Industry groups including the National Restaurant Association are seeking a number of fixes to the PPP, including an extension of the period when owners can use the loan and still have it forgiven.

Rather than bringing back staff for a few weeks and then letting them go again, owners should be able to use the funds later, perhaps when they’re reopening in the late summer or fall, said the restaurant group’s executive vice president of public affairs, Sean Kennedy.

“If they have more certainty that there is a chunk of cash that will be available to them, that is going to be the difference between them saying, ‘I’m turning my keys back in to the bank,’ or, ‘I’m going to try to ride this out,’” Kennedy said.

The restaurant association also wants owners to be able to put more money from the aid toward rent.

It took 12 to 18 months for the travel business to return after 9/11 and the 2008 recession, according to Brian Crawford, executive vice president of government affairs for the American Hotel & Lodging Association, a lobbying group. Businesses will have to contend with the social reality that customers may be scared to find themselves wedged into an airplane seat beside a coughing stranger.

“People are not going to travel until they feel safe again,” Crawford said. “The notion that we would be at 75% by June 30th is not realistic in our opinion and probably not workable.”

The International Franchise Association -- a lobbying group representing franchises in hotels, retail, restaurants and business services -- is pushing for a series of demands, including extending the maximum loans to cover eight times the average monthly cost of all expenses, an additional $600 billion in funding and extending the time covered to December.

Hugh Acheson, a judge on the TV show “Top Chef,” who owns the restaurant 5&10 in Athens, Georgia, is selling future catering, on top of a government loan, to stay afloat.

“Whether the public comes back is the biggest thing right now, and the longer this goes on, I think the longer people get used to distancing,” Acheson said.

For Mark Christ, the uncertainty over how to use his government-backed loan is proving particularly vexing.