The Biden Bailout
How the 46th POTUS will ensure that restaurants, bars & other businesses that have suffered disproportionately have sufficient support for optimal recovery
The Independent Restaurant Coalition has been at the forefront of an unwavering campaign for a propitious addressing of the ‘absolute economic free fall’ that the industry has endured as a result of mandated closures and capacity limits due to the Coronavirus pandemic. In a feature titled RESTAURANTS Act 2020: Essential not Optional, we analysed the stark results of a fifth nationwide survey on the economic state of the industry that the National Restaurant Association presented to urge an expeditious consensus on a comprehensive relief package. In the aforementioned piece, the effort of the IRC in drafting a letter to Speaker Pelosi, Leader McConnell, Leader Schumer, and Leader McCarthy (signed by over 34,000 members of the independent restaurant and bar community) urging them to pass the RESTAURANTS Act. Today, just a month to the date, the same organisation has gone on to secure the support of 53 senators, including that of then Vice President-elect Kamala Harris, and assurance from President Biden that direct relief for restaurants was needed. Biden said “Industry aid should not be a loan, it should be a guarantee.” Perhaps the $120 billion Restaurant Revitalization Fund that the IRC has been proposing since April 2020, one that was passed through an incredible grassroots advocacy effort, might finally come to fruition! (The bill already passed the House in October 2020 as part of the revised HEROES Act.)
“It is clear President-elect Biden wants to take action to address the unique devastation the pandemic brought to America’s independent restaurant and bar community,” said the Independent Restaurant Coalition. “We are encouraged by President-elect Biden’s repeated and outspoken support for direct aid to independent restaurants and bars, especially as we remain one of the only industries seeing shrinking employment and closed doors across the country. President-elect Biden’s plan opens the door for Congress to pass the bipartisan RESTAURANTS Act and ensure America’s second largest employer gets the grants they need to fully reopen and secure 11 million jobs. Unsustainable debt, cold weather, and a surging pandemic have left many restaurants and bars out of options this winter. We are optimistic the new administration and Congress can quickly work together to protect local restaurants and bars from permanently closing with a new stimulus package.”
In his plan today, President-elect Joe Biden made clear that he wants to work with Congress “to make sure that restaurants, bars, and other businesses that have suffered disproportionately have sufficient support to bridge to the recovery.”
—Excerpt from the IRC’s official statement
In The Christmas Eve Compendium, we detailed how the $900 billion Covid-19 Relief Bill affects and benefits restaurants specifically, highlighting relief in the form of enhancements to the Paycheck Protection Program, Tax benefits, enhancements to other critical SBA lending programs, and more. As part of this scheme, in a document that elucidates an extensive plan, the President provided clear guidelines for how and when restaurants and other businesses can operate as well. These are some of the highlights as summarised by Bret Thorn of the Nation’s Restaurant News:
- The administration has directed the Occupational Safety and Health Administration, or OSHA, to provide updated guidance on workplace safety requirements during the pandemic. It also has directed the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, or CDC, to provide guidance on what conditions must be met for restaurants, bars and other businesses to operate.
- To “establish a renewable fund for state and local governments to help prevent budget shortfalls, which may cause states to face steep cuts to teachers and first responders.”
- Additionally, it proposed providing “a ‘restart package’ that helps small businesses cover the costs of operating safely, including things like plexiglass and PPE.
- To work with state and local authorities on a nationwide mask mandate that would require people to wear face coverings whenever they’re near people who are not members of their household.
- The Biden administration also plans to use the Defence Production Act to ramp up manufacture of personal protective equipment so that supply exceeds demand. This, it said, should mitigate price fluctuations in masks, gloves and other gear.
- It also plans to establish a U.S. Public Health Jobs Corps that would hire at least 100,000 people to work in contact tracing in ways that are “culturally competent” in at-risk communities.
- Testing is also being ramped up, including more drive-thru testing sites, new instant and at-home tests and a Pandemic Testing Board, “like [President Franklin] Roosevelt’s War Production Board” to produce tens of millions of tests.
Peruse the President Biden’s full National Strategy for the COVID-19 Response and Pandemic Preparedness, here.
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