The U. S. Small Business Administration (SBA) confirmed this week that there remains approximately $180 Million in the closed Restaurant Revitalization Fund (RRF) and it will soon begin distributing those funds to qualified restaurants. The RRF, launched in 2021 to counter the devastation that the pandemic heaped upon the restaurant industry, was initially funded to the tune of just over $28.6 billion and opened on May 3, 2020. The program was immediately oversubscribed and an exclusive application window for minorities, women and veterans was challenged as discriminatory in court, freezing the distribution of the remaining funds. Congressional efforts to replenish the fund got an additional $40 billion through the House of Representatives only to see the bill die in the US Senate. Other than to say it will work closely with the Department of Justice (DOJ) on the process for distributing the remaining funds, the SBA did not shed any light on the criteria that will now be used, nor on the timing for distribution. More to come. . .