Hearing — Examining the Impact of COVID–19 on the Live Event Entertainment Industry (December 15, 2020)
Summary
Hearing before the Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer Protection of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation, United States Senate, on December 15, 2020, titled “Examining the Impact of COVID–19 on the Live Event Entertainment Industry.” Hon. Jerry Moran presides, and the witnesses listed include David Fay of The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts, Adam Hartke of the National Independent Venue Association, Ron Laffitte of Patriot Management and Michael T. Strickland of Bandit Lites. In the opening statement, Senator Moran states that programs under the CARES Act did not adequately benefit the live event entertainment sector and refers to the Save Our Stages Act. A letter from the Live Events Coalition states that the industry employs nearly 12 million American workers.
Summary drafted by a model from the document's text below and checked by script against that text before publication. It is a navigation aid, not a reading of what the document proves. Where AI is used
Cite this document
“Hearing — Examining the Impact of COVID–19 on the Live Event Entertainment Industry (December 15, 2020).”
Original at www.govinfo.gov. Archived at Pandemic Darlings, https://pandemicdarlings.com/source-documents/039-undated-ppr-int-dd32cc917343efb2-examining-the-impact-of-covid-19-7d4989ba9e/
, SHA-256 25ccff7355316df40ae9815fa4b4e2532e95b5dbdf2fa6c479a366dc98bc8adf.Full text
S. HRG. 116–633
EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF COVID–19 ON THE
LIVE EVENT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
HEARING
BEFORE THE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON MANUFACTURING, TRADE,
AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
OF THE
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE,
SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
DECEMBER 15, 2020
Printed for the use of the Committee on Commerce, Science, and Transportation
(
Available online: http://www.govinfo.gov
U.S. GOVERNMENT PUBLISHING OFFICE
52–921 PDF WASHINGTON : 2023
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 5011 Sfmt 5011 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
SENATE COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION
ONE HUNDRED SIXTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
ROGER WICKER, Mississippi, Chairman
JOHN THUNE, South Dakota MARIA CANTWELL, Washington, Ranking
ROY BLUNT, Missouri AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
TED CRUZ, Texas RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
JERRY MORAN, Kansas EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska TOM UDALL, New Mexico
CORY GARDNER, Colorado GARY PETERS, Michigan
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia TAMMY DUCKWORTH, Illinois
MIKE LEE, Utah JON TESTER, Montana
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona
TODD YOUNG, Indiana JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
RICK SCOTT, Florida
NICK ROSSI, Staff Director
ADRIAN ARNAKIS, Deputy Staff Director
JASON VAN BEEK, General Counsel
KIM LIPSKY, Democratic Staff Director
CHRIS DAY, Democratic Deputy Staff Director
RENAE BLACK, Senior Counsel
SUBCOMMITTEE ON MANUFACTURING, TRADE,
AND CONSUMER PROTECTION
JERRY MORAN, Kansas, Chairman RICHARD BLUMENTHAL, Connecticut,
JOHN THUNE, South Dakota Ranking
DEB FISCHER, Nebraska AMY KLOBUCHAR, Minnesota
DAN SULLIVAN, Alaska BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
MARSHA BLACKBURN, Tennessee EDWARD MARKEY, Massachusetts
SHELLEY MOORE CAPITO, West Virginia TOM UDALL, New Mexico
MIKE LEE, Utah TAMMY BALDWIN, Wisconsin
RON JOHNSON, Wisconsin KYRSTEN SINEMA, Arizona
TODD YOUNG, Indiana JACKY ROSEN, Nevada
(II)
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
CONTENTS
Page
Hearing held on December 15, 2020 ...................................................................... 1
Statement of Senator Moran .................................................................................. 1
Letter dated December 14, 2020 to Hon. Jerry Moran and Hon. Richard
Blumenthal from Jennifer Dorning, DPE President .................................. 3
Letter dated December 14, 2020 to Hon. Jerry Moran from Daniel Newby,
President, Ottawa Bus Service Inc. ............................................................. 8
Letter dated December 15, 2020 to Senator Roger, Senator Jerry Moran,
Senator Maria Cantwell and Senator Richard Blumenthal from the
Live Events Coalition ................................................................................... 9
Prepared statement from IAAPA—The Global Association for the Attrac-
tions Industry ................................................................................................ 13
Prepared statement the Recording Academy ................................................. 15
Prepared statement from the Business Continuity Coalition ....................... 16
Prepared statement from the National Association of Theatre Owners ...... 20
Statement of Senator Wicker .................................................................................. 22
Statement of Senator Blumenthal .......................................................................... 27
Statement of Senator Klobuchar ............................................................................ 46
Statement of Senator Blackburn ............................................................................ 48
Statement of Senator Lee ....................................................................................... 51
Statement of Senator Sinema ................................................................................. 53
Letter dated April 9, 2020 from the Endurance Sports Coalition ................ 54
Statement of Senator Young ................................................................................... 58
Statement of Senator Cantwell .............................................................................. 60
Statement of Senator Rosen ................................................................................... 61
Statement of Senator Tester ................................................................................... 63
WITNESSES
David Fay, President and Chief Executive Officer, The Bushnell Center for
the Performing Arts ............................................................................................. 23
Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 25
Adam Hartke, Co-owner—Wave & The Cotillion; Advocacy Committee Co-
Chair—National Independent Venue Association (NIVA) ................................ 28
Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 30
Ron Laffitte, President, Patriot Management ....................................................... 33
Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 35
Peter J. Pantuso, President and Chief Executive Officer, American Bus Asso-
ciation .................................................................................................................... 37
Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 39
Michael T. Strickland, Chair and Founder, Bandit Lites .................................... 41
Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 43
(III)
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 5904 Sfmt 5904 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
EXAMINING THE IMPACT OF COVID–19 ON
THE LIVE EVENT ENTERTAINMENT INDUSTRY
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 15, 2020
U.S. SENATE,
SUBCOMMITTEE ON MANUFACTURING, TRADE, AND
CONSUMER PROTECTION,
COMMITTEE ON COMMERCE, SCIENCE, AND TRANSPORTATION,
Washington, DC.
The Subcommittee met, pursuant to notice, at 10 a.m. in room
SR–253, Russell Senate Office Building, Hon. Jerry Moran, Chair-
man of the Subcommittee, presiding.
Present: Senators Moran, Wicker, Blackburn, Lee, Young,
Blumenthal, Cantwell, Klobuchar, Sinema, Rosen, and Tester.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JERRY MORAN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM KANSAS
Senator MORAN. Good morning. As the Chairman of the Senate
Commerce Subcommittee on Manufacturing, Trade, and Consumer
Protection, I welcome all of our participants in this hearing today.
The hearing is entitled ‘‘Examining the Impact of COVID–19 on the
Live Event Entertainment Industry.’’
The Subcommittee will now come to order.
As covered in this subcommittee’s previous hearing on the manu-
facturing community’s response to the pandemic, COVID–19 con-
tinues to negatively impact many industries and businesses
throughout the American economy and another industry, among its
hardest hit, is the live entertainment sector.
Due to airborne transmissions of COVID–19, many states and lo-
calities have implemented bans on large gatherings of people. This
has placed, obviously, a tremendous strain on the entertainment
sector which relies on the gathering of large groups of people for
concerts, live sports, plays, comedy shows, movies, and many other
forms of entertainment.
