Biden touts $28.6B restaurant relief program, orders tacos
Source: AP
By JOSH BOAK and ALEXANDRA JAFFE
WASHINGTON (AP) — Setting foot in a restaurant for his first time as president, Joe Biden made a Cinco de Mayo taco and enchilada run to highlight his administration’s $28.6 billion program to help eateries that lost business because of the coronavirus pandemic.
The president went to Taqueria Las Gemelas in Washington on Wednesday and ordered lunch. The restaurant, owned in part by Mexican immigrants, was a beneficiary of a pilot version of the restaurant relief program. It went from 55 employees to seven during the pandemic, though it was able to rehire some workers through the Paycheck Protection Program that predates the Biden administration.
“When the COVID-19 pandemic struck, our nation’s restaurants were some of the first and the worst hit,” Biden said in remarks Wednesday, the anniversary of Mexico’s victory over French forces at the Battle of Puebla, on May 5, 1862.
The president stressed that restaurants have historically been one of the first rungs on the economic ladder, a chance to move upward that was undermined by the virus.
President Joe Biden talks with employees during a visit to Taqueria Las Gemelas restaurant Wednesday, May 5, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/lifestyle-restaurants-health-coronavirus-pandemic-business-509c354bd863e7be998674ad382b57a7
= new reply since forum marked as read
