Restaurants and venues owned by white men will be last in line for federal relief under President Joe Biden’s “Restaurants Revitalization Fund” (RRF), prioritizing funds for women and minority groups first.
As part of Biden’s American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the Small Business Administration (SBA) is opening the application process by which owners of restaurant, bars, and other venues can apply for federal relief to help make up for the loss of revenue as a result of economic lockdowns spurred by the Chinese coronavirus crisis.
The plan allows business owners to apply for relief of up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location. Business owners do not have to repay the funds so long as the money is spent by March 2023.
The relief, though, is being prioritized based on race, gender, and whether or not business owners are considered “socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.” White men, for example, who are not Veterans of the United States Armed Forces, are not eligible for “priority period” processing and funding.
Under the guidelines of the RRF, the SBA is giving priority processing and funding to “small business owned by women, veterans, or socially and economically disadvantaged individuals.”
To be eligible, the business must be “at least 51 percent owned by one or more individuals who are women, veterans, or socially and economically disadvantaged and if the management and daily business operations of the applicant are controlled by one or more women, veterans, or socially and economically disadvantaged individual.”
The Biden administration is defining businesses owned by “socially and economically disadvantaged” individuals as those who are:
- Part of an “economically disadvantaged Indian tribe”
- “Subjected to racial or ethnic prejudice or cultural bias”
- Black American
- Hispanic American
- Native American, including Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian
- Asian Pacific American
- Subcontinent Asian American
The RRF guidelines state that the SBA will “will look at whether the net worth of the individual claiming disadvantage is less than $750,000” and “will also look at whether the adjusted gross income of the individual averaged over the preceding three years exceeds $350,000” to determine if they are considered “economically disadvantaged.”
The Biden administration has used similar race-based priorities in other federal programs. This month a group of white farmers in Wisconsin, Minnesota, Ohio, and South Dakota filed suit against the Biden administration, alleging that a federal loan forgiveness program excludes them because they are white.
Unlike the Biden administration, former President Trump’s administration delivered funds to small businesses based on the amount of revenue they lost. For example, those who lost revenue of 90 percent or more were given priority for processing and funding.
John Binder is a reporter for Breitbart News. Email him at jbinder@breitbart.com. Follow him on Twitter here.