Companies in this sector have been forced to largely cease oper-
ations during the pandemic, leaving these businesses without rev-
enue or alternative means to replace it. Without crowds to perform
for, entertainers, venues, and downstream vendors have been
forced to furlough staff they typically employ during a concert sea-
son. Without stages to light and set up, lighting companies and
stagehands have been out of work since March. Without enter-
tainers and event goers to transport, many bus drivers and public
transport companies have been largely off the road for months. And
without concerts and other events to facilitate, independent venue
operators and owners have been without revenue for much of the
(1)
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
2
past year. These are just a few examples of ways the live entertain-
ment industry sector has been affected this year, which we will
hear more about from our witnesses today.
Back in March, Congress passed the CARES Act, which included
a number of provisions to help employers of all types, including live
event entertainment businesses, weather the pandemic. The Small
Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program provided
employers funds to continue paying their employees and cover
some business expenses. Other programs meant to help employers
and their employees are the Main Street Lending Program and the
Economic Development Administration’s Recovery Assistance
Grants. For many categories of businesses, these programs were in-
effective tools. These programs under the CARES Act did not ade-
quately benefit the live event entertainment sector.
This is why I and many of my colleagues have introduced and
sponsored the Save Our Stages Act, which would authorize the
Small Business Administration to make grants to eligible live
venue operators, producers, promoters, and talent representatives
to address the economic impacts of COVID–19. This would offer the
struggling businesses a lifeline to continue operations until they
can return to doing what they love, entertaining Americans.
There are a number of other legislative proposals, including the
RESTART Act that worked to address the needs of the live event
sector. And I encourage my colleagues to work to ensure this indus-
try is supported in the ongoing negotiations around a phase four
COVID relief package.
I should also point out that there is a ripple effect on the econ-
omy when the live entertainment industry is out of work. Res-
taurants, bars, transportation, and many other businesses that
thrive on live events bringing people to a community from sur-
rounding areas are hurting. This means that when lights are dark
in the local live event venue, the economy in that community as a
whole is also dark.
I look forward to hearing from our witness panel today. It will
provide a variety of different perspectives to this important issue.
Joining us today is Mr. David Fay, President and CEO of The
Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hartford, Connecticut;
Mr. Adam Hartke, owner of The Cotillion and Wave in Wichita,
Kansas; Mr. Ron Laffitte, President of Patriot Management in Los
Angeles, California; and Mr. Pete Pantuso, President and Chief Ex-
ecutive Officer of the American Bus Association from Bradford,
Pennsylvania; and Mr. Michael Strickland, Owner of the Bandit
Lites in Knoxville, Tennessee.
Finally, a number of organizations representing a multitude of
entertainment industry interests have provided written testimony
for the record which describes the hardships that their portion of
the industry is facing, with recommendations for how Congress
should act to address these issues. I would ask unanimous consent
that these letters be submitted into the record. Without objection,
so ordered.
[The information referred to follows:]
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00006 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
3
1215AFL1.eps
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00007 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
4
1215AFL2.eps
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00008 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
5
1215DPE1.eps
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00009 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
6
1215DPE2.eps
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00010 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
7
1215DPE3.eps
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00011 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
8
1215MORA1.eps
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00012 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
9
LIVE EVENTS COALITION
December 15, 2020, Washington, DC
Senator ROGER WICKER, Senator MARIA CANTWELL,
Chairman, Ranking Member,
Senate Commerce Committee. Senate Commerce Committee.
Senator JERRY MORAN, Senator RICHARD BLUMENTHAL,
Chairman, Ranking Member,
Senate Commerce Subcommittee on Senate Commerce Subcommittee on
Manufacturing, Trade and Consumer Manufacturing, Trade and Consumer
Protection. Protection.
Dear Senators:
On behalf of the nearly 12 million American workers in the Live Events industry
and the small businesses that employ them, the Live Events Coalition applauds you
for holding today’s important hearing entitled: ‘‘Examining the Impact of COVID–
19 on the Live Event Entertainment Industry.’’
The Live Events industry may be invisible to most as we primarily operate behind
the scenes, but we touch the lives of every American while serving as a critical en-
gine for the U.S. economy. We provide event venues, planning, design, catering,
audio, video, lighting, entertainment, rentals, décor, tenting, transportation, staging,
ticketing, event security, floral. . .and so much more. We serve corporate meetings,
trade shows and conferences. We build concerts, festivals and fairs. We create wed-
dings, fundraisers and parties. We help sporting events, political events and mile-
stone events. Our industry employs nearly 12 million American workers and ac-
counts for almost $1 trillion in economic impact. Perhaps most notably, our industry
is part of a much larger co-dependent ecosystem that includes Travel and Tourism,
Food and Beverage, Arts, and Hospitality.
Simply put, the impact of COVID–19 on our industry has been nothing short of
devastating. The COVID–19 pandemic has forced more than 80 percent of our busi-
nesses to lose 60 to 100 percent of their revenues for the past 8-plus months. 78
percent of our employees also remain furloughed, and few of our business owners
have taken a salary since February. This difficult reality is expected to persist well
into 2021, particularly as more rigid restrictions are put into place in states, as the
virus spikes across the country. The truth is truly sobering: Our industry’s small
businesses, workers and their families will see no meaningful end to this ongoing
nightmare until months after an effective vaccine has been deployed.
In the early months of mandatory business shutdowns, our business’s bills were
at least partially covered by the initial Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) and Eco-
nomic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). Unfortunately, these funds have completely
run out, and in most cases our businesses are now saddled with crippling debt. Re-
tirement savings accounts have been depleted, life insurance policies cashed in, and
many business owners have had to sell their homes in order to keep their operations
ready to eventually go back to normal.
Without additional and immediate relief, the vast majority of small businesses
within the Live Events industry simply will not survive. This is why we are grateful
of your attention before the Senate Commerce Subcommittee, and we welcome the
opportunity to provide constructive insight into how Congress can help support us
during this time of need. Our survival absolutely depends on the critical relief meas-
ures you and your colleagues are considering today. In light of this, we are seeking
immediate passage of legislation to include additional opportunities to access forgiv-
able PPP loans along with extended unemployment benefits for our workers, such
as PUA.
Here is a more detailed look at the needed relief measures that could help bridge
our businesses and workers from now until the end of the pandemic:
• FORGIVABLE LOANS: This is key to helping businesses stay afloat until
states allow for events to happen again. However, for many of us, the restric-
tions in the current PPP rules are less than optimum, since the original bill was
geared towards bringing back employees that many of us still don’t have work
for, and not enough assistance for the payment of many of our fixed business
costs. It is critical, therefore, that Congress passes this relief measure with a
few key improvements to existing PPP standards:
— A proportional forgiveness system tailored to the hardest hit businesses
— Wider allowable utilization of funds in order to keep businesses oper-
ational and out of bankruptcy
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00013 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
10
— Longer utilization period to more reasonably match the business realities
of the pandemic
— Funding amounts tied to the business’s actual operating costs
— ‘‘Second Draw’’ accessibility, to accommodate businesses who have already
received PPP loans, but have exhausted those funds.
• EXTENDED PUA: In order to support our furloughed workforce as well as our
businesses owners, we request a reinstatement of the CARES PUA program.
This resource should be available to furloughed business owners and workers
for a minimum of 4 to 6 months, with an option for extension in the event that
an effective and widely distributed COVID–19 vaccine has not yet developed by
the end of this term, leaving us still effectively shuttered.
