WASHINGTON (dpa-AFX) - The restaurant industry has asked Congress leaders to make changes to the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), as well as to arrange more funding to help struggling businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.
National Restaurant Association appreciated the Congress for approving $349 billion to PPP funds, while calling for expanding the program to the maximum possible level.
The Association wrote to congressional leaders on Thursday to ask for revised loan restrictions so that restaurants can spend 50 percent or more of the loans on nonpayroll expenses, as opposed to the 25 percent mandated currently.
The Association pointed out that the COVID-19 crisis has already cost three million restaurant employees their jobs and cut $25 billion in revenue from the industry since March 1. Fifteen percent of restaurants have or will within two weeks, permanently close with total job losses projected at seven million before the crisis abates, it added.
'While COVID-19 funds are helping many businesses and employees across the country, there is no escaping that a growing number of restaurant owners feel that the PPP is not going to prevent them from permanently closing their operations in local communities,' Executive Vice President Sean Kennedy said.
'Thepremise of the Paycheck Protection Program is to be a vital way of allowing restaurants to bridge this crisis, but there are warning signs that it is not providing the relief that is so desperately needed for our industry,' he added.
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