July 27, 2021 — Through the past year-and-a-half, the U.S. government issued hundreds of billions of dollars in rescue funding for companies facing difficulties due to the COVID-19 pandemic. But its efforts have come under criticism from those who feel their businesses were unfairly excluded from the rescue programs and from entities that received less funding than their competitors.
In the latest round of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund passed by U.S. Congress and administered by the Small Business Administration, many large U.S. restaurant groups received grants of more than USD 1 million (EUR 845,000). New York City’s Momofuku Restaurant Group received USD 6.8 million (EUR 5.7 million) and Peter Luger Steakhouse took in USD 5 million (EUR 4.2 million). An analysis by The Counter, an independent and nonprofit news outlet, found 5 percent of RRF awardees received 40 percent of the program’s funding total.