NEW YORK — Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer appeared at a Manhattan seafood eatery to urge restaurateurs to apply for a $28.6 billion federal restaurant relief program.
The restaurant grant program is part of the federal COVID-19 package signed into law last month. It will let restaurant owners apply for funds to cover coronavirus-related losses.
The maximum grant for an individual restaurant is $5 million. Schumer said Sunday that the website for applying will be up within a few weeks.
Schumer spoke at Crave Fishbar in Manhattan. Crave owner Brian Owens said the money will help restaurant owners get through not only this year but next year.
"Restaurants are a cornerstone of our neighborhoods, and especially in New York, where we are known as a restaurant city," Schumer said.
"They employ hundreds of thousands of hardworking people. They are just vital, and about a third of our restaurants would have gone under had this not passed."
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