The Restaurant Revitalization Fund: Time for Our Government to Step Up!

As the pandemic devastated local restaurants last year, Congress responded with the creation of The Restaurant Revitalization Fund. The SBA was tasked with distributing the $28.7 billion allocated for eligible restaurants who had been financially impacted by the COVID crisis. And over 300,00 businesses immediately filed applications.

Well, bravo to the government for responding in such a timely manner, right? On the surface yeah, but remember this is our government, which has essentially been incapable of distributing money that’s been allocated to many Americans impacted by the virus.

Then Congress ordered the SBA to give priority for grants to restaurants owned by women, people of color, and military veterans. And that’s when the problems began. Some began to complain about discriminatory funding practices. The fact that all of the initial grant recipients were in high priority groups didn’t help much.

Then a lawsuit was filed by a white male restaurant owner in Nashville who claimed he had been pushed to the back of the line. That was followed by a suit from a Texas right-wing advocacy group that was headed by Trump alumni and supporters. Worse still, Federal judges paid attention to the suits and the SBA dropped the policy.

Next, many priority grant recipients were told that their grants had been rescinded and the money they’d been promised could not be delivered because of pending legal activity. This had a ripple effect across the whole program and then to add insult to injury the SBA announced that the fund had run out of money.

This left a number of Austin restaurants who had been approved for grants in a situation where they were unsure how they would get the operating capital to stay afloat. Some of these restaurants were in the additional trap of spending money they had assumed would be received.

Finally, in June a bipartisan group of legislators introduced legislation that would add $60 billion to the fund. But in true government fashion that legislation has yet to pass. It remains mired in a bureaucratic logjam while restaurants languish on the sidelines. The irony of this is that it’s not about partisan politics. There’s support on both sides for the additional funding but …

So what can we restaurant fans do?

To start, call your senators and congressmen. Do it immediately. Be loud. Local restaurants are the heart of our Austin spirit. And now more than at any time during the pandemic they need our help.