• SECOND–DRAW EIDL: Many businesses in our industry can still benefit from
an improved EIDL program, with the same 30-year repayment period, but at
a 1–2 percent interest rate, an initial payment-and-interest forbearance period
tied to a 90-day margin following our state’s full reopening, eased qualification
standards, and loan amounts greater the recent SBA-imposed $150,000 limit.
As an addendum, please find a summary of recent findings from the Live Events
Coalition’s December 1 nationwide survey of Events industry professionals, which
further outlines the clear and urgent need for an economic lifeline for our businesses
and workers.
As an additional addendum, please find a sampling of the more than 550 com-
ments left by our survey’s respondents, illustrating in our business owner’s or em-
ployee’s own words how they have been uniquely impacted.
We thank you for your leadership in holding this hearing and we respectfully ask
that you please enact these necessary relief measures to give our businesses and
proud industry workers a chance to survive. Please let us know how we as an orga-
nization can help you and the Committee bring these critical relief measures to fru-
ition.
Thank you for your service to our country.
Sincerely,
—The Founders, Executive Board, and Members of the Live Events Coalition
—The Independent State Chapters of the Live Events Coalition, including: Arizona
Live Events Coalition, California Events Coalition, Colorado Event Alliance, Con-
necticut Event Industry Coalition, DC Events Coalition (DC, Maryland, Virginia),
Live Events Coalition of Florida, Illinois Events Coalition, Kentucky Events Coali-
tion, Massachusetts Live Events Coalition, Live Events Coalition of Minnesota, Live
Events Coalition of Nevada, Live Events Coalition of New York and New Jersey, Live
Events Industry of Oregon, Texas Live Events Coalition, Utah Live Events Industry
Association, Washington State Wedding and Events Association
—Our Partner Live Events Industry Coalitions in Louisiana, New Mexico, Philadel-
phia, and Tennessee
Addendum 1 to Live Events Coalition Letter to Senate Commerce Subcommittee Leadership
Live Events Coalition—Recent Business Survey Findings
On December 1, 2020, Live Events Coalition finalized a nationwide survey of Events
industry professionals. The results demonstrate the clear and urgent need for an
economic lifeline for our businesses and workers, who are amongst the very hardest
hit in our country due to the COVID–19 pandemic, and the necessary shutdown
of our entire industry.
The survey generated more than 1,400 responses from Event professionals across 43
U.S. states. On average, respondents have spent 20+ years in the industry, includ-
ing both business owners and employees.
• 33 percent of industry’s professionals have lost 90 to 100 percent of their income
and revenues since the beginning of the COVID–19 pandemic, and more than
80 percent of businesses have lost more than 60 percent of their revenues.
• Fewer than 8 percent of industry professionals have better than a 40–60 percent
loss of income and revenue.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00014 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
11
• Most industry businesses will not survive without further Federal aid, with over
57 percent reporting that they will fail within 2 to 4 months without additional
relief enacted by Congress. Further, 26 percent say they won’t even make it to
2 months. An astounding 80 percent will fail within the next 4 to 6 months.
• There are nearly 1.1 million events businesses in the U.S, employing an aver-
age of 10+ employees each.
• Events businesses have furloughed nearly 80 percent of their workers, totaling
more than 9 million Americans, and the majority of these have been out of work
since the beginning of the pandemic, with no hope for return until months after
the full vaccination of our country.
• More than half of the smallest Events businesses now have no payroll at all,
with 100 percent of their employees laid off.
• Of the Events Industry’s largest businesses (over 100 employees), more than 56
percent have downsized to fewer than 20 employees since the start of the pan-
demic.
• Nearly 60 percent of Events industry workers say they will be unable to remain
in the industry and still pay their bills for longer than 1 to 2 months, without
an extension of PEUC and a revival of PUA assistance.
Addendum 2 to Live Events Coalition Letter to Senate Commerce Subcommittee Leadership
A sampling of the more than 550 comments yielded by our recent survey:
‘‘I employ 4 part-time workers which immediately reduced to 1 in March and now
I am cutting the last one due to lack of work/income. Arizona, where I live and have
had my business for the past 6 years does not provide unemployment compensation
that is close to sufficient and without the Federal assistance, I will be forced to close
my business in the next 4 months. Since I also refer a large number of event profes-
sionals (I’m an event planner) this will affect many others.’’
—Sally Arnold, Arizona
‘‘Covid-19 brought my company to a standstill—we were set to have our best year
in business. Between March 1 and March 15, we had over $400K of booked business
cancel, and that does not include unbooked business or contracts in the ‘‘bid’’ proc-
ess. I had to lay off my staff and cut back on everything. I did nothing for 4 or 5
months. Slowly now, our clients are trying to do virtual events, at 10 percent of the
rate we would get paid for live events—it’s not enough to survive. I have been doing
events for 25 years, have had my company for 12 years, and it’s crushing to see it
destroyed at no fault of my own, and crushing to sit back and see no support from
the Government.’’
—Ryan Zynger, California
‘‘I have been in the event industry for 35 years. It’s all I have done. In October of
2019 I put everything I saved and earned into buying my own venue. A 50,000 sq
ft building with 3 event spaces. On March 13, 2020 we were mandated to shut our
doors and I see no hope that in the near future our doors will be able to be re-
opened. I don’t do catering, I have no way to pivot. My venue and my entertainment
company are at a screeching halt. I am at a 90 percent loss for the year. I won’t
make it past 6 months!’’
—Shiran Nicholson, Connecticut
‘‘My business was shut down since March 2020 to date. I’ve had no income, all my
clients have cancelled, postponed and rescheduled for 2021, and at this point they’re
starting to reschedule and cancel now. I’ve already lost my January, February and
March clients. If I don’t get any help, I’ll be closed in two months. My personal fund-
ing has been stretched to the limit, my bills are piling up and I haven’t received
one cent from the government, I’m assuming it’s because I have no ‘‘employees.’’ I
am a real self-employed business and female owned company that is trying to re-
main open.’’
—Michelle Rodriguez, Connecticut
‘‘I have been a meeting travel director for 23 years. I have tried to find a job locally,
but my salary would be 1/3 of what I was making. All I’m qualified for in this area
of Florida is to work a part-time or full-time minimum wage job. I am sinking quick-
ly, and it does not appear that my job will be returning until well into next year.’’
—Nancy Harris, Florida
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00015 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
12
‘‘After 20 years in the industry I had finally reached a point that I felt was real
success. I taken a leap of faith and created my own business contracting out my
services for design and show planning. In March when the shutdown occurred, I was
optimistic and have been struggling to hold on to everything that I had worked so
hard for. At first it seemed that within a few months we would all be back to work
but now here we are 8 months later and no relief is in sight. I am 57 years old
and quickly approaching what should have been my retirement. It would be dev-
astating for me to have to begin all over again.’’
—Scott Duncan, Georgia
‘‘I have been in business 18 years. We were shut down in mid-March with an order
from the governor and mayor. Since we were able to re-open, we have only hosted
3 meetings of under 10 people and a handful of small events with revenue of under
$750. Prior to this, our revenue was close to $2,000,000 annually. I went from 25
full and part time employees to 3.5 staff as of this moment. I had to give up the
leases on all 15,000 sq. ft. of my event space along with my office leases. I have
tried to expand into event rentals with the furniture and decor I now have in stor-
age along with some other new lines of business we developed, but none of it is gen-
erating any new income as restrictions keep coming down and COVID–19 cases rise.
