Letter to Hon. Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the House; Hon. Kevin McCarthy, House Minority Leader; Hon. Chuck Schumer, Senate Majority Leader; Hon. Mitch McConnell, Senate Minority Leader - Thompson, Blumenauer, Fitzpatrick Urge Congressional Leadership to Provide Rapid Relief to Restaurants

Letter

Dear Speaker Pelosi, Leader McCarthy and Leaders Schumer and McConnell:

We are writing to urgently request a rapid replenishment of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF).

As you know, the RRF was created in March of last year. The original $28.6 billion in funding was rapidly exhausted, to the extent that applications to the RRF exceeded allotted funds by a factor of nearly 3 to 1.

Restaurants are a critical part of our economy, in every single state and congressional district. The emergence of the omicron variant of COVID-19 has forced the reimposition of mask mandates, social distancing rules, and other precautionary measures -- including, in many areas, temporary restaurant closures -- while exacerbating the challenge of finding and keeping restaurant staff, many of whom cannot find or afford childcare services or who have contracted the virus themselves. This resurgence directly jeopardizes both financial and food security for millions of workers -- many of whom are women, immigrants, and people of color, and most of whom have already faced substantial hardship during the pandemic.

We strongly support additional resources to support struggling restaurants, including replenishment legislation already introduced. We urge you to quickly pass additional funding for the RRF. These funds are critical to keeping the restaurant industry alive over the coming months.

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