On Wednesday evening, US Sen. Thom Tillis attended the NCRLA Charlotte Chapter meeting at the new Hyatt Centric SouthPark Charlotte, hosted by Beacon IMG and sponsored by Employers. Tillis spoke to the group about issues of the day including the infrastructure package, the crisis in Afghanistan, and further COVID relief. Members in the audience pressed Tillis for his support of replenishment of the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF). Tillis feels that there is little appetite for more COVID relief as so much money will now be spent on the infrastructure package. He advised NCRLA and our federal partners to find unspent money from previous packages to be reutilized for replenishment funds for the RRF. NCRLA will continue to push our congressional delegation for further federal assistance for the hospitality industry.  

On Monday, NCRLA met with senior staff in Sen. Richard Burr’s office to discuss the Save Hotel Jobs Act and the continued impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on the hospitality industry in North Carolina. Organized by the American Hotel & Lodging Association (AHLA), the meeting also included federal lobbyists from Marriott and Hilton. It provided a productive opportunity to voice the industry’s continued losses and the impact of the delta variant on the industry currently. NCRLA also advocated the need to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF).

Budget negotiations between the House and Senate, which were expected to move quickly, almost immediately broke down this week. House and Senate leadership are having difficulty coming to an agreement on the top line budget items including the total amount spent, tax cuts, and pay raises for state employees and teachers. NCRLA is fiercely advocating during the final budget negotiations for technical changes to the $500 million assistance program for small businesses, $5 million to NCRLA for a statewide campaign to bring employees back to the hospitality industry, and $400,000 for the ProStart program.

With rising wages and an all-time high number of job openings, the NC Division of Employment Security has begun notifying stakeholders and customers that that federal pandemic unemployment benefits are scheduled to end Sept. 4, 2021. The federal programs that are ending include Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation (PEUC), Pandemic Unemployment Assistance (PUA), Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation (FPUC) and Mixed Earners Unemployment Compensation (MEUC). The state unemployment insurance benefit program will remain in place, but for each claimant, the benefit expires after 13 weeks in a one-year period.

While the US labor market continues to add jobs, the food services and accommodations industry cannot fill the growing number of job openings. NCRLA's NC Hospitality Job Board is a fast, easy tool for employers to post jobs and potential employees to find jobs. Plus the job board allows recruiters to get double posts to Google Careers and integrates with ZipRecruiter, helping reach a broader audience. Successful connections are being made all the time. Employers can use these directions to post new positions. For questions about posting, contact Shannon McGuire.

The Editorial Board of the News & Observer asks for local governments to step up, writing that “Masks alone won’t stop COVID from spreading. It’s time for NC to meet the moment.” Read the article here. In the News & Observer's NC Voices, the co-owner of Dilworth Neighborhood Grille in Charlotte writes about the burden that mask mandates place on restaurants, saying, “Small business owners like me don’t want to be the mask police.” Read the letter here.

NCRLA will continue to track the rapidly changing requirements across the state and will update our COVID resources here. The North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services yesterday released new data in the weekly respiratory surveillance report showing that unvaccinated people were 15.4 times more likely to die from COVID-19 during the four-week period ending Aug. 21, 2021. This comes as the state hit a pandemic high on Aug. 26 with 912 adults in the ICU with COVID-19. The number of COVID-19 patients on ventilators also reached a record high at 574.

Take a look at all the bills that NCRLA is tracking here:

Please take a moment to use and share this link, urging Congress to replenish the Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF), even if you’ve done it before and even if you already received an RRF grant. With the delta variant of COVID-19 impacting restaurant dining behavior, it’s more important than ever that every restaurant obtains the RRF relief for which they are eligible. Congress is putting together several bills now that could be a vehicle for this important relief program, so it’s critical that they hear from restaurants on this issue now.

When you lend your voice, you will be joining the effort of the National Restaurant Association, NCRLA, and other state restaurant associations who sent a letter to Congressional leadership to urge swift replenishment of the RRF. In addition to signing the letter, NCRLA leaders and members met with Senators Burr and Tillis to discuss the issue.

The Restaurant Law Center is set to host its Fifth Annual Restaurant Legal Summit in downtown Raleigh, NC, on November 3-5. Take this opportunity to connect in-person with legal experts from some of our nation's top law firms and senior representatives from some of the restaurant industry's most successful brands as we discuss the most critical legal and compliance issues facing our industry. Mark your calendars; event registration opens soon.

NCRLA and Kitchen Cabinet, a grassroots advocacy group of industry leaders, are helping to boost vaccination rates in local communities in North Carolina so that restaurants can get back to normal operations as soon as possible. Firehouse Subs recently donated gift cards for two Charlotte area vaccine events where many residents and their family members were able to get vaccinated. If you are interested in donating gift cards for future vaccination events in your local community, please contact Chris Mackey at cmackey@ncrla.org.

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