Rep. Roy leads legislation providing relief to lockdown-hammered restaurants while eliminating unconstitutional, racist provisions

WASHINGTON — Today, Rep. Chip Roy (TX-21) introduced the Restaurant Revitalization Fund Fairness Act to aid restaurants decimated by COVID lockdowns while statutorily prohibiting the racist criteria the Biden administration initially used for the Restaurant Revitalization Fund program.

The Restaurant Revitalization Fund Fairness Act would repurpose $43.6 billion of existing COVID funding to provide relief to the 177,300 eligible restaurants that applied for but did not receive RRF funding. Additionally, it would repeal the unconstitutional provision that directed the Small Business Administration to prioritize funding based on factors such as race and gender.

Rep. Roy issued the following statement about the legislation:

Tyrannical COVID lockdowns — led by federal health “leader” panic campaigns and mandates — absolutely decimated restaurants and small businesses throughout the nation.  The government response was to throw money at the problem, resulting in spiraling inflation. 

But if money is spent, the government should not discriminate based on race and other woke criteria.  Yet, that is precisely what Democrats did rendering tens of thousands of restaurants ineligible for relief under the Restaurant Revitalization Fund. We should right this wrong.

This is why I am introducing the Restaurant Revitalization Fund Fairness Act to require that existing COVID dollars be used to prioritize the 177,300 eligible restaurant owners that were discriminated against and denied relief under the original program and repeal the original RRF’s unconstitutional and racist prioritization scheme that has no place in America. 

Were it up to me, I would stop spending any money at all at this point. I would like to root out the mountains of fraud and abuse in previous programs, and I would rather not focus on a single industry.  But if a single dollar is spent, it should be spent to help businesses crushed by lockdowns and discrimination.  This bill is a way to do that.

Unlike the legislation offered by House Democrats this week, Rep. Roy’s bill is fully paid for by repurposing previously appropriated COVID money.  

Full text of the legislation is available at the link here.
 

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