Owners of bars and restaurants, and their advocates, have been reinvigorated by a new effort in Congress to consider legislation that would replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. 

The proposal, on the COVID relief program, made its way to the House Committee on Rules on Tuesday. It was a pleasant surprise for some in the industry who had given up hope the program would ever return. 

“There were 300,000 people that applied for support and 200,000 were left out by the restaurant revitalization fund. This week, we can help the rest of those businesses,” said Erika Polmar, the Executive Director of the Independent Restaurant Coalition. 

Just one week ago, the National Restaurant Association told Spectrum News that it discouraged them that legislation to fund the program was excluded from the recently passed budget bill. 

This week, the National Restaurant Association has penned a letter to congressional leadership encouraging the passage of Restaurant Revitalization Fund Replenishment if the program comes up for a vote this week.

Various lawmakers have introduced legislation several times over the past year to fund the program but have had no success. Those in the industry hope that this will be the end of that streak and that the program will be refunded soon. 

“The federal government has the opportunity to do what is right, and replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund,” said Andrew Rigie of the NYC Hospitality Alliance. If they fail to replenish it again this time, they’re failing nearly 200,000 restaurants around the country and sending a strong message that they do not care about small businesses and the people they employ.”

“Although replenishment may have been put on a back burner of congressional priorities, it has not been put on the back burner of the thousands of restaurants that were shut out of the relief program,” said Steve Clark, the COO for the Massachusetts Restaurant Association. “The needs have not gone away, and we hope Congress recognizes the importance of this replenishment ask.”

The proposal under consideration would provide an additional $42 billion to the program and would come from previous COVID appropriations that haven’t been spent.

During the committee hearing, there was testimony from both supporters and critics, including the committee’s chair. 

“I have restaurants in my district, that are in deep need to help that suffered greatly during this pandemic, that have basically leveraged everything they have just to kind of keep afloat,” said Chairman Jim McGovern. 

“I am hearing from my community and my restaurants in New York City, but members in the committee, in the small business committee, approaching us all the time asking what are we going to do?,” said Rep. Nydia Velazquez (D-NY) during her testimony on Tuesday. 

Similar stories, happening across the nation, have brought the restaurant industry together and united them on this issue. 

“It’s really terribly unfortunate that Congress has put us in this position where people are having to choose between their financial wellbeing and their health to keep their businesses open,” Polmar said. “There are a few restaurant owners that are in the process of filing bankruptcy, but they are still making their calls to legislators every day asking for the restaurant revitalization fund to be replenished. They are fiercely committed to making this happen.”

It’s still not clear whether there are enough votes in the Senate to get the legislation through that chamber and to the president’s desk.

A Small Business Administration official recently told Spectrum News that it would be easy for them to restart the program as long as the funding is there.