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House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Sunday floated a procedural move on the bipartisan infrastructure bill, but the idea did not satisfy a group of moderates who are pushing for a quick vote on passage of the measure, The Hill reported. The House is returning to Washington, D.C., next week in order to pass the Senate-approved $3.5 trillion budget resolution that will pave the way for a social spending bill that can pass with only Democratic votes. Some moderate Democrats are seeking an immediate vote on the bipartisan infrastructure bill that the Senate passed earlier this month and have threatened to vote against the budget resolution unless the House first votes on the infrastructure bill. But Pelosi and progressive lawmakers do not want the House to pass the infrastructure bill until the Senate also passes a social spending bill. In an effort to take moderates’ priorities into account, Pelosi said in a letter to colleagues Sunday that she has asked the House Rules Committee to “explore the possibility of a rule that advances both the budget resolution and the bipartisan infrastructure package.” “This will put us on a path to advance the infrastructure bill and the reconciliation bill,” she wrote.

Just as American steakhouses are recovering from the first wave of COVID shutdowns, the Delta variant threatens to diminish the appetite for a sector seen as a barometer for full U.S. economic recovery, Reuters reported. While many top steak restaurants found new customers by reinventing themselves during the crisis, the comeback of the $5 billion U.S. premium steakhouse sector depends on expense-account-wielding executives resuming fancy business events and affluent tourists flocking to Broadway theaters and other attractions. But travel and group events are again at risk as Delta infections and deaths mount. Several companies pushed back target dates for employees to return to offices. Some big in-person events, including the New York auto show, were canceled. High-end steakhouses are especially vulnerable to the spread of the virus because their traditions — such as lengthy, indoor, three-course dinners — may scare off apprehensive customers. At the same time, the price of beef is soaring, with wholesale prices 40% higher on average in July than a year ago, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. That threatens steakhouses' profit margins. Several chains say they are better prepared amid the pandemic this year since adding outdoor dining and home delivery, should the latest surge or new government restrictions scare some diners away again.

A temporary U.S. ban on evictions in parts of the country hit hard by the pandemic can remain in place, a federal judge in Washington ruled, a victory for the Biden administration’s efforts to stop the spread of the coronavirus, Bloomberg News reported. In a ruling on Friday, U.S. District Judge Dabney Friedrich rejected a plea by landlord groups to block the new eviction moratorium established by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, even as she voiced concerns over the legality of the policy. The decision means the ban, set to last until Oct. 3, can stay in place for now, though it will face further court challenges from landlords. Friedrich, a critic of the moratorium, wrote that she was forced to keep the freeze in place because of a ruling by the U.S. appeals court in Washington that allowed a previous nationwide version of the policy to stand. “Throughout the pandemic, preventing evictions and keeping people in their homes has been a proven way of slowing the spread of Covid-19,” Press Secretary Jen Psaki said in a statement. “We are pleased that the district court left the moratorium in place, though we are aware that further proceedings in this case are likely.” Psaki also urged state and local officials to move faster in distributing almost $47 billion in emergency rental assistance as the legal wrangling over the moratorium continues. Just 12% of the first $25 billion Congress allocated had made its way to eligible households in the first half of the year, Treasury Department data show, though the pace has been accelerating, with more than $1.5 billion doled out in June alone. While she believes the moratorium is legally dubious, she wrote, “the court’s hands are tied.”

A recent report by the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB) found that many servicers were initially overwhelmed as the pandemic resulted in millions of people losing their jobs, the Washington Post reported. For example, one large servicer received about 650,000 inquiries to its call center in February 2021. The number increased to 750,000 in March and then dropped to 625,000 in April. The uptick in March tracked the expiration of forbearances for borrowers who enrolled at the beginning of the pandemic and who were probably calling to discuss additional relief, the CFPB said. As of July, more than 1.8 million borrowers were enrolled in active forbearance plans, the CFPB said. The agency has warned mortgage servicers to take proactive steps to assist borrowers, including dedicating resources and staffers to stay in contact with borrowers to ultimately reduce foreclosures and foreclosure-related costs. The CFPB said about 569,000 borrowers are in the early stages of delinquency but aren’t participating in a forbearance plan. “The overall message is that the bureau will be watching closely this fall to see how servicers handle the wave of forbearance exits and take appropriate action as needed,” said Mark McArdle, the CFPB’s assistant director for mortgage markets. Some homeowners will not be able to resume making payments on their mortgages, and that means some foreclosures are unavoidable. But the CFPB is doing what should have been done during the housing crisis. The agency is holding mortgage servicers accountable if they don’t do enough to help people avoid losing their homes.

