denied just to make extra sure that the case is not meritless. so i'm willing to tweak the system a bit but i don't think we have meritless cases a probl. what about attorneys fees? this is another big argument the chamber makes. the only people getting any money in class actions are the lawyers. the class members get nothing. listen, you can find one or two or three cases again were class members get noth

the alternative was told to us in an amicus brief filed by the united states chamber of commerce in which he tendered the amicus brief really is what inspired me to write the book that you have in front of you today. the case the supreme court called at&t [inaudible] i suspect many of you know about this case. the question was our class action waivers that are embedded in arbitration agreements enforceable. the u.s. supreme court said yes. my old boss, justice scalia, wrote the opinion and the court said you can ask someone to waive the right to join a class-action so long as you do it in an arbitration clause in any state law to the contrary are preempted. it was apparent to everybody in 2010 that if you got rid of the class action which you enforce these class actions waivers than people who had been injured, small amounts, by corporations, small fraud, small breach of contract, small price-fixing injuries, people with small arms would have a very hard time holding companies accountable for those harms. if you have to go it on your own not many people are going to do it. everyone knew t

chamber of commerce, small business and [inaudible] team. itself just wanted to speak in support of this letter [inaudible] on this movement on addressing what recovery will look like and addressing what the [inaudible] start to see more of an improvement in the covid-19 situation. it's really important to have these structures and the [inaudible] in place ahead of time where we can re-open and then find that we don't really have the structures and safety net set up for everybody. i think it is really important that the [inaudible] commission is adopting this and i would address a couple of comments on this. i know there's a lot of confusion as we work with small businesses. a couple of questions, if anyone wants to reach out to the s.f. chamber of commerce, there were a couple of questions that were raised that i have specific answers to and can help direct the info i got. but i just want to keep working on this. of course we know that the journey is not over until we get there. thank you all. operator: you have one question remaining. >> ca

our business establishment is represented by the chamber of commerce which is calling for the liftingf tariffs. for crying out loud, the chamber of commerce after he lined as best they can -- aligned with china. they are corrupt that they would align themselves with beijing on the chinese foreign policy rather than the president of the united states who is trying to insure there is balanced trade between the nations and the world trading system, and to assure we no longer run 50 years -- after 50 years of consecutive deficits, trade deficits that cut into our economic growth and prosperity. >> lou, i think we can't underestimate the power of the china lobby in washington and our business community. huawei is still a problem. they hired two senior administration officials to lobby for them. it's considered a good thing to get a million dollars to lobby for huawei. other chinese large companies and the banks have lobbying firms. and we have a least people in the academic community who know they can't visit china without a visa so they have to be careful what they write in their books ab

sells 72000000 liters of wine a year and uses the same amount of water just to bottle it the chamber of commerce considers the winery exemplary in its commitment to renewable energy and the efficient use of water. i mean companies in the food industry can't get around adopting measures to harness energy efficiency especially exporters. their overseas markets where people pay a lot of attention to where goods come from. consumers have become very demanding. when they want to buy wines that have been produced sustainably. without excessive use of water without leaving a massive ecological footprint have. recurrent and persistent droughts mean irrigation is of increasing importance as are energy efficient and eco friendly delivery systems. but in. the projects we've done so far such as studies we. have all involved companies that realize they need to act. they come to us and say we want to conduct a feasibility study to see how we can address the energy issue. and enhance energy efficiency. in an eco node process is one that's it solar panels provide about a 3rd of its electricity that has reduced

from the san francisco chamber of commerce. on behalf of the san francisco chamber of commerce, i would like to note that we are proudly supportive of this resolution. we sincerely thank supervisor mar to work with his efforts to work with the san francisco chamber of commerce and offering clarifications on specifics of the ordinance and we thank supervisor stefani for her support and we appreciate the clarity around the hours and voluntary paid leave credit [inaudible] mandate. and also clarification that [inaudible] will not occur and compensation for companies that however unlimited leave qualify. thank you for your support and efforts during this public health crisis. >> thank you. next speaker, please. >> you have one question remaining. >> hello, my name is chris wright. i'm the executive director of the committee on jobs and association that represent the city's largest private sector employers. much of [inaudible] has been focused on our city's small businesses who are struggling. that said, every employer is suffering i

chamber of commerce pushing for more funds in a report, the chamber finding that 54% of small businesses surveyed have closed or could close this month tom is the ceo of the u.s. chamber of commerce and joins us by phone 96% of the chamber members have fewer than 100 employees tom, which i don't think people realize. i think they think the chamber is representing big business and lobbying for big companies but you guys have a lot of small businesses in your group what are you hearing as far as the level of pain and whether they're able to get these loans to help get them through >> we have about 400,000 small companies and lots of the big companies and what most people lose sight of is many, many of those small companies work as subs and assistants to the big companies so there's a very tight relationship u now woor looking at what we're trying to do to finance in a way that these smaller companies, particularly the sub stan dif ones can hold on to their employees until we can move through to a point where the committee is back percolating. we're working on it very hard. the reason we're

from the in your chamber of commerce in beijing thank you very much for that thing. reporters but our borders has just published its press freedom index it ranks countries according to whether their media allowed to operate without censorship in a moment we'll speak to a journalist and author of the philippines but 1st a look at how different nations are when it comes to press freedom. at the bottom of the table eritrea turkmenistan and north korea reporters without borders classify the lack of press freedom in those countries as very serious sudan is also in that category but last year's mass protests that led to the ousting of president omar al bashir have resulted in stronger democratic structures and reduced restrictions for journalists as a result the country ranks 16 points higher on the index than last year countries that made similar improvements include malaysia any theo pia. while poor ratings and given to the west african state of binny and which fell 17 places and haiti down 21. the caribbean nation is struggling with an ongoing political crisis and viole

