Bailouts · Small business & COVID relief
Restaurant & venue grants (2021–22)
Who: About 101,000 restaurants and 12,700+ live venues, theaters, and museums. What: The Restaurant Revitalization Fund ($28.6B) and Shuttered Venue Operators Grants ($14.6B).
$44.9B
committed or authorized
$43.2B
paid out
n/a
recovered (repayments, dividends, fees)
$43.2B
net cost (grants (not repaid))
Outcome
Closed. The SBA Inspector General found that nearly $6.7B of restaurant grants went to applicants whose eligibility was not properly checked, and that as of October 2024 the SBA had identified $544M of venue grants as potential improper payments to be recovered. No recoveries are subtracted here.
Legal authority: American Rescue Plan Act; Economic Aid Act.
Who got it: Programs
Oversight
Who was supposed to watch this money, and what happened to them. Oversight of every bailout →
- Jan 2025▼ Oversight cutTrump fires 17 inspectors general without the notice the law requires, including those overseeing PPP and EIDL (SBA), farm aid (USDA), hospital relief (HHS), pandemic transit and airport aid (DOT), pandemic unemployment (Labor), and school relief (Education). USDA's was escorted out of her office. A judge later ruled the firings unlawful but did not reinstate anyone. Source