I am funding the business out of my savings at this point but cannot afford to do
this indefinitely. With the new restrictions shutting us down again on Friday for
an indefinite period of time, this is just not sustainable.’’
—Eva Niewiadomski, Illinois
‘‘I’ve been in the hospitality/events industry for 13 years. In early 2020 my company
was on target to more than triple our revenue and had moved from high end wed-
dings to large scale corporate events. We had a monster of an event scheduled for
early March in Louisville which took my team months to prepare, design, and
produce all of the custom elements, purchase the tremendous amount of items need-
ed, and contract the many other small businesses needed to pull off such a large
project. ONE DAY before we were to load our trucks, the client decided to cancel
their event due to COVID. ALL of my other 2020 events have cancelled with only
1 postponing to NEXT OCTOBER. I had to reduce my team and my 13-year-old
business that I gave everything too is barely hanging on. Unfortunately no one
wants to buy the entire warehouse full of brand new event items right now.’’
—Rayna Wallen, Kentucky
‘‘After more than 30 years in the exhibits/tradeshow industry I went from $82k as
an LLC to making $96 a week on unemployment that is about to run out. I have
been forced to file for bankruptcy, and if not for my wife’s income we would have
lost our house as well.’’
—David Falcon, Louisiana
‘‘I am a single mother of 4. They say if you do a job you love then it is not really
work. The thing is, there is something magical and gratifying being a part of a suc-
cessful show. From marking the concrete floors, to pipe and drape, to late night car-
pet calls, to building and detailing what are often ‘‘tricky’’ booths, to the final show
open and seeing the fruition of collaborative work from my brothers and sisters is
something that another job just cannot fulfill. I have not worked since early March
2020. I had to re-file my MA unemployment in July 2020 and due to the complete
halt of work in March, my benefits reduced from what would normally be $475/wk
down to $191/wk. In addition to that, extensions are not available beyond when I
will need one. I have to tell my children Christmas is canceled this year because
Santa is in quarantine. Truth is, I barely have enough money to feed my kids and
I have reduced myself to one meal a day to get by as I cannot afford rent, car ins,
medical bills, groceries, transportation, prescriptions, clothing, utilities, etc. I have
maxed out all 7 credit cards from this pandemic and now have a credit score of 350
vs the 750 score I had pre pandemic. I have worked really hard. Long hours. Phys-
ical labor. I am proud of all I have put into my life and for the government to leave
all of us stranded is a slap in the face. I vote. I pay taxes. I abide by the law. What
does it take for the government to care? I’m absolutely disgusted with Congress and
the amount of time it is taking them to help us maintain our livelihoods until THEY
tell us we may return to work. Disgraceful and disgusting.’’
—Jennifer Whatley, Massachusetts
‘‘I have lost 97 percent of my business, haven’t paid myself since March, and had
to lay off all of my staff. I have received some financial help, but that is very close
to running out. Without more substantial help my business will close this winter,
leaving my employees without work, and our customers without a vendor.’’
—Courtney Latham, Oregon
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00016 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
13
‘‘We provide live specialty entertainment for corporate events, fairs & festivals, con-
ferences, and private events. We had the biggest year on record in 2019 with fore-
casted growth of ≥10 percent in 2020. We were hiring and had a team of 5 core
staff at the start of 2020. When Covid-19 was officially named a pandemic it
changed our world entirely. All our contracts for the year cancelled within 3 weeks
and we were forced to go into survival mode almost instantly. Within the next 5
months I lost my entire team and now it is just me trying to keep hope and make
it to the other side. Here we are 9 months later. PPP assistance in April was a life
saver and through the summer we stayed optimistic that the worst of the pandemic
was behind us. My company pivoted to virtual entertainment services, we have
taken any opportunity for contracted live events available and yet, while I’m work-
ing 10 hours a day, 50 hours a week trying to survive this pandemic-caused eco-
nomic crisis, we are still not covering our basic expenses of rent, utilities, insurance
and salary; all of which are very modest. In 2019 we paid out $400,000 to contract
workers and artists, providing quality live event gigs to the talent in Central Texas.
I feel it is my duty to survive this recession so I can be here to offer jobs to the
artists again! But in the meantime, we need financial capital in order to hang on.
We’re dangling on the side of a cliff. My company has spent through our business
savings—I personally am quickly going through my individual savings. We need the
government to step in and provide more forgivable loans and aid to the hardest hit
sectors. We fight every day to survive this pandemic recession. We ask our govern-
ment and political representatives to fight for us as well.’’
—Linsey Lindberg, Texas
‘‘28 years in the industry and we are decimated. For 2020, a 90 percent drop in rev-
enues. For 2021, all of Q1 has canceled, as well as 50 percent of Q2. My office went
from 30 full time employees, down to 2. Only options currently, to cover expenses
and come close to previous salary, would be to work a minimum of 2 full time jobs
as most places currently hiring are paying less than half of my previous salary. I
need to support a family of 4.’’
—Relevent Minucciani, Washington
STATEMENT OF IAAPA, THE GLOBAL ASSOCIATION FOR THE ATTRACTIONS INDUSTRY
Chairman Moran and Ranking Member Blumenthal,
Thank you for exploring the needs of impacted industries. The parks and attrac-
tions industry has many of the same issues as explored today but has several
unique concerns outlined below. In particular, we would like to thank you and the
many other Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee members who have
cosponsored the RESTART Act, which we believe is a critical element to help im-
pacted businesses successfully move past the pandemic closures.
IAAPA is the global association for the attractions industry, representing major
theme parks, local and destination fixed-site attractions, waterparks, family enter-
tainment centers, aerial adventures courses, museums, zoos, aquariums, manufac-
turers and suppliers. IAAPA’s U.S. members employ over 700,000 people in over
5,450 businesses with an annual economic impact of $51.6 billion on the U.S. econ-
omy. The pandemic has been devastating to the industry with job loss exceeding
250,000 and revenues down by 60–75 percent, on average, in states that have al-
lowed the industry to open. The impact has been even more devastating in states
such as California, New York, Massachusetts and Illinois that have not allowed the
parks to open since the beginning of the COVID–19 pandemic.
The CARES Act was a lifeline to businesses that could utilize it, but in March,
no one realized the length or severity of the pandemic and the extent to which it
would cripple businesses such as those in the attractions industry. Now, nine
months later, staring down a second wave of COVID–19 limiting travel and uncer-
tainty preventing future bookings or planning, many industry businesses will not
survive without relief to help them bridge this period of uncertainty and get them
to 2021 and beyond without a daunting debt load, which will hamper their ability
to invest in their businesses and employees. This will not only have a negative im-
pact on their businesses but will also negatively impact the suppliers to the industry
and the local community, which benefit by the travel and tourism generated by
parks and attractions. For every dollar spent in a park, six is spent in the commu-
nity.
Closures and lack of revenue is compounded by the significant investment in per-
sonal protective equipment and services that businesses within the industry have
made in order to ensure their employees and guests are safe from COVID. The in-
dustry has spent millions of dollars on personal protective equipment and endless
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00017 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
14
hours developing safety protocols (see attached industry-developed guidelines).
