Restaurants Need A Lifeline

Floor Speech

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Mr. TONKO. Mr. Speaker, millions of America's restaurants are on the edge of financial collapse. If we do not get them a lifeline now, we will lose these pillars of community and economic vitality that have long stood throughout our Nation. And we will pay an even steeper price as millions more Americans lose their jobs and families are left stranded with nowhere to turn.

More than 110,000 of America's restaurants have already closed during this very difficult pandemic. Restaurateurs have adapted, have reinvented, have dug deep to hold on this long. But more than one-third say they won't survive the next 6 months without Federal help. In my home State of New York, that figure is closer to more than one-half.

We can and we must act to save these cherished Main Street establishments before it is too late. The House already passed a bipartisan bill that gets the job done. With more than 200 bipartisan cosponsors, H.R. 7197, the RESTAURANTS Act, would create a $120 billion revitalization fund that would rescue America's independent restaurants.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues in the Senate to join us in this bipartisan effort and pass the RESTAURANTS Act. Our Main Street businesses have always delivered for us. Let us make sure that we deliver for them now, when they need it so desperately.

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