Operations

NRA urges support of SMB COVID funding bill

Photo by istock.com

April 6, 2022

The National Restaurant Association is urging support of a $48 billion dollar small business COVID-19 funding bill, called S.4008 – Small Business COVID Relief Act of 2022, that would help restaurants still recovering from the pandemic.

The industry group is lobbying senators to pass the bill which was introduced Tuesday night by Senator Ben Cardin, D-Maryland.

The bill includes the following:

• Relief for unfunded festaurants: An additional $40 billion for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund, which is enough to provide all applicants that have not received any assistance with full grants. Includes: Enhanced auditing requirements for new and existing restaurant grants to prevent fraud and new transparency and customer service requirements to ensure that SBA shares information.
• Grants for live venue service and support companies: $2 billion for aid to businesses that support live events that have suffered losses of greater than 25%.
• Grants for border businesses: $1.415 billion for aid to very small businesses located in areas adjacent to land ports of entry that were subject to closure during the pandemic.
• Grants for exclave communities: $85 million to small businesses located in communities in AK, WA and MN that were not accessible from the U.S. during the pandemic due to border closures, including $75 million for communities in southeastern Alaska that were completely cut off.
• Includes $5 billion in offsets: Offsets include $5 billion in unused funds remaining in the Paycheck Protection Program.