The Real Estate Roundtable today debuted a Covid-19 Video Alert, detailing how the industry has switched into high gear, focused on legislative and regulatory policies aimed at repairing frozen liquidity conditions that threaten the entire American economic system.  (Watch Covid-19 Call To Action)

• The Roundtable’s Chair, Debra Cafaro (Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer of Ventas, Inc.) and President and CEO Jeffrey DeBoer present the organization’s wide-ranging, intensive efforts with policymakers and regulators in Washington, all aimed at stabilizing the far-reaching economic shockwave unleashed by the pandemic.
  
  
• The Roundtable’s Board of Directors has quickly responded to the crisis by charting a policy advocacy course in Washington – matched by immediate action by Roundtable policy advocacy committees, which have recently analyzed and worked on multiple policy recommendations in the tax and capital & credit areas.
  
  
• Today’s video blog features Cafaro and DeBoer launching the industry call to action.  DeBoer states, “It is the view of The Real Estate Roundtable that our industry, each one of us, must become much more active and aggressive in pointing out the dangers that lurk ahead. We must communicate the connectivity of our industry to jobs, pension and 401K returns, communities and more.”  He adds, “When economic hardships strike, our industry has historically worked tirelessly to help find a positive path forward. We must do that again.”
  
  
• DeBoer explains how the nationwide cessation of income brought on by the outbreak, which now presents new, significant obstacles to economic recovery once the coronavirus is brought under control.
  
  
• He also notes how the severe interruption of residential and commercial rental and mortgage payments – along with eviction moratoriums and a growing rent holiday advocacy movement – is contributing to dysfunction in the credit markets and freezing liquidity.  DeBoer explains how this market freeze will eventually disturb the expected income of millions of people living on pensions and other retirement funds.
  
  
• “The financial system must facilitate positive action to allow issues to be worked out without penalty and without temporarily following strict enforcement guidelines that were written for normal times but that now threaten, in a pro-cyclical way, to make credit markets worse,” DeBoer states.
  
  
• The vlog continues with reports from three Roundtable policy specialists on:

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act expansion of the Small Business Loan Program, which attempted to begin today, and the urgent need to change and clarify its qualification rules;

Regulatory forbearance efforts and new credit facilities recently established by the Federal Reserve, including the Term Asset-Backed Securities Loan Facility (TALF);

Tax measures passed in the CARES Act, including a new a five-year carryback period and temporay repeal of the 80% limitation for net operating losses (NOLs) from 2018, 2019 and 2020.  Other tax priorities discussed included administrative relief for like-kind exchanges and a tax exemption for debt forgiveness.

• In addition to today’s alert, The Roundtable recently held a “town hall” conference call for Roundtable members, along with policy advisory committee calls with experts from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). 
  
  
• An analysis of the CARES Act, based on how many workers are employed by a given business concern was also produced by The Roundtable last week. (Roundtable PDF document - "Corona Aid, Relief, and Economic Secuirty (CARES Act) and Implications for U.S. Real Estate" )