Restaurant association endorses effort to help local news and small businesses

The National Restaurant Association, which represents more than 380,000 restaurants across the country, officially endorsed the Community News & Small Business Support Act. The federal bill introduced by republican Rep. Claudia Tenney and democrat Rep. Suzan DelBene will significantly strengthen local news by providing tax credits to small businesses that advertise with local news outlets and payroll tax credits to local news organizations to hire and retain journalists.

The Association’s Executive Vice President for Public Affairs Sean Kennedy said:

“Restaurant operators and local news outlets share a commitment to improving their communities. We also rely on each other to bolster our business through advertising, which is why the Association supports the bipartisan Community News and Small Business Support Act. We appreciate Reps. Tenney and DelBene’s leadership for introducing this useful small business legislation.”

Steven Waldman, chair of the Rebuild Local News Coalition, added:

“We are tremendously grateful for the National Restaurant Association’s support.  This particular bill would be a big help to restaurants and other small businesses. Just as important, it small businesses and local news have an important symbiotic relationship, they each benefit when the other does well — and when there’s a strong, vibrant community.”