House passes COVID aid bill to help struggling restaurants

The Home on Thursday authorised greater than $40 billion in COVID-19 help for restaurant house owners who tried however failed final yr to obtain assist from the federal Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which rapidly ran out of cash.

The invoice handed by a vote of 223 to 203, with six Home Republicans supporting the measure and 4 Democrats opposing it. Prospects for the laws within the Senate are unclear.

The invoice would replenish the restaurant fund with $42 billion and supply one other $13 billion to different companies nonetheless struggling to get well from the COVID-19 disaster.

The fund was created below the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 and initially supplied $28.6 billion in tax-free grants to eating places that misplaced income because of COVID-19 shutdowns.

However the fund ran dry simply three weeks after launching, providing help to 101,000 companies, and leaving one other 177,000 certified candidates within the lurch. Amongst them had been about 20,000 in California.

With out the help, bar proprietor John Arakaki mentioned he’s nonetheless unable to pay the again hire and utility payments for his two bars, Saint Felix in Hollywood and Saint Felix in West Hollywood.

He mentioned he utilized for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund inside three days of its launch and spent three weeks calling to test on the standing of his software.

“We didn’t actually discover out till we learn the information that the funds had been exhausted,” Arakaki mentioned. “The affect has been brutal.”

“We’ve needed to work day by day to get by this: to search out grants, to search out methods to economize, to maintain high quality up, to change merchandise,” he mentioned, including that he and his enterprise associate had been working 60 hours per week for some time. “For us, it’s been loopy.”

If the fund is replenished, Arakaki mentioned his first test will go to his landlords, who’ve patiently waited for months, he mentioned. Then he would pay down his fuel invoice, and, if doable, present his workers with bonuses.

With out the cash, he’ll proceed carrying the money owed. “We are going to discover a technique to persevere, however I do know a number of of my colleagues will shutter, and we’re going to lose a number of identification within the metropolis,” he mentioned.

In keeping with the Nationwide Restaurant Assn., restaurant business gross sales stay down $65 billion from 2019’s pre-pandemic ranges, and 90,000 eating places nationwide are quickly or completely closed.

In California, a 3rd of eating places are estimated to have closed completely because of the pandemic.

Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-Ore.), who sponsored the invoice, mentioned the $42 billion ought to be sufficient to offer grants to all of the eating places that utilized final yr for the unique fund however obtained nothing. The grants would solely be obtainable to these eating places that beforehand utilized.

The common grant final yr was about $283,000. Quantities had been calculated primarily based on a restaurant’s 2020 shortfall in gross receipts in comparison with 2019, with a most of $10 million per enterprise and a most of $5 million per location.

Although the pandemic has eased, Blumenauer mentioned it was important to assist eating places get again on their toes.

“Individuals are nonetheless struggling to get their steadiness,” Blumenauer mentioned Thursday after the vote. “COVID continues to be a wildcard when it comes to challenges with well being restrictions. And the availability chain has been disrupted.”

Within the Senate, two comparable payments have drawn some bipartisan assist. A invoice that might designate $48 billion to the Restaurant Revitalization Fund was sponsored by Sen. Benjamin Cardin (D-Md.) and Sen. Roger Wicker (R-Miss.). Six different Republicans signed on as co-sponsors.

Some critics have complained that the unique grant program supplied an excessive amount of help to bigger chains, reasonably than small eating places.

And a few lawmakers are against new COVID-19 help, noting that many pandemic-related restrictions have ended.

However Chris Hillyard, who co-owns Farley’s East espresso store in Oakland and Farley’s Coffeehouse in San Francisco, mentioned his companies proceed to lose cash on a month-to-month foundation. He mentioned he utilized on the primary day the fund opened for a six-figure grant to assist preserve his institutions afloat. However he too discovered this system ran out of cash earlier than performing on his software.

“It was devastating,” he mentioned. “We had all of the plans in place.”