Matt Walker will lead the National Restaurant Association’s advocacy strategy and lobbying efforts in the Congress as the NRA’s new v.p.-government affairs.Before joining the NRA, Walker worked as deputy staff director and chief counsel for the U.S. Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship and as senior aide to former U.S. Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine.

A fall off the so-called fiscal cliff was skirted by Congress’s New Year’s passage of the American Taxpayer Relief Act. Buried in the Act were a number of tax breaks for many individuals and small-business owners–including foodservice operators. The fiscal bill, which President Obama signed into law Jan. 2, includes a one-year extension of the…

The National Restaurant Association has slated two webinars in January for its members. On Thursday, Jan. 17, the association will host “Health Care Law: Next Steps for Restaurateurs.” Operators large and small will feel the effects of the 2010 Affordable Care Act. The NRA’s Michelle Neblett, director of labor and workforce policy, will give an…

Hundreds of New York area restaurants estimated to have been damaged by late October’s Hurricane Sandy were granted a two-month respite from the city’s letter-grade inspections. But on Jan. 2, the New York City Department of Health began sending out inspectors to perform letter-grade inspections in city neighborhoods affected by the storm. During the two-month…

The MAFSI Business Barometer maintained by the Manufacturers’ Agents Association for the Foodservice Industry rose 4.5% in the third quarter from the same quarter in 2012. The gain compares with a record 6.1% jump in the second quarter and a 2.4% increase in the first quarter, the weakest quarter since the Barometer recovered in late…

Strong gains in current same-store sales and traffic propelled the National Restaurant Association’s Restaurant Performance Index to 100.9, up from 100.2 in September. It was the highest level for the overall index in the past four months. The gain came in spite of the partial shutdown of the federal government for half of October and…

A strong quarter at full-service restaurants helped drive overall same-store sales gains in Canada during the third quarter, according to the latest Restaurant Outlook Survey from the Canadian Restaurant and Foodservices Association. Operators remain moderately optimistic about prospects during the next six months. The overall percentage of foodservice operators who reported rising same-store sales in…

The U.S. economy added another 203,000 non-farm payroll jobs in November, the Bureau of Labor Statistics reported Dec. 6. Gains now have averaged more than 200,000 a month for the past four months. The gains were broad-based with good gains in construction and manufacturing. Even government added 7,000 jobs. Foodservices and drinking places added another…

The partial shutdown of the federal government and the debt-ceiling standoff apparently had little impact on restaurant sales. According to preliminary data from the U.S. Census Bureau, eating- and drinking-place sales hit a record $46.3 billion in October, up nearly 1%. That number was up from a downwardly revised September figure of $45.9 billion and…

Food prices at the wholesale level rose for the fifth month in the last six, according to October data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics released last week. The combined wholesale increase, as computed by the National Restaurant Association, was 0.3% compared with September. This number averages a gain of 0.8% at the finished level,…