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Congress is cooking up another relief bill for small business, but it could quickly expand beyond just small business to balloon in size, according to a Wall Street Journal editorial. The $1.9 trillion bill passed last March included $50 billion for small businesses, including $28.6 billion in grants for restaurants, but this money has been depleted. Maryland Sen. Ben Cardin and Mississippi’s Roger Wicker are cobbling together another relief bill for restaurants. “The restaurant money is a fairness issue. Some restaurants got it and others did not,” Mr. Cardin said. Twenty-eight mayors recently sent a letter imploring Congress to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund from the March spending bill. They say 86% of independent restaurants and bars that didn’t receive grants “risk permanently closing,” and 177,000 applicants have been denied relief. The editorial sympathizes with restaurants, which are also having to deal with rising prices and worker shortages. Some have faced a drop-off in business during Covid surges as customers stay home. Yet the commentary asserts that restaurants in certain states seem to be struggling much more in part because of population flight during the pandemic. Data from the website OpenTable shows restaurant reservations were up 19% in Florida, 14% in South Carolina and 9% in Arizona on Jan. 3 compared to the same date in 2019. Reservations were down 78% in Maryland, 52% in New York and 45% in Illinois. Treasury has allowed states and localities to use the $350 billion in budget aid from the March bill to help struggling households, small businesses and industries. States and localities are swimming in revenue, so they can assist their own restaurants, though some like New York have preferred to pay off public unions and grow government programs instead. Congress could also repurpose money that states and localities haven’t spent to replenish the restaurant fund or hospitals, but there’s no need to appropriate new funds, the editorial argues. It has already spent nearly $6 trillion on Covid relief. Read more.(Subscription required.)

*The views expressed in this commentary are from the author/publication cited, are meant for informative purposes only, and are not an official position of ABI.

Momentum is building on Capitol Hill for more coronavirus relief funding to support restaurants and other businesses struggling to stay afloat in the face of the latest wave of the pandemic fueled by the omicron variant, The Hill reported. Lawmakers involved in negotiations say that support has been building among members for legislation aimed at supporting businesses that have been disproportionately hit by the pandemic. Sen. Ben Cardin (D-Md.), chair of the Senate Small Business and Entrepreneurship Committee and a leader in discussions on the matter, expressed optimism Thursday when discussing he and Sen. Roger Wicker’s (R-Miss.) efforts to gain more backing for the push among their colleagues. Cardin said the primary focus in talks has been to replenish relief funding for restaurants after a previous batch of funds allocated by Congress ran out months back. The funding would come at a crucial time, advocates say, as restaurants continue to grapple with the economic effects of the ongoing pandemic, particularly as staffing shortages persist in parts of the nation and inflation tacks onto food costs.

Business leaders who were scrambling to survey employees on their vaccination status and line up scarce testing resources breathed a sigh of relief after the Supreme Court overturned the Biden administration’s vaccine-or-test mandate for large private employers, the Wall Street Journal reported. The relief was short-lived. The surging Omicron variant has renewed the debate over how long the coronavirus pandemic will adversely affect companies in a range of industries. As news of the Jan. 13 Supreme Court ruling receded, businesses turned to grapple with a new set of challenges around how to keep their employees safe and productive. The Supreme Court ruling has given way to a new reality: Without a consistent set of rules on COVID-19, businesses will now have to fend for themselves, navigating an increasingly complex and often contradictory patchwork of federal, state and local regulations and guidelines on vaccines, testing and other safety measures. U.S. companies have reacted in disparate ways to the Supreme Court ruling. Some companies and business associations have expressed disappointment over the ruling, while others say they prefer having flexibility to tailor their approach to their workforces.

The swift arrival of a new coronavirus variant has rekindled economic anxieties in Washington, D.C., as congressional lawmakers, business leaders and consumer advocates begin to worry whether there is enough federal aid to shield Americans from another round of financial despair, the Washington Post reported. Over the course of the nearly two-year pandemic, Congress has committed nearly $6 trillion toward combating the contagion and bringing a battered economy back from the brink. But some of the most significant programs to keep businesses afloat and help households pay bills have expired or run out of funds, raising new risks for the future of the country’s recovery, particularly as the omicron variant wave begins to take hold. There’s no federal money left to keep restaurants open. The aid for concert halls and other customer-starved performance spaces has nearly gone dry. Federal officials ended their primary effort that pumped money into small businesses with sagging balance sheets, and they stopped paying out extra sums to workers who are out of a job. Federal student loan protections are expiring imminently, meaning students’ bills are set to come due early next year. A stimulus initiative under President Biden that provided monthly payments to more than 35 million families with children may have issued its last round of deposits this past Wednesday. And attempts to extend those tax benefits — or address a wider array of longer-term financial issues facing parents — have stalled again on Capitol Hill. “I’m concerned that you’re going to have many, many vulnerable Americans, Americans with young children for example, falling between the cracks,” said Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.), adding: “January looks like a tough month with respect to omicron.”

Supply-chain disruptions are threatening to rob some companies of holiday sales, leaving them short on packaging and transportation at a critical time of year, the Wall Street Journal reported. Some makers of toys, games and other consumer goods are racing to figure out how to get products to market, and having to decide which customers will receive orders as stocks run low. In some cases, companies are figuring out how to remake products to have something to sell during a season that can generate a big portion of annual sales. The holiday period is a key season for the U.S. economy, as consumers buy gifts, spend holiday bonuses and stock larders for holiday meals. For some companies, sales across the Thanksgiving-to-New Year’s Day period can make up a large portion of revenue for the year. In 2020, nearly 30% of sales at hobby, toy and game stores occurred in November and December, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, and December was the highest sales month for appliance stores. Companies dealing with wide-ranging supply-chain disruptions –– including backlogged ports, scarce materials and components, and too few workers to staff production lines and drive trucks –– said that some of their 2021 holiday sales are likely lost for good. The problems could also weigh on future sales: Some executives said their companies risk reputational harm if they aren’t able to deliver products on time, or at all. In response, businesses are adding shifts, finding new suppliers and taking other steps to ensure their products get to customers and under Christmas trees in the final days of the 2021 season.