Neil Bradley, Executive VP and Chief Policy Officer for the US Chamber of Commerce, joins Yahoo Finance's Kristin Myers to discuss President Biden's new mask mandate.

Video Transcript

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, as you've been hearing from Jess, Biden has a lot of plans to get the economy back on track, which should be positive news for the millions of business owners and workers impacted throughout this pandemic. So we're joined now by Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer for the US Chamber of Commerce.

So Neil, one of the first things that President Biden had pushed for is a mask mandate. Wondering what businesses are saying in response to this because we heard months ago that, essentially, they were asking for this type of mandate, that they want to be responsible for these mask mandates.

NEIL BRADLEY: Yeah, Kristin, you're exactly right. I think it was last summer that the US Chamber and other business leaders came out and said, we need a national approach to masking because we know that masks can help prevent the transmission of COVID.

And the more that we can do to prevent the transmission of COVID, the more we can keep American businesses open and keep American workers working. And so, this is a long overdue step. We're encouraging all of our members and, frankly, everyone who we can get in front of to adopt the president's call for 100 days of masking.

KRISTIN MYERS: So, to that point, the president's call and even creating a mask mandate only works in federal spaces at federal offices, at the airports, for example. But states, of course, are still in charge of enacting any kind of mandate within their state. I'm wondering if you think, however, that this push from the federal government is going to make something like a nationwide mask mandate more easy to achieve and get more of those states' governors on board.

NEIL BRADLEY: I hope so. You know, our goal here should be is that we want to avoid the harshest measures that, frankly, many states are having to resort to right now to prevent our healthcare system from being overrun. The goal is, is that we don't want to shut down businesses. We don't want to reduce capacity at restaurants. And the way we do-- we avoid that is that we get in front of it with easier measures-- masking, social distancing requirements.

And so, we hope that this is a lesson that people take heed to, is that as we see these new variants emerging, new variants of COVID, which appear to be transmitted much more easily, that let's get front of this. Let's use the common sense things that we know we can do. And that's really going to save all of us, not just in a public health sense, but also really economically.

KRISTIN MYERS: You know, Neil, as you're mentioning those new mutations, we are seeing coronavirus cases declining, but still at incredibly high levels. We are now a little over a year since we first reported the first case of coronavirus in the United States. I'm wondering if you can give us just how some of these businesses are faring.

We, of course, do have that new stimulus package that was recently passed. There is some hopes for more stimulus, more funds, that the president is proposing. But I'm hoping you can give us a quick update on how a lot of these businesses, business owners, their employees, are faring a year into this pandemic.

NEIL BRADLEY: Yeah, it really is the tale of two economies or the K-shaped recovery. So, some businesses, some sectors are doing quite well, remarkably well. Some are even doing better than they were doing a year ago pre-pandemic-- a lot of professional and business services, some in the construction industry, obviously in warehousing, telecommunications services, and all the things that we're now using as we work remotely.

On the other hand, if your business relies on getting people together-- you're the corner retail store, you're the restaurant, the bar, the live event business. Anything that involves people coming together, you're continuing to suffer. And it is really tragic out there on main streets all across America. And so, what Congress came together and did at the end of December is a lifeline, a long overdue lifeline for many of these businesses. It should have been done months ago, but the key going forward is we've got to beat this pandemic.

And the key to beating this pandemic is vaccinations. That's why we're so supportive of the ongoing efforts now here in Washington to remove those roadblocks, provide whatever resources are necessary to get Americans vaccinated as quickly as possible.

KRISTIN MYERS: So, to that point, we just had Jess Smith talking about stimulus or further stimulus plans that had been proposed by the president and how we are hearing some Senate Republicans really expressing opposition, especially to the size of it, roughly $2 trillion. What is your response to some of those senators, who are not interested, really, in passing these large packages that the White House is proposing? When you're hearing your businesses or some of those businesses that have been hard hit, are they saying, listen, we need more money. We need more support.

NEIL BRADLEY: Yeah, our message to lawmakers is simple. Let's focus on the policies. It's really easy to tweet out a price tag or focus on the price tag. What are the policies that we need to do to beat COVID, to get the economy reopened? And so, you know, the president has laid out a plan. We don't agree with everything in that plan, but we certainly do agree with the emphasis and focus on getting the resources necessary to get people vaccinated, to continue testing and contract tracing.

We agree with the resources to get schools reopened so that we can get our kids educated and parents can return to work. And so, we ought to look at it based on the policies and what we're trying to achieve. And that should guide what lawmakers decide to include in any ultimate package.

And so, you know, the worst possible outcome for all of us, for every business on Main Street, is if three months from now, we're still arguing about whether or not we've gotten the right resources to get people vaccinated. We can't afford to wait three months. We can't afford to wait three weeks. We should be focused now on what it takes to get people vaccinated so we can get this economy reopened and so we can stop the transmission of this awful disease.

KRISTIN MYERS: I hear what you're saying, Neil, that in order to get the economy back on track, really, the number one priority really needs to be fighting this pandemic. And that's something that no matter your political affiliation, that everyone really should be able to get on board with. But policy wise, going forward, how much economic support do you think that the economy needs, that businesses need? What policies are you guys really pushing for, leaving testing vaccination to the side, economic policies do you guys supportive of to really help this economy through 2021?

NEIL BRADLEY: Well, Congress did a lot at the end of 2020. And it was welcome, and it's really targeted to those businesses. Much of that assistance will run out towards the end of March. And we are likely to need to extend that assistance. So I think it's appropriate that Congress look right now at whether it's the PPP program, potential enhancements to some of the tax credits that were provided, further payroll remittance relief that helps small businesses with cash flow.

Those are all things that they can be looking at and looking to extend. But ultimately, the determining factor on how much support the economy is going to need is going to be decided by how quickly we beat the pandemic. We never thought we would-- we hoped we wouldn't need the second round that we ended up needing.

It turned out we did because the pandemic is still with us. If this pandemic is still largely with us in several months, we're going to need even more relief. And so, you really can't separate these two. There are some things that we can do for business right now, but there's absolutely nothing more important than getting vaccinations and beating COVID.

KRISTIN MYERS: All right, Neil Bradley, executive vice president and chief policy officer for the US Chamber of Commerce, thanks so much for joining us today.

NEIL BRADLEY: Thanks for having me.