06.15.21

Cantwell Joins Bipartisan Effort to Push SBA to Speed Up Relief to Struggling Live Event Venues

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, U.S. Senator Maria Cantwell (D-WA) joined her colleagues in sending a letter to Small Business Administrator Isabella Casillas Guzman urging her to disburse the Shuttered Venue Operator Grant funding to struggling live entertainment venues as soon as possible. The legislation that created this program, the Save Our Stages Act, was signed into law more than six months ago. Out of the $11.5 billion requested by venues, only $304 million has been distributed so far, $11 million of which was awarded to 11 venues in Washington state.

The letter reads, “The Save Our Stages Act, now the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program, was created to prevent widespread closures of venues that have been devastated by the loss of revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As supporters of the SVOG program, we urge you to take immediate action to ensure that the relief reaches eligible applicants without further delay.

“It has been nearly six months since Congress passed the Save our Stages Act, nearly two months since the second launch of the program, and 51 days since the Small Business Administration (SBA) began receiving applications. We urge you to immediately take steps to ensure the funds are distributed to qualified applicants.

“Bureaucratic process cannot stand in the way of getting these desperately needed funds out the door.”

Senator Cantwell has been a strong advocate for getting COVID-19 assistance to restaurants and live venues, fighting for the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant program to be established in the December 2020 end-of-year COVID-19 emergency relief and continuing appropriations package. In March, she pushed for additional funding to be included in the American Rescue Plan, including speaking on the Senate floor and urging her colleagues to get assistance out the door as quickly as possible.

Cantwell also held a virtual roundtable with representatives from venues around the State of Washington to talk about the program before the SBA application went live in April, and in May, Cantwell questioned Administrator Guzman about the relief during a Senate Committee on Small Business and Entrepreneurship hearing.

In December, she spoke at a Commerce subcommittee hearing about the importance of delivering relief for live entertainment venues. She has also fought for funding for restaurants and live venues in other COVID-19 relief packages.

Other signees of the letter include Senators Amy Klobuchar (D-MN), John Cornyn (R-TX), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), Bob Menendez (D-NJ), James Risch (R-ID), Tammy Baldwin (D-WI), Angus King (I-ME), Patty Murray (D-WA), Deb Fischer (R-NE), John Hickenlooper (D-CO), Bill Haggerty (R-TN), Mike Crapo (R-ID), Dick Durbin (D-IL), Jack Reed (D-RI), Rob Portman (R-OH), Ben Ray Luján (D-NM), John Thune (R-SD), Elizabeth Warren (D-MA), Roger Marshall (R-KS), Maggie Hassan (D-NH), Chuck Schumer (D-NY), Marsha Blackburn (R-TN), Patrick Leahy (D-VT), Thom Tillis (R-NC), Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), Steve Daines (R-MT), Ed Markey (D-MA), Tina Smith (D-MN), Mark Kelly (D-AZ), John Boozman (R-AR), Ron Wyden (D-OR), Mitt Romney (R-UT), Chuck Grassley (R-IA), Brian Schatz (D-HI), Sherrod Brown (D-OH), Jon Tester (D-MT), Mike Braun (R-IN), Tammy Duckworth (D-IL), Gary Peters (D-MI), Jacky Rosen (D-NV), Ted Cruz (R-TX), Marco Rubio (R-FL), Bob Casey (D-PA), Maria Cantwell (D-WA), Mark Warner (D-VA), Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV), Kyrsten Sinema (D-AZ), Debbie Stabenow (D-MI), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), Jeff Merkley (D-OR), Joe Manchin (D-WV), Alex Padilla (D-CA) and Chris Coons (D-DE). Full text of the letter is here and below.

June 15, 2021

The Honorable Isabella Casillas Guzman

Administrator, Small Business Administration

409 3rd Street, SW

Washington, DC 20416

Dear Administrator Guzman:

The Save Our Stages Act, now the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program, was created to prevent widespread closures of venues that have been devastated by the loss of revenue due to the COVID-19 pandemic. As supporters of the SVOG program, we urge you to take immediate action to ensure that the relief reaches eligible applicants without further delay.

With each passing day, more independent businesses are forced to shutter permanently or file for bankruptcy. Landlords and banks are no longer permitting deferrals and are pressing for immediate payment of past due accounts; businesses are receiving eviction notices; mom-and-pop businesses are being forced to sell.

It has been nearly six months since Congress passed the Save our Stages Act, nearly two months since the second launch of the program, and 51 days since the Small Business Administration (SBA) began receiving applications. We urge you to immediately take steps to ensure the funds are distributed to qualified applicants.

The SVOG program is unique, with necessary restrictions built in to ensure taxpayer funding goes only to eligible applicants in need. Under the terms of the law, the SVOG program requires the award of funding to eligible applicants who meet the simple requirements of the program. In this context, the insistence on strict compliance with competitive grant rules has created unnecessary delays in funding. Similarly, restrictions that SBA has placed on communication with grant applicants are unnecessary and have prevented the agency from providing administrative support to individual applicants that could have streamlined the application review process. Bureaucratic process cannot stand in the way of getting these desperately needed funds out the door. 

Further delays are unacceptable and would have irreversible consequences for these industries. In an effort to keep our constituents informed and ensure our small businesses receive the support they were promised, we respectfully request you provide us with the following information:

  1. The number SVOG awards that have been approved;
  2. The number of SVOG grants that have been disbursed to recipients;
  3. The amount of SVOG funding that has been disbursed;
  4. The number of applications with holds;
  5. The number of first-priority applicants that have received an award notice;
  6. What SBA is doing to update small business owners on the status of their applications;
  7. What SBA is doing to ensure applicants are not incorrectly associated with similar-named individuals and entities on the List of Excluded Individuals/Entities (LEIE);
  8. What SBA is doing to correct false DNP designation notices sent to thousands of applicants;
  9. SBA’s justification for breaking grant awards, regardless of size, into multiple disbursements; and
  10. SBA’s timeline for subsequent disbursements and what grantees need to do to receive them.

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