Please see the attached letter sent by NAMM to advance support for live event businesses and professionals in the next, and likely final, federal COVID-19 relief legislation. PLEASE CONTACT YOUR SENATOR NOW AND NO LATER THAN NEXT WEEK, to advance this request for the availability of federal relief for the live event industry.
HOW: Please refer to this list to find your staff contacts for your senators. Please send an email –see text provided below– to the chief of staff and the legislative director who is the senior policy staffer. Sending to both on one email is fine. If your senator’s name is in bold and in italics, this indicates that she/he has signed a prior letter to Senate leadership in support of targeted relief for the live event/entertainment sector, so you should acknowledge that, offer thanks, and ask for continued support.
Cut and paste, and personalize as desired, the email text below. Spread the news and request ALL industry colleagues and employees, contractors and gig workers to contact their Senator.
Template Text
Dear (fill in Senator and/or staffer name):
I write to bring your attention to challenges facing the live event industry and to urge the inclusion of targeted relief for the industry as Congress considers additional coronavirus relief measures this month.
Live event venues were among the first to close and will likely be the last to reopen. Workers in the live event sector were among the first to have their jobs disrupted, and they will be among the last to return to their jobs. By its very nature, live events work cannot be done from home. In recent decades, a significant and growing share of employment and economic activity has come from the business of “getting people together.” Live event venues — many of which are owned by local governments – generate millions in tax revenue and sustain jobs in communities across the country. Restaurants, hotels, retail stores, and other local businesses also directly benefit from the hundreds of millions of concert, theater, festival, fair and eventgoers who attend millions of events each year. Events, both commercial and nonprofit, are central to our individual and collective identity. Live performance venues and the artists and workers in the industry are the lifeblood of the cultural and social identity of our neighborhoods. Social distancing, capacity limitations and other restrictions mean that the live event industry will not recover in any meaningful way until next year, and likely not until summer or later. It is impossible to operate in a viable manner at low capacity.
We appreciate the leadership Congress has shown by providing vital, short-term assistance with the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), expanding unemployment insurance eligibility to “gig” workers and the self-employed, and extending other relief. Businesses such as the live event industry that are facing prolonged closure, however, need additional help.
Due to the unique circumstances of our industry, we support industry-specific federal assistance through payroll support, tax relief, and loan guarantees. Allowing the hardest hit businesses with demonstrated losses to receive a second PPP loan would help, as would the bipartisan “RESTART Act” (S. 3814), which proposes seven-year, low-interest loans with deferred interest and principal repayments.
Sincerely,
NAME
Title, company
City, state
