[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 208 (Wednesday, December 9, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H7054-H7055]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




            TIME IS RUNNING OUT FOR INDEPENDENT RESTAURANTS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentleman from 
Oregon (Mr. Blumenauer) for 5 minutes.
  Mr. BLUMENAUER. Mr. Speaker, time is running out for America's 
500,000 independent restaurants and their 11 million employees. This is 
the hardest-hit sector of our economy.
  We began our morning hour today listening to our friend, the 
gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock), and it is the lead 
editorial in the New York Times, focusing on the crisis for these 
restaurants.
  Independent restaurants are holding on literally by their fingertips. 
They are facing a new wave of restrictions that are necessary to deal 
with the COVID crisis that is rising.
  The talk of expanding the Paycheck Protection Program, the PPP, 
absolutely misses the mark. It didn't work initially when it was 
introduced for the restaurants, and it won't work now.
  They can't afford to wait for warmer weather in the spring or a 
vaccine in the summer. They don't need more debt. They need a lifeline 
now. Otherwise, we could see the loss of up to 80 percent of our 
independent restaurants that form the very fabric of our neighborhoods.
  Luckily, there is a solution. My RESTAURANTS Act has already passed 
the House. It is a program that won't add to the deficit. In fact, it 
will actually provide more money to the Government. The cost is $120 
billion, but the economic analysis suggests that it will save $248 
billion.
  Think about it for a moment. That is logical because, instead of 
adding massive unemployment costs, having restaurants defaulting on 
their mortgages, being evicted because they are unable to pay rent, and 
the ripple effect throughout the vast supply chain for independent 
restaurants, from farmers, ranchers, and people who supply linen, for a 
few months of support from the RESTAURANTS Act, it will enable them to 
have limited operation, be paying rent, or keeping current with their 
mortgages, until later in next year when they can return to normal 
operations. It is imperative that we deal directly with putting money 
in their hands.
  Last week, former Vice President Biden, President-Elect Biden, said 
restaurants need grants, not loans. Secretary of the Treasury Mnuchin 
said restaurants need grants; they don't need loans.
  We have a solution that is available. The RESTAURANTS Act, as I said, 
has already passed the House of Representatives. Over half the Senate 
has cosponsored this legislation.

[[Page H7055]]

  As we have heard from President-Elect Biden, it should not be a loan; 
it should be a guarantee. Secretary Mnuchin said restaurants need 
grants; they don't need loans. The House should follow up, but not with 
expanding PPP, more cumbersome loans. Send them that lifeline. Keep 
independent restaurants in business. Protect their 11 million employees 
and literally the very fabric of our community.

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