The congressional spending bill battle had a not-so-great message for small businesses

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Elizabeth Frantz | Reuters A majority of small business owners on Main Street say they support more financial relief from the federal government, but the resolution of the battle in Congress last week over the spending bill for the federal government shows that it may not be coming.
There is no guarantee how that plays out at the state level, but he said the state programs are a good place for small businesses to focus if they need more support rather than relying on the federal government moving new legislation.
As the Covid measures move to a stand-alone bill to be debated starting this week, Trinh said the Main Street Alliance still feels very strongly that there should be more financial relief for restaurants because the original RRF only met one-third of demand, though he noted it is a much higher price tag than the ERC, which was repealed prematurely, is a relatively simply fix, and less costly.
There are many Republicans who understand that restaurants are still in need of help, and these measures have bipartisan support on their own merits, but Trinh said the Senate will continue to pose problems for passing stand-alone legislation with more funds for either the Employee Retention Credit or Restaurant Revitalization Fund.