National Restaurant Association sends restaurant industry recovery and relief proposal to White House, projects economic impact of at least $225 billion and 5-7 million job losses

A day after President Trump spoke to restaurant chain leaders and reportedly unveiled an $850 billion stimulus package, the National Restaurant Association has sent their own proposal to the Trump administration and congressional leaders.  

Today, the association is proposing directed and targeted financial relief for restaurants, loans and insurance options for impacted small businesses, as well as tax measures.

“The coronavirus poses unprecedented challenges to this country, and we applaud your collective efforts to minimize its impact and keep the American people safe. You have taken aggressive steps to promote our public health and provide needed benefits to our nation’s workers,” the letter, signed by Sean Kennedy, the NRA’s executive vice president of public affairs, reads. 

“But as you can expect, as an industry that is based on welcoming everyone through our doors, we are uniquely affected by mandates that keep us from serving our customers. We are revising our business model to provide meals in different ways (takeout, delivery, safety- enhanced dine-in), but we are facing economic headwinds that will lead many restaurants to shut down operations, lay off workers, and end our service in our communities.”

The association anticipates restaurant sales to decline by $225 billion during the next three months, which will prompt the loss of between five and seven million jobs.

“We urge you to take critical steps to support America’s restaurant industry and the 15.6 million workers we employ,” the letter continues. “Specifically, we urge you to enact the following proposals targeted at our industry during this time of uncertainty.”

NRN has broken down the letter into key points and will add updates with additional details. 

Direct/Targeted Financial Relief

•    Authorize the Department of Treasury to create a $145 billion Restaurant and Foodservice Industry Recovery Fund
•    $35 billion for Community Development Block Grants for Disaster Relief (CDBG- DR) assistance.
•    Assistance in allowing businesses to defer mortgage, lease and loan obligations.

Loans/Insurance Options for Impacted Small Businesses

•    $100 billion in Federally-Backed Business Interruption Insurance.  
•    Federal Loan Program Equal to Lost Revenue
•    $45 billion in expanded access to effective, efficient and affordable federal and conventional loans.
•    $130 Million in Disaster Unemployment Assistance (DUA)

Tax Measures
•    Fix the Qualified Improvement Property (QIP) technical correction.
•    Assistance in allowing businesses to delay, defer, or forgo tax obligations. 
•    Tax credits for businesses that are retaining employees. 
•    A Temporary Payroll Tax Cut that increases economic activity. Specifically, reduce the employee shares of Social Security payroll taxes by two percentage points from 6.2% to 4.2% 

Contact Gloria Dawson at [email protected]

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