Information on the RESTART Act written by a small business owner:

As with all the programs the federal government has initiated to alleviate financial strain during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) is not simply “as advertised” and comes with loopholes and potholes for both the unemployed and the small businesses they were formerly associated with.

The original PPP allowed businesses to bring people back to work for less money than they previously earned (particularly tipped workers) and, in many cases, less than they were receiving on unemployment, with no long-term job security or guarantee that the business would receive forgiveness on payroll and other expenses (since employers had to apply for it after eight weeks and the government didn't release a forgiveness calculator until nearly two months after the start of the program). It was a short-term solution that ignored the impact on the most hard-hit businesses. It also contained some sneaky anti-worker provisions: for example, if workers refused to come back for any reason, employers could receive PPP forgiveness by turning them in to state unemployment. On top of that, since PPP was to be administered through banks, larger clients with longer relationships with those banks were prioritized over the smallest businesses, disproportionately affecting BIPOC-owned businesses.

The RESTART Act extends PPP from its original end date of June 30 and asks for a substantial amount of money for operating expenses (45% of 2019 gross receipts) and has fewer restrictions on how loan proceeds should be spent. Forgiveness would be based on lost revenue in 2020, not on payroll requirements. RESTART will mean that venues can stay closed. This is good because they will not be pressuring people to go back to work in unsafe circumstances (a situation that is unfolding right now in restaurants and bars across the US). 

RESTART would sustain small businesses longer and better than the existing PPP program.

RESTART would also basically guarantee that there will not be many jobs for people in these industries to go back to until there is a COVID vaccine or the virus curve has completely flattened.

The $600/week extension has to go hand in hand with any small business relief of this nature. Advocating for RESTART without FPUC is irresponsible, and the most important part of this equation is direct payments to the individual workers and contractors affected by this crisis.

Here is a link to more information on the proposed legislation:

https://www.bennet.senate.gov/public/index.cfm/2020/5/bennet-young-introduce-restart-act-to-support-hardest-hit-small-and-mid-sized-businesses

And here is the actual bill:

https://www.congress.gov/bill/116th-congress/senate-bill/3814

It will not likely pass as written, but will be edited and incorporated into a relief bill if and when one is passed.