The US House of Representatives passed a $55 billion bill aimed to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund and help other hard hit businesses with grants of up to $1 million. The Bill was passed on Thursday and now heads to the Senate — and could potentially help tens of thousands of struggling businesses. Here's what types of businesses this bill would help and everything you need to know.

The House Bill Allocates Grants Of Up to $1 Million for Certain Businesses

The House of Representatives on Thursday passed The Relief for Restaurants and Other Hard Hit Small Businesses Act of 2022 (H.R. 3807). This fund would add $42 billion into The Restaurant Revitalization Fund. In addition, the bill would also allocate $13 billion for other businesses with less than 200 employees that were hardest hit by the pandemic.

If H.R. 3807 passes in the Senate — which still faces obstacles — the 177,000 restaurants that were approved for RRF grants but did not receive funding would be next in the queue.

In addition, the $13 billion would broadly be available for the hardest hit businesses to apply for. As of now, eligibility criteria seems to be businesses that lost 40% or more of their revenue during the pandemic. These grants would be capped at $1 million.

The Senate Has An Alternative Funding Package with Stricter Eligibility

Meanwhile, the Senate has put forth their own bill for hard hit businesses. The total funding for this is $48 billion — with $40 billion for restaurants and food industry businesses and $8 billion for small businesses in hard hit sectors.

This is the key difference between the bill that passes the House and the proposed bill in the Senate: The Senate says only businesses in certain sectors should be eligible for these grants.

That $8 billion would be split into pots of money for gyms and fitness centers, live entertainment venues, bus and ferry operators, minor league sports teams, and small businesses that were shut off from customers due to border closures.

The Renewed Push for Small Business Grants Is Promising

Despite the 2 separate proposals from the House and Senate, it is overall encouraging to see the renewed momentum in aid for the hardest hit small businesses.

For nearly a year, restaurants have been awaiting more funding to be allocated to help them. In addition, other hard hit sectors have been waiting for more relief too in addition to SBA programs like the EIDL funding programs which is running out of funding.

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