Business & Tech
Irving-Las Colinas Chamber Of Commerce: Is More Funding On The Way For The Restaurant Revitalization Fund
That legislation was introduced by Senators Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, and Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, in the Senate.
July 2, 2021
Proponents of adding tens of billions of dollars to the exhausted Restaurant Revitalization Fund are hoping to attach it to any popular legislation — and hope they can get more funding by the end of the summer.
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It's an effort that could provide a critical infusion of funding for an industry still struggling to regain its footing after the Covid-19 pandemic and labor shortages that have limited the sector's recovery.
“There is a great deal of enthusiasm for the legislation. Everybody is pulling in the same direction, and I am cautiously optimistic that we may be able to do it this summer,” said Rep. Earl Blumenauer, D-Oregon, who introduced the original restaurant relief legislation in 2020 and has been pushing for more funding ever since.
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Blumenauer is also spearheading The Restaurant Revitalization Fund Replenishment Act of 2021, which would provide an additional $60 billion for the grant program – enough to process all the the $50 billion in unfilled applications from hundreds of thousands of restaurants made before the initial $28.6 billion was exhausted. That legislation was introduced by Senators Kyrsten Sinema, D-Arizona, and Roger Wicker, R-Mississippi, in the Senate and Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick, R-Pennsylvania, alongside Blumenauer.
But Blumenauer said passing any standalone legislation now was extremely rare, so he is hoping to attach the new funding to any must-pass or bipartisan legislation Congress will be considering in the coming months.
“We are working on the legislative proposal so that we are flexible,” he said. “If there is a recovery bill or a budget bill that looks like it's going to get floor time in the House or the Senate, we will be there.”
This press release was produced by Irving-Las Colinas Chamber of Commerce. The views expressed here are the author’s own.