Security Industry Gets A Boost from Biden’s COVID Relief: SIA Summarizes

SIA details $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief stimulus & outlines key funding areas of importance for security-focused integration companies.

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The Security Industry Association (SIA) has released a summary of funding areas contained in the latest COVID-relief stimulus which impact on the security integration industry.

On March 11, President Biden signed his administration’s first major piece of legislation, the American Rescue Plan, which appropriates $1.9 trillion in COVID-19 relief to aid small businesses and others affected by the global pandemic.

SIA strongly supported passage of the relief and stimulus package to address the coronavirus pandemic and help businesses struggling under its economic impact.

Here are the funding areas SIA says are of greatest importance to the security integration industry:

Business Aid

  • Paycheck Protection Program: An additional $7.25 billion is allocated for the U.S. Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Note that this does not extend the PPP’s current application period, which is scheduled to close March 31.
  • Federal Contractors: Section 3610 authorities are extended to Sept. 30, which allows agencies to pay and reimburse federal contractors unable to work on site due to the pandemic. In a Feb. 25 letter, SIA and other business groups representing contractors urged Congress to extend Section 3610 in this legislation.
  • Employee Retention Credit: The law extends the employee retention credit established by the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act through Dec. 31.
  • Paid Leave Credits: The American Rescue Plan extends tax credits for employer-provided paid sick and family leave established under the Families First Coronavirus Response Act through Sept. 30. The measure would also increase the wages covered by the paid family leave credit to $12,000 per worker, up from $10,000.

State and Local Government Aid

  • $350 billion is provided for states, territories, counties, cities and tribal governments through 2024 for a broad range of uses in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The National Conference of State Legislatures has provided an estimate of how this funding will be allocated across jurisdictions.This funding includes a new $10 billion Critical Infrastructure Projects program to carry out capital projects directly enabling work, education and health monitoring. An additional $122 billion is allocated for public schools through September 2023. Similar to expenditures by government entities through the $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund in 2020, the significant new funding provided under the American Rescue Plan is expected to impact procurement of safety/security products and services related to these purposes.

Technology Modernization

  • $1 billion is allocated to the Technology Modernization Fund (TMF) through September 2025. This program allows eligible federal agencies to use funds to replace aging, legacy IT systems with updated IT solutions. Previously, the program received $100 million annually. The increased funding for TMF will expand the scope and speed up the timeline for critically needed upgrades to federal IT systems, which could include video surveillance, access control and other security systems defined as federal IT. In February, SIA partnered with other technology industry leaders to support this effort.
  • $650 million is provided to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA) through September 2023 for cybersecurity risk mitigation efforts throughout the federal government, in part to respond to the SolarWinds cybersecurity incident first revealed in December.

It seems as though some of these benefits may also help integration firms which are more AV-based, but I won’t pretend to know more about that than I do at this point in time. Suffice it to say, more details about how certain businesses benefit from the relief will soon surface in the pro AV space.

Read Next: Navigating The Tax Implications Of The PPP And COVID-19 Relief Programs

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