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Restaurant executives pressed President Donald Trump on Monday to extend a deadline for spending small-business loans to 24 weeks from the current eight weeks, as states around the country were gradually opening up from lockdowns imposed amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Trump held a meeting at the White House with industry leaders including Restaurant Brands International QSR, +1.80% CEO Jose Cil, National Restaurant Association interim chief executive Marvin Irby and Galatoire’s Restaurants President and CEO Melvin Rodrigue.
Small businesses including restaurants received loans under the Paycheck Protection Program that Trump enacted in March. It was aimed at helping businesses make payroll for eight weeks.
Sen. Marco Rubio, the Republican chairman of the Senate’s small business committee, said lawmakers need to move fast to extend the deadline, as businesses move toward the end of their eight-week period, Reuters reported. The top Democrat on the committee, Sen. Ben Cardin, has also expressed support for re-examining the eight-week period in the small business program, Reuters said.
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who was in the meeting with Trump, said he is working on a “technical fix,” and that there is bipartisan support for extending the deadline, but he was not sure it was as long as 24 weeks.
Related:Mnuchin, Powell to face Senate grilling on coronavirus loan programs
Also read:As deadline arrives for returning PPP loans, public companies have given back $500 million
Along with airlines and hotels, the restaurant industry is among the travel-related sectors that has seen demand evaporate because of stay-at-home orders, and it previously has asked Congress for $240 billion in relief.
See:Restaurants and hotels, devastated by coronavirus, face long and painful recovery
