U.S. SBA halts some grants under injunction in lawsuit filed by white restaurant owners

Andrea Shalal @ Reuters.com, June 14

The U.S. government on Friday said it would not disburse approved pandemic relief funds to more than 2,900 small businesses owned by women, veterans and disadvantaged people to comply with an injunction issued by a federal court in Texas.

The program, part of President Joe Biden's American Rescue Plan, has provided more than $27 billion in COVID-19 relief funds to more than 100,000 restaurants, but some aid has been frozen in the wake of lawsuits brought by white restaurant owners in Tennessee and Texas who alleged discrimination.

Administration officials said they would continue to fight to maintain the program.

The Justice Department filed notices in U.S. District Court for the Northern District of Texas and the Eastern District of Tennessee on behalf of the Small Business Administration regarding 2,965 small businesses that had been approved for funds under the Restaurant Revitalization Fund.

A conservative legal group founded by Stephen Miller and Mark Meadows, close aides to former President Donald Trump, had filed a lawsuit in Texas on behalf of the owners of the restaurant Blessed Cajuns, arguing that the Biden administration's efforts to prioritize applicants on the basis of race and gender is unconstitutional [....]