Congress Passes Covid-19 Relief Bill With Funding for Live Music Venues
After a sequence of protracted negotiations that threatened to derail any monetary aid for thousands and thousands of Americans, Congress handed a brand new Covid-19 aid invoice Monday evening that can embody funding for impartial music venues which were closed all through the pandemic. The invoice will now transfer to the White House for President Trump to signal the sweeping invoice, paving the best way for venue house owners to start making use of for monetary aid.
On Monday, Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi and Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer issued a statement noting the invoice contains “$15 billion in dedicated funding for live venues, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions.” Of that, $10 billion shall be particularly allotted to dwell music venues and promoters.
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“The legislation provides critical help to shuttered businesses by providing a grant equal to 45% of gross revenue from 2019, with a cap of $10 million per entity,” the National Independent Venues Association stated in an announcement Monday evening following the invoice’s passage. “This grant funding will ensure recipients can stay afloat until reopening by helping with expenses like payroll and benefits, rent and mortgage, utilities, insurance, PPE, and other ordinary and necessary business expenses.”
Speaking on the ground of the Senate, Schumer said, “I’m especially pleased this this bill will provide money for bars and restaurants, and $15 billion in SPA grants for theater operators and small venue operators through the Save Our Stages Act. These venues are so important to my state and so many other states across the country. They are the lifeblood of our communities. They were the first to close and will be the last to open. This bill gives them a fighting chance.”
“We secured the Save Our Stages Act for indie music venues, Broadway, comedy clubs, indie movie theaters, and more,” Schumer wrote on Twitter Sunday evening. “These are people’s jobs and livelihoods, and they need this help now. I won’t stop fighting for them.”
Dayna Frank, proprietor and CEO of First Avenue Productions and NIVA President, praised the settlement in an announcement. “We’re thrilled that Congress has heard the call of shuttered independent venues across the country and provided us a crucial lifeline by including the Save Our Stages Act in the Omnibus COVID-19 Relief Bill,” Frank stated. “We’re also incredibly grateful that this bill provides Pandemic Unemployment Assistance which will help the millions of people who lost their jobs through no fault of their own during this economic crisis. We urge swift passage of this legislation, which will assist those in the greatest need and ensure the music lives on for generations to come.”
Speaking on the Senate ground Monday, Amy Klobuchar stated the invoice will assist venues cowl six months of bills to make it by what’s going to hopefully be the tail-end of the pandemic. “We’re very hopeful that once the summer comes that we’re going to see more and more openings because of the vaccines because of what I hope will be with the new administration and increased emphasis on testing,” she stated. “And that we’ll see more and more venues be able to open. The grants can be used to cover all the major costs the venues have to pay to stay in business including rent and mortgage utilities, employee wages, key benefits, maintenance costs, state and local taxes, payments to contractors, purchases of protective equipment.”
The settlement marks a serious and long-awaited milestone for teams like NIVA and the National Independent Talent Organization, which fashioned through the pandemic to struggle on behalf of venues and different companies affected by the whole shutdown of dwell music. Should it move as anticipated, it should possible assist numerous venues keep afloat till reveals and touring can resume. But Congress’ incapacity to move any sort of laws sooner forced many beloved spots across the nation — like Great Scott in Boston, Boot and Saddle in Philadelphia, the Mothlight in Asheville and the Satellite in Los Angeles, amongst a whole lot of others — to shutter completely.
While the Covid-19 pandemic has rattled quite a few industries, venues have been in a very perilous spot as a result of many weren’t in a position to benefit from the Paycheck Protection Program loans for small companies contained within the CARES Act, which handed in March. Forgiveness on these loans hinged on companies spending 75% on payroll, however for shuttered venues, there have been few to no staff and thus no payroll to cowl. That left venues with no income and big overhead.
The struggle to supply focused funding to venues bought a lift in July when Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and John Cornyn (R-TX) introduced the Save Our Stages Act. That piece of laws, which was successfully rolled into the brand new invoice, will permit venues to make use of federal cash to cowl issues like hire, mortgages, utilities, insurance coverage and different bills.
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