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SBA RESTAURANT REVITALIZATION FUND IS NOW OPEN
The Restaurant Revitalization Fund provides funding to help restaurants and other eligible businesses keep their doors open. This program will support restaurants with funding equal to their pandemic-related revenue loss - up to $10 million per business and no more than $5 million per physical location. For the first 21 days that the program is open, the Small Business Administration will prioritize funding applications from veterans, along with businesses owned and controlled by women and socially and economically disadvantaged individuals. Recipients are not required to repay the funding so long as funds are used for eligible uses no later than March 11, 2023.
Eligible entities who have experienced pandemic-related revenue loss include restaurants, food stands, food trucks, food carts, caterers, bars, saloons, lounges, taverns, and many more. If your business is struggling from the pandemic and you need assistance, please visit the SBA website or call my office at (501) 324-5941 for more details.
REMINDER: RENEW YOUR PASSPORT
With COVID-19 travel restrictions easing and summer travel right around the corner, now is the time to renew your passport.
If you need your passport in less than 10-12 weeks due to international travel plans, you can pay an additional $60 fee to expedite your passport renewal. If you plan to expedite your application, send your application using USPS’ Priority Mail Express. Due to COVID-19, there has been a delay at passport centers across the country which has resulted in it taking 4-6 weeks when applying for expedited service.
If you need any passport-related information, such as how to expedite applications or documents to include with your renewal application packet, please reach out to my office at (501) 324-5941.
The State Department has information on how to receive a new passport or how to renew a passport on their website.
COVID–19 VACCINES TO BE OFFERED AT ARKANSAS TRAVELERS GAMES
The Arkansas Travelers baseball team have partnered with the Arkansas Department of Health and Arkansas Medical Society to provide one-shot vaccines at upcoming games. Shots were offered at a game last week and will be offered again at three more upcoming Travs games to be announced at a later date.
I applaud the Travelers and their partners on their efforts to reach Governor Hutchinson’s goal of having 50% of Arkansans vaccinated in the next 90 days.
I encourage all central Arkansans to get vaccinated. To get your shot, you can make an appointment at a community pharmacy or visit a vaccine clinic through hospitals, health care providers, or your work. If you’d like to learn more about how to get a vaccine in Arkansas, please visit the Arkansas Department of Health website.
2021 CONGRESSIONAL ART COMPETITION
After viewing over 50 of central Arkansas’s finest high school students’ artwork, we now have winners for the Congressional Art Competition and Fan Favorite Award!
The 2021 Congressional Art Competition winner for the Second Congressional District is Arkansas School for Mathematics, Sciences and the Arts’ student Daye Catherine Kwon. Her work entitled "Burnout" was selected by judges Donna Uptigrove, Deputy Director at the Historic Arkansas Museum, Matthew Smith, Grants Administrator at the University of Central Arkansas, and my staff. Her work will be displayed at the U.S. Capitol from October 2021 through March 2022.
Our Fan Favorite Award was continued this year with over 2,200 votes being cast online by constituents in central Arkansas. With 1,412 votes, Emily Roach, a student at Mt. St. Mary’s in Little Rock, was the overwhelming favorite with her work entitled “No Justice, No Peace”. The Fan Favorite artwork will hang in my Little Rock District Office until 2022. Ms. Roach’s art was also selected as one of the Honorable Mentions by our judges.
CELEBRATING TRAVEL AND TOURISM WEEK
Last week, May 2nd–8th marked National Travel and Tourism Week, a week dedicated to the power of travel and the critical role the industry will play in restoring the economy, rebuilding our workforce and reconnecting America. It is also a time when travel and tourism professionals across the country unite to celebrate the value travel holds for our economy, businesses, and personal well-being.
Before the pandemic, the industry had experienced 107 straight months of growth, generated $2.6 trillion in economic output, supported 17 million American jobs, and delivered a $51 billion trade surplus to our economy. Travel has an incredible ability to inject money directly back into local communities and will play a crucial role in America’s overall recovery efforts.
As we continue to recover from COVID-19, I encourage central Arkansans to abide by the CDC guidelines when determining travel plans. Get vaccinated and do what you can to help support our local central Arkansas businesses.
8TH BATCH OF ECONOMIC IMPACT PAYMENTS HAS BEEN DISBURSED
The IRS recently announced they are disbursing over 1.1 million payments in the eighth batch of Economic Impact Payments.
The eighth batch of payments began processing on Friday, April 30, with an official payment date of April 28, with some people receiving direct payments in their accounts earlier as provisional or pending deposits. The IRS will continue to make Economic Impact Payments on a weekly basis.
This batch also includes additional ongoing supplemental payments for people who earlier this year received payments based on their 2019 tax returns but are eligible for a new or larger payment based on their recently processed 2020 tax returns. This batch included more than 570,000 of these “plus-up” payments, with a value of nearly $1 billion.
Ongoing payments will be sent to eligible individuals for whom the IRS previously did not have information to issue a payment but who recently filed a tax return, as well to people who qualify for “plus-up” payments.
Are you missing an EIP or want more information? Please visit the Department of Treasury website, IRS website, or call my office at (501) 324-5941.
Sincerely,
Representative French Hill |
