Media Contact: Patrick Wright -- Patrick.Wright@mail.house.gov
Washington, D.C. — Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. supported a bill today to provide more aid to the nation’s struggling restaurants and small businesses. The bill, the Relief for Restaurants & Other Hard Hit Small Businesses Act of 2022 (H.R. 3807), adds $42 billion to the popular Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) to aid more than 170,000 eligible businesses that were denied assistance when the fund ran out of money. In New Jersey, Rep. Payne, Jr. helped more than 3,000 local restaurants and small businesses get more than $920 million in assistance. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund was created in the American Rescue Plan to help restaurants and food and beverage businesses pay bills and employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“Few industries have been hit hardest during the pandemic than the food and beverage industry,” said Rep. Donald M. Payne, Jr. “This bill will help hundreds of thousands of restaurants continue to serve customers and pay their employees nationwide. Many restaurants are family-owned small businesses that have been passed down through generations. We must do everything we can to support these small businesses until our economy recovers.”
In addition, the bill would provide $13 billion to establish the Hard Hit Industries Award Program, administered by the Small Business Administration. The program would assist small businesses with a maximum of 200 employees that lost 40 percent or more of their revenue due to the pandemic, but were not eligible for other grants nor awards. Also, the bill extends the deadline for small businesses to use grant funding. Part of the additional funding for the RRF would come from money reclaimed, seized or returned from other businesses that attempted to defraud prior small business pandemic relief funds, including the Paycheck Protection Program.
Original source can be found here.