These costs have not ended. While equipment is necessary, increased staffing to en-
sure that guests and staff are screened, and staff is properly trained is an ongoing
cost for the foreseeable future. Additionally, IAAPA zoo and aquarium members
have ongoing animal care costs, including food, medicine and medical supplies,
diagnostics, environmental testing, life support and other costs related to animal
care while their gates remain closed or are opened to greatly restricted crowd sizes.
While some industry businesses were allowed to open for some part of the year
in 46 states, they lost much of their ‘‘high’’ season. When they did open, they did
so with capacity limitations which led to substantial revenue losses. Additionally,
group events were non-existent in 2020 and with advance sales for school, corporate,
convention and sports events for 2021 underway, it appears they will be virtually
non-existent next year as well.
Like the live venue and restaurant industries, parks and attractions have signifi-
cant ongoing expenses related to substantial real estate holdings, ride and machine
maintenance and upkeep, taxes, loan maintenance and if open, a certain minimum
staffing level regardless of the number of patrons. Thus, even when allowed to open
at mandated capacity levels, parks and attractions were operating at levels far
lower than necessary to successfully sustain their businesses.
Yet another hidden cost to the parks and attractions industry is the loss of experi-
enced individuals that businesses had to lay off or terminate. These employees often
had years of experience that is invaluable to the businesses in which they worked.
If they cannot be brought back and/or find other positions, this expertise, developed
over years, will be lost.
The following assistance is necessary to keep businesses in the parks and attrac-
tions industry open and healthy moving forward:
RESTART. Pass the industry-neutral Reviving the Economy Sustainably To-
wards a Recovery in Twenty-twenty (RESTART) Act (S.3814) introduced by
Senators Young (R–IN) and Bennet (D–CO) which provides relief to all severely
impacted industries.
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). Provide additional funding for PPP extend-
ing the program through December 31, 2021 to enable a second draw for eligible
businesses:
Priority should be given to severely impacted businesses such as those re-
quired to close or operate at reduced capacity due to COVID–19 related con-
cerns which can show a revenue decline of at least 25 percent in 2020.
Clarify that seasonal small businesses with fewer than 500 employees who
work for six months or more are eligible. Seasonal attractions industry
businesses often employ as few as 10–20 percent of their total number of
employees on a permanent, year-around basis.
Clarify that small businesses can deduct expenses paid with a forgiven PPP
loan from their taxes and will not be taxed on amounts forgiven by the
PPP.
Economic Injury and Disaster Loans (EIDLs). Ensure EIDLs are not capped by
the Small Business Administration but available to eligible businesses up to the
$2 million allowed.
Liability Protection
Provide targeted COVID–19 liability protection for attractions businesses that are
following best practices to protect guests and workers against COVID-related illness
Tax Credits
Enhance the Employee Retention Tax Credit (ERTC) and the Work Opportunity
Tax Credit (WOTC).
Provide tax credits for purchase of personal protective equipment goods and serv-
ices.
Provide investment tax credit for capital equipment purchased.
Animal Care Financial Assistance
Provide $800 million in Federal support to help the zoological community cover
the critical ongoing animal care costs including food, medical supplies and diag-
nostic testing.
Your leadership in ensuring that Congress addresses the needs of businesses in
these important industries is critical. Like the live venue industry, our businesses
are an important part of any community eco-system, bringing people into the com-
munity where they engage in activities with other area businesses. These businesses
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00018 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
15
are also an important part of the fabric of the community by training young people
and providing family entertainment. Assistance in the areas listed above will enable
the industry to remain viable and vibrant elements of the communities in which
they are located for years to come.
If we can answer any questions or assist you in your ongoing response to the
COVID–19 pandemic, please let us know. We thank Chairman Moran, Ranking
Member Blumenthal and all the Committee members for their interest and atten-
tion to the pandemic response needed to help impacted industries.
WRITTEN TESTIMONY OF THE RECORDING ACADEMY
Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal, and members of the Sub-
committee:
The Recording Academy thanks you for holding the December 15 hearing, ‘‘Exam-
ining the Impact of COVID–19 on the Live Event Entertainment Industry,’’ and wel-
coming our testimony for inclusion into the hearing’s record. As the Nation’s leading
association for songwriters, musicians, performers, producers and engineers, we
know first-hand how important the live event industry is to our Nation’s economy
and to countless small businesses in communities across the U.S. Live events are
also the backbone of the music industry, and the predominant source of income for
the vast majority of our 25,000 members. As the hearing clearly highlighted, the live
events industry needs Congressional assistance.
When the Coronavirus first began to spread in March, it was live events that be-
came, painfully, among the first industries to shut down. Overnight, tours were can-
celled, gigs were put on hold, and festivals were rescheduled. An $877 billion indus-
try evaporated in the blink of an eye. Nearly ten months later, we remain paused
and music makers—along with the performing venues, studios, managers, bookers,
catering teams, crews, and other small businesses—remain reeling from the dev-
astating economic effects of COVID–19. They remain in desperate need of com-
prehensive legislation that will save the economic livelihood of the music ecosystem.
Throughout the pandemic, the Recording Academy has championed a number of
bipartisan legislative proposals and solutions to protect jobs and spark a resumption
of economic activity. Many of these ideas were represented during the subcommit-
tee’s hearing, and we are heartened to know that many of the proposals have re-
ceived widespread bipartisan and bicameral support in this Congress. It is encour-
aging that Congressional leaders have recognized the plight of the live event indus-
try, and we are optimistic that many of these important changes will become law
before the end of the year.
During the hearing, it was gratifying to hear committee members speak enthu-
siastically about the Save our Stages Act (S. 4258)—critical legislation championed
by the Recording Academy and many others in the music economy. As witnesses
demonstrated, without small and independent venues there would be no touring,
and without touring there would be no live music. Venues and stages make up the
backbone of communities across the nation, providing direct jobs and opportunities
for our performing members, and sparking economic activity up and down Main
Street. The Save our Stages Act must become law.
The hearing also shed light on the RESTART Act (S. 3814), a bipartisan and bi-
cameral bill supported by the Recording Academy, which will provide flexible and
long-term assistance to many small businesses in jeopardy of going out of business.
For the music industry, the RESTART Act represents a lifeline to countless record-
ing studios, sole proprietorships, small record labels, and other small music busi-
nesses that are vital to the music ecosystem. Short-term and temporary measures
will not sustain these businesses who continue face an uncertain future.
Together with an expanded and improved Paycheck Protection Program, the RE-
START Act will ensure that our industry’s small businesses and sole proprietorships
have better access to aid.
The hearing also brought to focus the pandemic’s impacts on the workers in the
live event industry, who, through no fault of their own, find themselves out of work,
unable to work, or underworked. From the musicians on the stage, to the roadies
backstage, to the sound crew in front of house, the shutdown of the industry has
affected millions of workers—many of whom are self-employed or independent con-
tractors. Congress set to protect these workers through expanded unemployment in
the CARES Act, but with the expanded programs set to expire in less than two
weeks, more protections need to be swiftly passed to ensure that American workers
in need can continue to receive benefits from the Pandemic Unemployment Assist-
ance program. Congress needs to extend the PUA program for the duration of the
pandemic.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00019 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
16
Additionally, Congress needs to ensure that the PUA program truly works for the
non-traditional workers in the live event industry, many of whom were unintention-
ally left behind by the CARES Act. These workers, who receive multiple sources of
income—including a mix of 1099 and W2 wages—were misclassified and denied ac-
cess to PUA, depressing their weekly benefit amount in all 50 states. Passage of the
Mixed Earner Pandemic Unemployment Act (S. 4442) is a simple and low-cost fix
to this growing problem. The ‘‘mixed earner’’ problem was further exacerbated by
the expiration of the Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program on
July 31, 2020, which decimated the weekly benefit amount. Congress must act to
solve the ‘‘mixed earner’’ problem and also resume the FPUC program so that the
non-traditional workers in the live event space can receive an appropriate benefit
amount for the duration of the industry’s shutdown.