what i say in the book, if in five years the united states chamber of commerce can only find three class-action cases that are clearly meritless, we do not have a problem with meritless cases in her system. but unwilling to meet the chamber halfway so one of the things that i propose that we can clamp down further on meritless cases, there are other things that we can do. we can put an automatic stay of discovery in place when emotion dismisses plan engine pending. most judges do this now but some don't, we can make it automatic. i'm willing to give defendants an appeal when their motion to dismiss is denied just to make extra sure that the case is not meritless. i am willing to tweak the system a little bit but i don't think we have a meritless case problem. what about attorney fees, this is an argument the chamber makes. the only people getting any money in class actions are the lawyers. the class members get nothing. you can find one or two or three cases again were class members get nothing in the lawyers get everything, these cases exist but i submit, these are outliers, extreme outliers i

organization but a number of organizations that typically line up with republicans including the chamber of commerce, they say in a pandemic, that is a mistake. rep. arrington: i am sympathetic to that but i am more sympathetic to americans who have borne the responsibility, the lion share of the cost in an organization that has not served not only the american people but the world community well by going along in a complicit manner with china and not releasing numbers, not allowing access to the data and not being transparent. inhas heard the entire world trying to respond to this pandemic. there is no telling what the cost would have been had we not had china tried to cover this up and the director general of the who work in coordination with staved offould have a lot of cost. not just money but human life. i think that is serious business. i think they should take serious action to investigate. i think the director general ought to resign or they should fire him and we should have a system where we are all paying into this who just like the nato and the u.n. based on population. and in the case o

organizations that include the local chambers of commerce. within the 26th district of texas, chambers of commerce have literally worked around-the-clock taround thecloe access to these resources. these organizations need support to be able to afford their payroll and to provide essential services for their members. the ranking member was good enough to join me on the cold with my chambers locally earlier this month and this problem was delineated while he was on the cold. call. i also request the work for the affiliation .-full-stop allow more businesses with small and local branches to be able to receive assistance. some businesses employ between ten and 2 20 people and operate like a small business but are unable to receive assistance because the parent company comprises more than 500 employees. during this time we really do need to be practical to ensure that no hard-working americans lose their job or their business. since congress moves to replenish small-business funding we must extend to 5016 and relax the affiliation rules. thank you

chamber of commerce. in a letter to the white house, the chambers warning against new regulatory requirements on businesses but also warning to talk about more need for more consistency in the guidance from state to state writing in part, a one side fits all regulatory approach is impossible when talking about adapting safety measures for the workplaces in the america and saying it is preference if the guidance was more uniform across the nation which will speed the safe reopening. joining me now is neal bradley from the u.s. chamber of commerce. good to see you. thank you. >> good to see you, kate. >> what is the main concern that you have that you will have about the overall strategy that you're seeing now from the white house to states. >> well, it is a two-fold concern. the first is not one that we're particularly concerned about from the administration. but we're seeing movements by activists to convert guidance into regulations. the idea that we could create a strict rule book, if you will, for all

chamber of commerce in the face of this threat and all the pain and suffering and loss of life that hasthe result of a virus that originated in china. it's time for the business community and wall street to line up with this president and let no daylight be between them and this president as he moves forward against so many threats and so many challenges. do you aguy? >> i do agree. and i thank you for it. this is a kudlow economic policy thought. we want as' american companies to come back home. one way to do that is 100% immediate expensing. plants, equipment, i.t., structures, renovations. in effect, immediate 100% expensing would pay the moving costs for american companies to come back home. that's one constructive way. while we are at it, let's help the companies that stay in america with immediate expensing, too. to me that's the best way out of this dilemma. lou: i think the idea of decoupling business with china. that's a great idea. and of course retaining american business in this country. and as you say, absolutely essential. larry kudlow, always good to talk to you. we appre

[applause] >> we have the vice president of the chinese chamber of commerce. >> on behalf of china townand chinese chamber of commerce. we are so glad that the mayor and supervisor are proactive with action against this virus. to promote the businesses in the community. i hope the community around the chinatown and san francisco we have to do something else. we have to do the business in our part. we come out to shopping, we come out to eat, to support the local business. we are working together, we can overcome this difficult time. now let me use a chinese word. [speaking chinese] (applause) >> now, i would like to ask our recorder to say a few words. >> i would like to ask our treasure to stand beside me. the leaders today not only the mayor and board of supervisors and state representatives but jose and i have been working around the clock to figure out ways to help to support our community. a lot has been said already about the importance of all of us taking decisive action to make sure we are doing all we can to support local businesses. one thing to say is that this is not the las

chamber of commerce. >> thank you vech. >> woodruff: the coronavirus pandemic has disrupted the livesf some 20 million collegstudents, as campuses are shuttered across the nation. many of those young people are ountinuing their studies t online classes. but, as john yang reports, the shift has affected some more than others. it is part of regular education coverage called "making the grade." >> yang: stanford university senior michael ocon has beenli ng here these days-- a tent in his parents' back yard. after his college closed because the coronavirus pandemic, he moved to his parents' two- bedroom house. >> my sister and i, h moved out, and our parents kind know, we'd be goneer.ng, you >> yang: but then his mother, a drug counselor who's kept working, got sick with covid-19- like symptoms, so ocon moved his space outside as a precaution. >> we're having issues in terms of looking for a new place, in terms of affording rent, in terms of food. and now we have to make su that our broadband and our internet's upgraded, to ensure that we all have access to zoomr and thosfinancial constra