In the original Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), there were $28 billions available and the program run out of funds pretty quickly. Applicants within the priority group received approximately $18 billion in grants; including $7.5 billion for women-owned businesses, $1 billion for veteran-owned businesses, $6.7 billion for social and economically disadvantaged-owned businesses and $2.8 billion for businesses owned by representatives of underserved populations. The remainder (around $10 billion) was awarded to eligible applicants not within the priority group.
Note that in June 2021 there were filed several lawsuits from white business owners challenging a policy that prioritized applicants for pandemic relief grants on the basis of gender and race as around 65% of funding went to priority groups. Some of the applicants (some of our clients) were approved those grants and later told that could not be paid as money was halted due to the lawsuits.
In June 2021, a group of bi-partisan members of Congress are attempting to get approval for an additional $60 billion in funding for restaurants. Congress has proposed H.R.3807 – Restaurant Revitalization Fund Replenishment Act of 2021. The bill is supposed to be addressed this week by Congress and we will keep you informed if the bill goes through, but we are sceptic on the dollar amount and viability of the bill considering other more supported bills (i.e. infrastructure).
Link NY Times – https://www.nytimes.com/2021/06/14/business/restaurant-relief-fund-covid-sba.html
Link JD Supra – https://www.jdsupra.com/legalnews/was-the-restaurant-revitalization-fund-7629166/
