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INTRODUCTION OF THE RESTAURANT REVITALIZATION FUND REPLENISHMENT ACT
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HON. EARL BLUMENAUER
of oregon
in the house of representatives
Friday, June 11, 2021
Mr. BLUMENAUER. Madam Speaker, today I introduced the Restaurant Revitalization Fund Replenishment Act. This bipartisan, bicameral legislation will replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund with $60 billion in additional funding.
The restaurant industry has been uniquely devastated by the COVID-19 pandemic, accounting or a quarter of all job losses. The pandemic has cost restaurants and bars more than $280 billion in sales and left devastating impacts on the entire food supply chain. Ninety-thousand restaurants have permanently closed and hundreds of thousands more have significantly scaled down their operations.
The Restaurant Revitalization Fund, created in Section 5003 of the American Rescue Plan Act (Pub. L. 117-2), provided $28.6 billion for restaurants, bars, food trucks, caterers, tasting rooms, and taprooms to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Within days of opening the Fund, the SBA received requests for more funding than was available. Just three weeks after opening, the SBA received more than 362,000 applications requesting more than $75 billion in funding--nearly triple available funding. Due to unprecedented need and a lack of funds, the SBA closed the application portal on May 24, 2021, meaning there is nearly $50 billion in outstanding need that will go unmet unless Congress acts.
Even with months of positive steady job growth, restaurant and bars are still nearly one million jobs below their pre-pandemic averages. Dining restrictions still exist in 27 states, and consumer hesitancy threatens to prolong the hardship with 36 percent of diners saying they won't resume their regular dining behavior until at least after September 2021. Without congressional action, tens of thousands of beloved restaurants and bars simply won't survive.
I look forward to working with my colleagues in the House and Senate to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and work to get this battered industry back on its feet.
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SOURCE: Congressional Record Vol. 167, No. 102
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