Either the Pittsburgh region has dodged a bullet, thanks to government actions, or last year’s predictions of massive reorganizations and liquidations still loom. But even lawyers specializing in bankruptcies, creditor’s rights and workouts aren’t sure, the Pittsburgh Business Times reported. “We seem to be in this cycle where policymakers know a crash is coming unless they put another stimulus package out there,” said Kirk Burkley, managing partner of Bernstein-Burkley PC. “We used to say, ‘At some point, they have to stop doing that.’ I don’t know if that’s true any more. Maybe the new principle is you just keep doing it.” Business bankruptcy filings in the Pittsburgh region during the three months ended June 30 accounted for the second-lowest quarter in at least 18 years. The total of 46 was 50% above the comparable quarter in 2020, which still holds the record low point with 31 commercial filings. Robert O. Lampl, who leads a namesake firm specializing in bankruptcy work, said that due to the government’s role of providing funding such as the Paycheck Protection Program and protective measures to stave off evictions and foreclosures, it’s difficult to determine whether beneficiaries are recuperating or on life support. Of the 46 commercial filings recorded by the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for the Western District of Pennsylvania during the second quarter, 31 were chapter 7s, or liquidation; 11 were chapter 11s, or reorganization; and the remaining four were chapter 13s, which applies to sole practitioners, according to ABI. For the six months ended on June 30, 100 local businesses filed for bankruptcy, compared to 96 during the first half of 2020.

The creators of “South Park” have made a deal to save Casa Bonita, a Mexican restaurant and family entertainment center outside Denver that was featured in the plot of an episode of the popular cartoon show and filed bankruptcy earlier this year, WSJ Pro Bankruptcy reported. Trey Parker and Matt Stone, the show’s creators, announced they would purchase the restaurant, pending bankruptcy-court approval, during a conversation with Colorado Gov. Jared Polis, broadcast on the politician’s official Facebook account on Friday. The duo made the announcement about a week after ViacomCBS said it struck a six-year deal with Messrs. Parker and Stone for six new seasons of the TV show on Comedy Central and more than a dozen movies for Paramount+ that will reportedly earn the duo $900 million. The Mexican resort-themed restaurant is known for its 30-foot high waterfall, which cliff-divers, at times wearing gorilla-suits, regularly jump off to entertain guests. In one South Park episode, Eric Cartman, one of the show’s main characters, goes to extreme lengths to crash his on-again-off-again friend and rival Kyle’s birthday at Casa Bonita; Cartman is arrested at the end of the episode after he jumps off the waterfall. Despite the exposure Casa Bonita gained from the episode, the company behind the restaurant filed for bankruptcy protection in April, citing impacts from the COVID-19 pandemic throughout the dining industry. “We’ve come to an agreement with the owner and we bought it,” Mr. Stone said during Friday’s live conversation. 

The concert industry had hoped that this summer would mark its high-decibel rebound after being shut down for more than a year by the pandemic. It started promisingly, with restrictions being eased and fans snapping up tickets, but as the spread of the highly contagious Delta variant has accelerated in recent weeks, an ominous cancellation blotter has begun to build up, the New York Times reported. Foo Fighters and Fall Out Boy have missed high-profile shows. Stevie Nicks and Limp Bizkit have scuttled tours. The New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, planned for October, was canceled amid high infection rates in Louisiana. The pileup of bad news, along with fearful chatter among artists and touring workers on industry back channels, has led to what many in the business describe as a confusing and even chaotic situation over whether — and how — to proceed. For those moving forward, a loose consensus has taken shape that fans must provide proof of vaccination, or at least a negative test. But anecdotal reports suggest that the rigor of vaccine checks can be lacking, and the question of who bears responsibility for setting and enforcing those rules — especially when governments in major markets like Texas and Florida oppose such mandates — remains a matter of debate.

More than seven months after it was launched, the biggest rental assistance program in U.S. history has delivered just a fraction of the promised aid to tenants and landlords struggling with the impact of the COVID-19 crisis, the Wall Street Journal reported. Since last December, Congress has appropriated a total of $46.6 billion to help tenants who were behind on their rent. As of June 30, just $3 billion had been distributed, though a senior official said the Biden administration hoped at least another $2 billion had been distributed in July. While the program is overseen by the Treasury, it relies on a patchwork of more than 450 state, county and municipal governments and charitable organizations to distribute aid. The result: months of delays as local governments built new programs from scratch, hired staff and crafted rules for how the money should be distributed, then struggled to process a deluge of applications.