The D.C. government has launched a new program that will allocate $100 million in grant funding to local businesses, a fresh injection of cash officials hope will help carry the city’s hardest-hit industries through the coronavirus pandemic.
The Business Support Grants Emergency Amendment Act of 2020, passed by the D.C. Council in July, authorized the city to draw as much as $100 million of Cares Act funding to support local businesses. The new program, “the Bridge Fund,” uses the final $20 million from the city’s federal Cares Act funding and $80 million from a local contingency reserve. The fund targets restaurants, hotels and entertainment and retail businesses, which will be allowed to start applying for grants in coming weeks.
“The reason we are calling this the Bridge Fund, and Mayor Bowser was specific about that, is because we want these businesses, we need them to survive until we get to that new normal because of the people they employ,” said John Falcicchio, the deputy mayor for planning and economic development and Mayor Muriel E. Bowser’s chief of staff.
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