Washington, D.C. – After more than 362,000 eligible businesses applied for nearly $75 billion in assistance from the $28.6 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund, new legislation has been introduced to replenish the federal relief program with $60 billion in additional funds for restaurants hurt by the pandemic. The Restaurant Revitalization Fund Replenishment Act would not only cover all existing applications to the highly popular pandemic relief program but also allow the Small Business Administration to continue its outreach to hard-to-reach businesses and communities. U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07) joined as a cosponsor of the legislation that is being led by U.S. Rep. Earl Blumenauer (D-OR), US. Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-PA), U.S. Senator Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), and U.S. Senator Roger Wicker (R-MS) and is supported by U.S. Rep. Ed Perlmutter (CO-07).

"The COVID-19 pandemic was particularly challenging for restaurants and bars, with many of them still working to recover their losses and return to normal operations," said Perlmutter. "The Restaurant Revitalization Fund was an important part of the American Rescue Plan, and we must ensure it works as it was intended to and helps support the recovery of thousands of restaurants in Colorado and across the country."

The Restaurant Revitalization Fund was enacted as part of the American Rescue Plan Act. It provided $28.6 billion in grants to help restaurants, bars, food trucks, caterers, tasting rooms, and taprooms recover from the COVID-19 pandemic. Within three weeks of the program’s opening, SBA received more than 362,000 applications requesting more than $75 billion in funding – nearly triple the available funding – leaving nearly $50 billion in outstanding need.

The U.S. restaurant industry has suffered a quarter of all job losses during the pandemic and restaurants and bars have lost more than $280 billion in sales. More than 90,000 restaurants have permanently closed, while hundreds of thousands more have significantly scaled down their operations. Even with months of positive job growth, restaurant and bars are still nearly one million jobs below their pre-pandemic averages. Dining restrictions remain in more than 20 states and consumer hesitancy threatens to prolong the hardship with 36% of diners saying they won’t resume their regular dining behavior until at least after September 2021.

Full text of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund Replenishment Act is available here.