Finally, Congress needs to take steps to ensure that live music can resume and
thrive post-pandemic by encouraging the creation of new sound recordings. The
HITS Act (S. 4955), a bipartisan tax proposal, would help lift music workers, record-
ing studios, and other businesses out of the depths of recession through the produc-
tion of new music. The HITS Act is a low-cost, but important, modification of the
tax code that would create new opportunities for independent music makers to re-
turn to the studio, and eventually the stage. Congress must pass the HITS Act to
ensure that creators can continue to create and go on tour.
The Recording Academy applauds the committee’s commitment to the live events
industry. As the Coronavirus pandemic continues to impact our workers and small
businesses, Congress must enact common-sense solutions to keep the industry
afloat. Without Congressional action, the live events industry is at risk. We look for-
ward to working with the committee and its members on enacting these important
policy measures, and returning to the stage in 2021.
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE BUSINESS CONTINUITY COALITION
The Business Continuity Coalition (BCC) represents a broad range of business in-
surance policyholders—large and small—from across the American economy, em-
ploying more than 60 million workers. The group was launched earlier this year to
provide the policyholder perspective in efforts by policymakers and stakeholders to
develop a public/private program to limit future economic damage from pandemics
that cause business interruptions.
The BCC Steering Committee includes the American Gaming Association, Amer-
ican Hotel & Lodging Association, Fox Corporation, International Council of Shop-
ping Centers, Live Nation, Marriott International, Motion Picture Association,
Nareit, National Association of Broadcasters, National Association of Manufactur-
ers, National Association of Realtors, National Restaurant Association, National Re-
tail Federation, The Real Estate Roundtable, Sony Pictures Entertainment,
ViacomCBS and the Walt Disney Company. A full list of member organizations as
of this date appears at the end of this statement but the coalition continues to ex-
pand and the most up-to-date list of members can always be found at the BCC
website here.
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
The magnitude of the COVID–19 pandemic’s financial and social impacts has ex-
posed significant shortcomings and vulnerabilities in our country’s preparedness for
and resilience to systemic catastrophic events of this scale and nature. This includes
coverage gaps in insurance protection for losses from business interruption occur-
ring arguably in the absence of ‘‘physical damage’’ to the business location. Equally
important, coverage gaps for the pandemic risk have also been revealed or developed
as a result of this year’s crisis in other lines of insurance, including event cancella-
tion, film & TV production package, general liability, and employment practices li-
ability insurance. The crisis has also put stress on workers compensation insurance.
Although overshadowed for the moment by other effects of the pandemic, if not
remedied, these insurance gaps will hinder any recovery. This is especially true in
the entertainment industry, including live performance and broadcast, as well as TV
and movie productions, and it also impacts business lending (including to entertain-
ment), new leasing activity, retail and hospitality sectors. Private insurance alone
cannot and will not remedy the gaps—at least not in the sort-term, and certainly
not on the scale of the current pandemic—but private insurers need to be part of
the solution. What is urgently needed is a federally-backstopped availability mecha-
nism similar to the highly successful one which Congress put in place for terrorism
following 9/11—in short, a TRIA-style program for pandemic risk.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00020 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
17
The BCC recommends that all of the impacted lines of insurance, including event
cancellation insurance, need to be supported with both a ‘‘make-available’’ require-
ment and a robust Federal backstop for the private insurers making the insurance
available. During at least a five-year economic recovery period (subject to reset if
the pandemic recurs), the Federal backstop should be provided without charge (as
is the case with TRIA) to ensure affordability and maximum take-up, and the eco-
nomic resiliency that will foster.
As recognized by all other major proposals currently being vetted, the BCC under-
stands that the business interruption line of insurance needs a special rule given
the particular gap exposed by the COVID–19 crisis. That is, the insurance product
needs to be both for non-physical-damage business interruption (NDBI) 1 and pro-
vided on a parametric basis, which may be the only way to ensure widespread, rapid
delivery of assistance to America’s businesses in future pandemic crises. Liquidity
to meet these rapid pay-outs should be guaranteed. Insurers can be given an option
to satisfy their availability duty by supporting a joint underwriting facility which
would itself have a Federal backstop. Maximum utilization of global reinsurance ca-
pacity and capital markets should also be encouraged. Long-term program con-
tinuity is paramount given the time horizon needed for financing this risk.
DISCUSSION
The BCC brings together more than two dozen industries and companies to de-
velop a plan with policymakers and other stakeholders to protect American jobs and
to limit future economic damage from pandemics and other national emergencies
that cause business interruptions.
The BCC thanks the Subcommittee for its leadership and for holding today’s hear-
ing to address the challenges facing the live entertainment industry stemming from
the coronavirus pandemic. Contributing to the severe economic and employment
headwinds we face is the nation-wide business insurance crisis that has impacted
all aspects of our economy. That insurance protection gap has been exacerbated by
insurers withdrawing event cancellation coverage going forward, leaving the live en-
tertainment industry particularly vulnerable.
Closures and shutdowns caused by COVID–19 have significantly impacted the
employees and operations of businesses across the country, shuttering the live en-
tertainment industry. The BCC, representing more than 60 million workers in the
entertainment, broadcasting, hospitality, retail, communications, restaurant, gam-
ing, and real estate industries, encourages policymakers to take urgent steps to pre-
pare for future risks. While programs like Save Our Stages and RESTART will pro-
vide some short-term or immediate relief to impacted sectors, the live entertainment
industry—and indeed all businesses—need Congress to address the insurance pro-
tection gap to address viability concerns going forward.
Beginning in March 2020 when many sectors of the economy experienced dra-
matic interruptions of demand or production, often but not always as a result of gov-
ernment-ordered lockdowns or shelter-in-place orders, the insurance which is vital
to resuming production also ceased to be available in many cases.
When COVID–19 began, insurers and policyholders initially focused on non-phys-
ical damage business interruption claims and coverage, or lack thereof. As COVID–
19 has evolved over time, the availability of pandemic-related insurance in other
lines has greatly diminished for policyholders when their policies renew. Pandemic
exclusions and related clarifications have since become commonplace in event can-
cellation insurance policies, as well as business interruption insurance policies and
other commercial property and casualty insurance lines such as general liability,
employment practices liability, and specialty lines like production package insur-
ance. While there may have been debate regarding whether business interruption
insurance did or did not cover claims arising from this pandemic, there is no ques-
tion event cancellation insurance was offered with viral infection coverage prior to
the start of COVID-19. Its withdrawal has particularly devastated the live enter-
tainment industry. Like what was experienced with terrorism insurance after 9/11,
policyholders are increasingly finding themselves in the untenantable position of
being unable to secure pandemic coverage, leaving them exposed to business threat-
ening risks.
