Congress Closes Door on Restaurant Revitalization Fund

The US restaurant industry is facing an end to government pandemic support, as a chance to resurrect the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) passed in Congress with no provision made for aid for the struggling sector.

As the 11 March deadline approaches for Congress to appropriate more money to fund the government, industry figures had seen it as an opportunity to replenish the RRF, which had burned through its $28.6 billion allotment in less than three weeks.

With mounting problems facing restaurateurs, including rising food and energy costs, staffing issues and supply chain complications, the situation is becoming increasingly untenable for many restaurant businesses in the US. Some 177,000 restaurants applied for aid from the RRF and received nothing. The end of government funding may leave many of them with no other option but to close permanently.

While calls for a replenishment did have bi-partisan support, a significant portion of the house believed that the restaurant industry had received enough government funding, something the White House seemed to concur.

The consequences of RRF closure

“Today’s news that Congress is walking away from the RRF is a gut punch to the 177,000 restaurants who now have some incredibly difficult decisions ahead of them,” Sean Kennedy, EVP of public affairs for the National Restaurant Association, said in a statement. “The pandemic is over for much of the economy, but small business restaurant owners have taken two steps back with every variant.”

“Thousands of neighbourhood restaurants are going to close as a result of Congressional inaction on the Restaurant Revitalization Fund," Erika Polmar, executive director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition, said in a statement. “I hear from business owners every day who are having to close their doors, and since Congress and the White House couldn’t see their way to refill the RRF, hundreds more will face the same fate in the coming weeks."