The business winners in Biden’s relief package: Restaurants, concert venues & airplane manufacturers

From the The Washington Post:

“The restaurant industry emerged as the bill’s biggest private-sector winner. The package establishes a $25 billion ‘revitalization fund’ for restaurants that will dole out grants to help them cover pandemic-related revenue losses, with businesses eligible for up to $5 million each.

“Sean Kennedy, the National Restaurant Association’s vice president for public affairs, called the fund the ‘the culmination of a one-year effort’ to secure a dedicated pot of money for the sector. But it has racked up a series of smaller lobbying victories in pandemic relief measures, including a carve-out in the Payroll Protection Program that granted restaurants a higher loan limit than other businesses.

“In the latest bill, the restaurant group helped push for the expansion of a tax credit for companies that keep workers on their payrolls. And they lobbied against a federal minimum wage increase many Democrats wanted to include, endorsing the package once they were confident it would not include such a hike or end the tipped minimum wage.

“Kennedy said restaurants deserve the special attention. ‘No industry has lost more jobs and more revenue than restaurants,’ he said, pegging the sector’s revenue losses at $255 billion. ‘We were the first industry to be shut down, we’ll be the last to reopen, and we have a very long road to recovery in front of us.’

“The restaurant lobby activated its nationwide grass-roots network to push for final passage of the package, calling on restaurateurs to press their own lawmakers on the urgency of the need for aid. ‘Every member of Congress has their favorite place when they get home from Washington,’ Kennedy said. ‘Communities of every size have lost a beloved restaurant. Members see that, and we work off of that.’”

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