1 As a general matter, standard business interruption policies include a condition of coverage
that suspension of business ‘‘must be caused by direct physical loss or damage to property’’ at
the insured premises. While the exact extent of ‘‘direct physical loss’’ as it relates to COVID–
19 is the subject of litigation, any physical impact caused by the virus has not typically been
sufficient to sustain a claim in many jurisdictions.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00021 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
18
The alarming constriction of coverage that commercial policyholders are now see-
ing is unquestionably related to the financial impact of the COVID–19 crisis on the
property and casualty insurance sector. While BCC is not in a position to know di-
rectly the exact dimensions of the problem (if indeed it is possible to determine at
this stage) the evidence being offered by longtime industry spokesmen is instructive.
At the September 29th meeting of the Treasury Department’s Federal Advisory
Committee on Insurance (FACI), an insurance industry expert estimated potential
2020 insured losses from COVID–19 across just five lines of business—workers com-
pensation, business interruption/contingency, general liability, mortgage guaranty,
and D&O—at between $3.5 billion and $146.7 billion (to be sure, an extraordinarily
wide range), while also acknowledging that there was pandemic risk exposure in
several other lines (event cancellation, travel, trade credit, PL, medical professional
liability), even with the patchwork of communicable disease policy exclusions which
existed before the COVID–19 outbreak.2 The same FACI presentation also noted
that insurers had begun during 2020 to seek approval from State regulators for
‘‘near-absolute communicable disease exclusions’’ but that ‘‘many of those filings’’
were ‘‘not being approved’’ by State regulators.3
Imposition of ‘‘near-absolute’’ exclusions is no more a workable solution for the
American economy now than it was after 9/11 when the immediate reaction—albeit
understandable—of the insurance industry also was to seek to exclude terrorism
risk from coverage across-the-board. Simply put, the ability of American businesses
to secure pandemic risk insurance will be a key factor in America’s economic recov-
ery and getting our workers back on the job. Collectively we need to find a way to
maintain and restore coverage in many lines of commercial property and casualty
insurance. A public-private partnership is essential to achieving that objective, just
as it was after 9/11.
The BCC is advocating for a public/private insurance program that, in the event
of a government-declared pandemic health emergency, would enable employers to
keep payrolls and supply chains intact, help limit job losses and furloughs, reduce
stress on the financial system, and speed economic recovery when government-im-
posed limitations on operations are lifted. Equally important, as with terrorism risk
insurance, the value of a workable insurance program is not just the payment of
losses but the confidence that adequate protection gives to businesses and their
lenders and workers in the meantime—before, and whether or not there is, a crisis.
As such, the plan must meet the needs of a broad range of groups: the businesses
and employers directly impacted, insurers, lenders and other creditors, policy-
makers, and importantly, taxpayers.
The BCC policy recommendations outlined below embrace several elements of
other pandemic-related proposals providing a parametric NDBI insurance product.
In contrast to many of these proposals, however, BCC recommends mandating avail-
ability in other lines of insurance, including event cancellation. While mandating
availability in these lines, the BCC proposal would give insurers the option of sup-
porting a joint underwriting facility instead of issuing the backstopped NDBI on
their own paper. An important backstop support for insurers’ developing workers
compensation exposure would also be provided.
In short, the BCC policyholder proposal seeks not only widespread availability
and affordability of NDBI coverage but also restoration and expansion of pandemic
coverage in other lines, including event cancellation, movie/TV production package
insurance, general liability, employment practices liability, and other lines that have
been hit hard by COVID–19.
A number of successful models can provide guidance in structuring a government-
backed pandemic-risk reinsurance program. Besides TRIA, perhaps two of the most
salient models are the Federal Crop Insurance Corporation 4 (when the Federal enti-
ty reinsures private crop insurers at various quota share levels) and the War Dam-
age Corporation (WDC) 5 developed during World War II (when WDC insured di-
rectly but required distributing insurers to share in its risk of loss or profit).
2 See presentation of Robert P. Hartwig to Federal Advisory Committee on Insurance, Sep-
tember 29, 2020, particularly slides 13 and 17 (accessed November 16, 2020 at https://
home.treasury.gov/system/files/311/FACI-Presentation-Hartwig-9-20.pdf).
3 Hartwig FACI presentation at slide 19.
4 Public Law 96–365 (Sept. 26, 1980); amended by the Federal Crop Insurance Reform Act of
1994; and by the Federal Agriculture Improvement and Reform Act of 1996 (P.L. 104–127).
5 See Appendix for brief overview of the War Damage Corporation and its interface with pri-
vate insurance industry.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00022 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
19
RECOMMENDATIONS FOR PROGRAM FEATURES
For all these reasons, the Business Continuity Coalition urges the design of any
pandemic risk insurance program adhere to the following principles:
1. Scope: Any Federal backstop should support not only NDBI coverage but also
other pandemic impacted lines of insurance, such as event cancellation, work-
ers compensation, production or cast insurance (for film and TV productions),
and general and employment practices liability insurance. These lines may
need to be supported by a robust backstop even for a recurrence of COVID–
19.
2. Private Insurer Utilization: Insurers should be included in any pandemic in-
surance program to involve a number of current industry advantages: (1) de-
termine appropriate premiums to reduce taxpayer outlays; (2) use existing
claims-paying infrastructure to pay claims; and (3) leverage insurer expertise
in risk mitigation to help businesses understand how they can reduce pan-
demic risk, comply with imposed requirements, and get their businesses up
and running expeditiously.
3. Availability: Eligible insurers should be required either to share some portion
of the risk in the primary NDBI coverage layer or to support other covered
lines of insurance, including event cancellation insurance, as a condition of
being permitted to sell any government-supported NDBI coverage. Any pan-
demic program must properly balance the need to ensure participation with
the reality that insurers cannot take on too much uncertain exposure.
4. Affordability: Premiums for the program should not aim to cover full program
costs. During an initial economic recovery period, the backstop should be
without premium, after which the government should charge at least some
premium for the risk it bears, but policymakers should not expect premiums
to cover the full cost of the program. Premium levels should be set to result
in widespread take-up. Cost recovery should be premised on 50+ years.
5. Solution Must Meet Needs of Businesses of All Sizes: TRIA should be the tem-
plate for both availability and backstop, although there are important dif-
ferences to the pandemic peril that must be reflected in final design. However,
the NDBI benefit and the general availability requirements should avoid an
arbitrary headcount cliff (e.g., 500 employees), just as the backstop should
avoid ‘‘deductibles’’ or co-shares tied to volume rather than risk exposure.
6. Rapid Claims Payment/Minimum Transaction Costs: Any primary NDBI pro-
gram should be structured as parametric coverage, which would be triggered
by defined external conditions (i.e., national health declaration + state/local
action affecting specified business categories) without recourse to usual proof-
of-loss; although use of proceeds might be audited. A Federal Reserve liquidity
facility should be authorized to ensure rapid pay-outs.
7. Pooling Alternative for Offer of NDBI Coverage: Insurers that do not wish to
underwrite the primary NDBI coverage directly should be given the option to
support a joint underwriting facility for that coverage which would also enjoy
the Federal backstop support.
8. Stop-Loss As Well As Quota-Share Protection: Federal reinsurance protection
for both NDBI primary program and for other covered lines, including event
cancellation insurance, should be offered, on an optional paid basis, in the
form of stop-loss protection in addition to the co-share element, given the po-
tentially extreme cumulative risk of pandemic losses.
