PA Restaurant Owners Desperate After Congress Denies Aid

PENNSYLVANIA — Restaurant owners across the state are attempting to give federal lawmakers food for thought regarding the risks of not reviving the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. Congress this week left restaurateurs in Pennsylvania and across the nation with an empty plate when it failed to revive the financial aid package in a federal budget package.

The American Rescue Plan Act established the fund to provide funding to help restaurants and

other eligible businesses remain open. The program provided eateries with funding equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location.

The fund ran out of its initial allotment of $28.6 billion in weeks, leaving about 177,000 restaurants across the country in the lurch, according to Restaurant Business Online.

In Pennsylvania, 70 percent of Pennsylvania restaurant owners that applied for an RRF grant did not receive one, according to Lauren Brinjac, the Pennsylvania Restaurant & Lodging Association's senior director of government affairs.

"This in unacceptable," she said.

"We are extremely disappointed with the lack of action from members of Congress to protect and aid our struggling industry. Communities have rallied behind their local restaurants and we had hoped Congress would as well."

While there is no immediate solution to the problem, Brinjac said the effort to obtain financial assistance did not end with the congressional snub.

"We will continue to work with restaurant owners, local legislators, and our national affiliate, the National Restaurant Association, to protect our industries' livelihood and future," she said.

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