April 6, 2022 update:
Friends,
I have more great news.
If you recall, 18 weeks ago I mentioned a path I was going down but could not talk about.
It has now come to fruition, and I can share it with you.
I reached out to Senator Cardin back then as he was passionate about more money for restaurants.
He had proposed several bills to help restaurants. None of them went anywhere.
I suggested that he include The MUSIC Act into his bill to garner wider support.
From there, he created a coalition of restaurants, entertainment, gyms, baseball, and busses.
This bill has been through many iterations and is now a reality.
It is Senator Cardin’s belief that this bill can be passed with all of these interests combined.
As you can see, The MUSIC Act is incorporated into the Small Business COVID Relief Act of 2022 (S.4008).
We now have 2 bites of the apple.
First, we are still pushing to pass The MUSIC Act as a stand-alone bill, fully funded by the remaining money in the shuttered SVOG.
Our second potential bite is through passage of the new Small Business COVID Relief Act of 2022 (S.4008).
I was told to keep this quiet until Senator Cardin had built support for it and was comfortable that he can pass the bill.
I apologize for not sharing before, but I had to respect the request from Senator Cardin.
This quiet planning method works toward a better possible outcome.
It is important you do not stop reaching out to your Senators and Representatives to ensure they do not reallocate the $2.2 billion dollars remaining in the shuttered SVOG fund.
Keeping this money is critical to our success.
Thank you for all you do, and we must keep the pressure up on Congress and Senator Schumer to leave SVOG funds in place to serve the industry they were originally allocated to serve.
Thank you and be safe,
Michael T. Strickland
Friends,
I want to thank everyone. The COVID Bill was voted on today and lost 47 to 52.
All Republicans voted no, and Senators Schumer and Wyden, Democrats, voted no. Democrat Menendez did not vote. Schumer voted no because under Senate rules only a member of the prevailing side in a vote may raise the bill again for a future vote. So, Schumer voted no in order to bring the bill up again in the future.
The MUSIC Act is safe for now.
Many people have issues with different parts of the new COVID Bill. The good news is that the rest of this week, and this session, will be consumed with the SCOTUS vote.
The Senate will not be back into session until April 25th. At a minimum, we have until April 26th to keep the SVOG money out of the new COVID bill.
We achieved our goal of moving this issue down the road 3 weeks, thank you.
We must all keep up the pressure on our Senators and Representatives to understand the $2.2 billion left in SVOG is indeed needed for the people that were left behind in the original grants.
We all need to e-mail, call, network and talk with as many people as we can and have them contact their Senators and Representatives. Those of you in New York need to call and e-mail Senator Schumer and let him know this is not acceptable.
There are approximately 380,000 people in New York that are in the industry that have yet to receive anything from SVOG. These 380,000 people are all voters and perhaps will get Senator Schumer’s attention on this issue. There are other places to pull the $2.2 billion in funding from, and it is up to us to assure they leave SVOG alone and use the other funds.
We continue to push to have The MUSIC Act passed via unanimous consent.
Thank you all again and stay tuned, I will be back with more information.
Onward and Upward.
Michael T. Strickland
Click here for the overview of the Bill.
Here is language from the Overview:
Shuttered Venues Operators Grants: All applications for initial awards and first supplementals have been fulfilled. The remaining unspent balance will be rescinded, with the exception of a small amount to cover pending appeals and reconsiderations.