Orleans Parish will return to a Modified Phase 2, effective Friday morning, January 29, 2021. Orleans will remain in this phase through Friday, February 19. 

The Modified Phase 2 includes the following provisions for restaurants:

• Restaurants will be able to return to 50 percent capacity, with no more than 10 guests per table. 
  • Social events/gatherings are limited to 10 people inside and 25 people outdoors. Social gatherings include any event where guests would primarily be mingling and in close contact for extended time, not seated.
• Bars will remain closed to indoor service under state regulations. Regardless of positivity rates, bars will not be allowed to resume indoor service before Mardi Gras. 

The Shuttered Venue Operators (SVO) Grant program was established by the Economic Aid to Hard-Hit Small Businesses, Nonprofits, and Venues Act, signed into law on December 27, 2020. The program includes $15 billion in grants to shuttered venues, to be administered by the SBA’s Office of Disaster Assistance.

Eligible applicants may qualify for SVO Grants equal to 45% of their gross earned revenue, with the maximum amount available for a single grant award of $10 million. $2 billion is reserved for eligible applications with up to 50 full-time employees.
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Eligible entities include:

• Live venue operators or promoters
• Theatrical producers
• Live performing arts organization operators
• Relevant museum operators, zoos and aquariums who meet specific criteria
• Motion picture theater operators
• Talent representatives, and
• Each business entity owned by an eligible entity that also meets the eligibility requirements
  
  

Other requirements of note:

• Must have been in operation as of Feb. 29, 2020
• Venue or promoter must not have received a PPP loan on or after Dec. 27, 2020​
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The National Restaurant Association released Public Policy Principles for Third-Party Delivery (Principles) that define best practices for third-party delivery to guide lawmakers in developing public policy. The release of the Principles culminates a year-long effort by the Association to develop national guidelines based on the experiences of restaurant operators of all sizes. The Principles represent the first time the restaurant industry and third-party delivery companies have come together and agreed on a framework for their relationship.

Delivery represents one of the most important segments of growth for the restaurant industry. In a National Restaurant Association online survey of 1,000 adults conducted Dec. 7-9, 2020, 70% of adults say they ordered delivery from a restaurant and 40% had used a third-party delivery company for their delivery. The pandemic has accelerated restaurant customers’ comfort with technology, and with that new level of access comes a lasting desire for easier ways to satisfy their pent-up demand for their favorite restaurant meals. 

“Even before the pandemic, delivery – and decisions related to delivery – had major impacts on restaurant operations,” said Mike Whatley, vice president for State and Local Affairs for the National Restaurant Association. “Until now, the relationship between restaurants and third-party delivery companies lacked a national framework to protect restaurants. These new Principles, which center around permission and transparency, add consistency and structure that will benefit all restaurants. This agreement represents an important first step in an ongoing dialogue between restaurants and third-party delivery companies about ways to improve our relationship going forward.”

The seven Principles are:

• Restaurants have a right to know and determine when and if their food is delivered.
• Customers should expect the same degree of food safety from delivery as they do when dining in a restaurant.
• Restaurants should be able to offer alcohol to customers through third-party delivery in a safe and legal manner.
• Restaurants deserve transparency on fees (including commissions, delivery fees, and promotional fees) charged by third-party delivery companies.
• Third-party food delivery contracts need contractual transparency, and issues surrounding fees, costs, terms, policies, marketing practices involving the restaurant or its likeness, and insurance/indemnity should be clear.
• Sales tax collection responsibility must be clear in terms of which party is collecting and remitting the specific sales tax to the appropriate authority.
• As a best practice, third-party delivery companies should offer restaurants access to anonymized information regarding orders from their restaurant that originate on third-party platforms.

“We are grateful for the opportunity to have partnered with the National Restaurant Association in developing these principles, which will help platforms like DoorDash continue to empower restaurants to reach new customers and grow their revenue,” said Max Rettig, global head of Public Policy at DoorDash. “We are proud to support these principles through the range of products and services we’ve developed for restaurants, and we look forward to continually improving our offerings to best serve our restaurant partners.” 

"These principles will help strengthen the critical relationship between the diners, drivers and restaurants that has grown even more important during the pandemic," Seth Priebatsch, chief revenue officer at Grubhub, said. "We look forward to continuing to work with the National Restaurant Association to deliver for the hundreds of thousands of restaurants we’re proud to partner with every day."

“The teams at Uber Eats and Postmates are committed to the restaurant community,” said Stephane Ficaja, head of Uber Delivery for the U.S. & Canada. “As one company, we’ve recently made commitments to listening to and learning from merchants and have worked together to support the National Restaurant Association’s development of these new principles that are designed to address the most pressing interests of the industry.”

In the customer survey, roughly 90% of customers who ordered delivery in the last six months favor each of the seven Principles. Read the full Public Policy Principles for Third-Party Delivery here. 

President-elect Biden made a speech announcing his framework for an American Rescue Plan (ARP), a $1.9 trillion COVID relief bill.  While the attached includes key insights, it lacks the detail needed for a thorough analysis.  Alarmingly, it would raise the minimum wage to $15 per hour and eliminate the tip wage (see below for additional details). Until we have a copy of the proposed bill, what is included below is speculation based on the content of his speech.
 
Speaker Pelosi and incoming Senate Majority Leader Schumer swiftly endorsed the proposal, encouraged Republicans to  support it, and pledged to work on its passage.  Biden has suggested that he would like to see it enacted by the end of the month.
 
Following are some of the ARA’s key elements:

• Federal Minimum Wage
  • Raise the federal minimum wage to $15 per hour (no details on a timeline and/or phased-in approach).
  • Eliminate the tipped minimum wage.
  • Eliminate the sub-minimum wage for people with disabilities.
  • No further details are provided for consideration of this proposal.  We are, however, informed by Democratic senior leadership staff that the minimum wage increase will likely not be tied to a post-inauguration COVID bill, as they do not want to bog it down; and that the minimum wage debate will likely occur in the House in February, and the Senate in March.

 

• OSHA COVID-19 Protection Standard
  • Calls on Congress to “authorize OSHA to issue a COVID-19 Protection Standard that covers a broad set of workers” to protect them from the virus.
  • Organized labor has pushed heavily for this safety standard.
  • As authorized, OSHA would promulgate an emergency temporary standard pursuant to its statute but there are no details provided as to how far reaching the standard would be.  We suspect, however, it could be very similar to the recently issued overreaching California safety standard.  
  • Increases funding for OSHA enforcement and grant funding.
  • Given the lack of legal liability protections in place for employers for exposure-based claims, the overlay of this safety standard on employers is concerning and potentially opens the flood-gates to potential litigation.  
    
    
• Emergency Paid Leave
  • Extends the emergency paid leave requirements contained in the Families First Coronavirus Response Act to September 31, 2021, and eliminates the 500 employee threshold, mandating all private and public sector employers to offer paid leave.
  • It would also, eliminate the safe harbor provision for covered employers with less than 50 employees. 
  • It only extends the refundable tax credit for employers with less than 500 employees. 
  • Additionally, it would provide over 14 weeks of paid sick and family and medical leave for parents to take care of their child and family members under certain conditions.

 

• $15 billion in grants to small businesses
  • We do not have details yet on these grants.

 

• Community Credit Corporation Assistance – Restaurants
  • Calls for providing a bridge to recovery – including through the Community Credit Corporation at the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture – for restaurants, bars, and other businesses that have suffered disproportionately.
  • We do not have details yet on what he will specifically propose.

 

• $35 billion in government funds to leverage $175 billion in additional small business lending and investment

 

• FEMA Empowering Essential Deliveries (FEED) Act
  • This Act would leverage the resources and expertise of the restaurant industry in helping to get food to families in need and laid-off restaurant workers back on the job.
  • The FEED Act would  authorize the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to approve state, local, and Indian tribal government plans to partner with small and mid-size restaurants and nonprofit organizations to provide nutritious meals to individuals in need.
  • We called for passage of this legislation in our Blueprint for Restaurant Revival in July 2020. 

 

• Direct Checks to Individuals
  • Increases direct financial assistance to $2,000 by an additional $1,400 per person in direct checks (that is in addition to the $600 per person that Congress authorized in December.)

 

• Unemployment Insurance (UI)
  • Extends expanded unemployment benefits through the end of September, with an extra $400 weekly supplement.

 

• Eviction and Foreclosure Moratoriums
  • Extends eviction and foreclosure moratoriums and continues applications for forbearance on federally-guaranteed mortgages until September 30, 2021. 

 

• Increases to the Child Tax credit
  • Increases the credit to $3,000/child ($3,600 for a child under age 6) and qualifying 17-year olds as children for the year.

 

• National Vaccination Program
  • Creates a national vaccination program in partnership with states, localities, tribes and territories; and will include the launching of community vaccination centers around the country and deploying mobile vaccination units to hard-to-reach areas.​​

The NRA/LRA successfully worked to include the following three items in the recent stimulus package.

1. A second draw of PPP (application now available). 
   
   
2. The deductibility of expenses for tax purposes using PPP funds. This will save the average PPP borrower 30-35% of the tax burden that would have been proposed under IRS guidance. For example, a restaurant borrows $500,000 in PPP, and the forgiveness of the loan triggers a tax effect of $150,000. So in essence the cost of the loan would be $650,000.
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3. And specifically for restaurants- only we can borrow 3.5 x our average monthly payroll when other businesses are limited to 2.5 x average payroll. We also retained the total employee carve-out for restaurants and hotels at 300 per location, not total enterprise headcount.