9. Utilization of Reinsurance and Capital Markets: The Federal program should,
like NFIP, be encouraged to foster development and use of private reinsur-
ance markets as well as capital markets’ alternative risk-transfer mechanism
to further reduce or protect taxpayer exposure.
10. Continuity: A Federal pandemic risk insurance program should be adminis-
tered by a Federal entity housed within the Department of Treasury with con-
tinuous existence, such as the WW II-era WDC (later wound-down) or the
Federal Crop Insurance Corporation.
CONCLUSION
The Business Continuity Coalition and its members are grateful for the oppor-
tunity to submit these comments, and we stand ready to assist this Subcommittee
and all Members of Congress and the Administration in developing a pandemic risk
insurance program.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00023 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
20
We urge Congress to move expeditiously to pass bipartisan legislation that creates
a public-private insurance solution consistent with the principles offered above to
share the financial risk of losses related to pandemics. Due to the nature of the pan-
demic and the increased risk of large gatherings, the live entertainment industry
is in dire need of a sustainable solution in the form of pandemic risk insurance. This
urgent task is an essential precondition to the prompt recovery of this Nation’s econ-
omy, and going forward will help protect jobs and reduce economic damage from fur-
ther pandemics.
The Business Continuity Coalition Members
American Gaming Association
American Hotel and Lodging Association
American Institute of Architects
American Land Title Association
American Resort Development Association
Appraisal Institute
Associated General Contractors
Building Owners and Managers Association
CCIM Institute
CRE Finance Council
Fox Corporation
Independent Film & Television Alliance
Institute for Portfolio Alternatives
International Council of Shopping Centers
International Franchise Association
Live Nation
Marriott International
Motion Picture Association
National Apartment Association
National Association of Broadcasters
National Association of Home Builders
National Association of Manufacturers
National Association of Realtors
NAIOP—Commercial Real Estate Development Association
Nareit
National Independent Venue Association
National Restaurant Association
National Multifamily Housing Council
National Retail Federation
NCTA—The Internet & Television Association
Sony Pictures Entertainment
The Real Estate Board of New York
The Real Estate Roundtable
ViacomCBS
The Walt Disney Company
PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE NATIONAL ASSOCIATION OF THEATRE OWNERS
The motion picture exhibition industry has been uniquely devastated by the
COVID–19 pandemic. Theaters were among the first industries to be ordered closed
and will be among the last to recover. Cinema operators from the largest to the
smallest companies have experienced dramatic revenue losses while ongoing ex-
penses have continued unabated. We urge Congress to act swiftly to pass legislative
solutions that will provide relief for theater operators of all sizes so that this essen-
tial American industry is able to recover and thrive once again.
Movie Theater Industry Pre-Pandemic
Across the United States, movie theater operators ranging from publicly-traded
circuits to mid-size regional companies to mom-and-pop businesses operate a total
of 5,800 theaters and 40,000 movie screens. Movie theaters serve communities of all
sizes and demographics, and are an essential home for the world’s most creative and
ambitious cinematic achievements.
Theaters across the country provide over 153,000 direct jobs, many of which are
held by first-time job holders, minorities, and people with disabilities. Theaters also
support millions of jobs across movie production and in the cinema supply chain,
including concessionaires and food suppliers, construction and design, in-theater ad-
vertising, digital cinema equipment manufacturers, seating manufacturers, sound
equipment manufacturers, ticketing and point of sale system providers, and accessi-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00024 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
21
bility equipment manufacturers. Further, theaters boost thousands of local jobs that
support the day-to-day operations of theaters, including electricians, plumbers,
HVAC services, pest control, security providers, and janitorial services—in addition
to driving foot traffic to surrounding retail and restaurants.
Moviegoing remains one of the most popular and desirable out-of-home activities.
Seeing a film on the big screen is one of the most affordable entertainment options
for families, and draws significant attendance: 268 million people in North America
went to the movies in 2019, more than all the people who attended major sporting
events and theme parks combined—a staggering three-quarters of the population.
Moviegoing is especially enjoyed by minority audiences: in 2019, nonwhite
moviegoers made up 45 percent of all tickets sold, overindexing on their share of
the population. The movie theater industry thrived in 2019, with 1.24 billion tickets
sold in North America and box office grosses of $11.4 billion. 2020 was expected to
be a similarly successful year, with major titles such as Black Widow, Fast & Furi-
ous 9, Minions: The Rise of Gru, No Time To Die, and Top Gun: Maverick antici-
pated to gross billions domestically.
Pandemic Impact on Movie Theaters
The COVID–19 pandemic has had an immediate and unrelenting impact on our
Nation’s movie theaters. As indoor community gathering places, theaters were
among the first to face declining revenue from consumers nervous about reports of
a possible spread of COVID–19 into the United States. Once the United States offi-
cially declared the pandemic, movie theaters were among the first businesses to be
ordered shut down by state and local governments, and tens of thousands of theater
employees were placed on furlough or laid off.
Movie theater operators of all sizes and geographic locations have faced deep fi-
nancial distress due to the pandemic. As a result of closures, consumer concerns,
and lack of new content, the domestic box office is down 80.2 percent from 2019.
For theaters across the country the overall impact is dire: 96 percent of independent
and midsize theaters have lost over 70 percent in revenue in 2020; public companies
have faced 65–75 percent declines in revenue. Without relief tailored to their cir-
cumstances, at least 69 percent of theaters will close permanently or be forced into
bankruptcy before the spring of 2021.
Theaters have faced extreme difficulties in the theatrical distribution supply and
in remaining operationally viable. Movie theaters rely heavily on a steady supply
of new film product to draw audiences, and without this content, theaters simply
cannot survive. As the pandemic continued, studio suppliers moved their releases
to later dates in 2021 or removed them from theatrical distribution altogether, leav-
ing remaining theaters to play old titles that were available to consumers in the
home. Additionally, while movie theaters have been permitted to reopen on a lim-
ited basis in some states and localities, they have been subject to drastic capacity
reductions and curfews that make operations impracticable. Without new films, the-
aters cannot draw necessary audiences; this reduction in the film slate combined
with capacity and curfew changes means that for many theaters they lose more
money being opened than being closed. Many theaters in localities that otherwise
permit them to operate have been forced to remain closed or drastically reduce oper-
ations. Movie theaters in major markets like New York City, Los Angeles, Seattle,
and Portland and across New Mexico and DC have been shuttered for the duration
of the pandemic, and Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island,
and Washington have shut down theaters statewide for the second time.
With a majority of screens closed, and content in short supply, thousands of indi-
viduals who work in theaters remain furloughed. Although small business theater
owners were able to get Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) funding, the affiliation
rules excluded midsized and large companies whose losses have been similarly ex-
treme. For the owners who did qualify for PPP, the limited amount of funding ran
out quickly, and the enduring closure orders made it difficult or impossible for many
theater owners to spend their funding on payroll for a workforce that was otherwise
entitled to pandemic unemployment insurance due to closures, childcare, or valid
health issues. As the pandemic stretches into 2021, theaters risk permanently losing
these valuable employees forever, particularly as unemployment benefits run out.
Should that happen, theater owners will have to endure further costs to hire and
train an entire new team.
If the cinema industry is allowed to fail, the fragile ecosystem of suppliers that
depend on the cinema channel will fail as well. From popcorn and concessions to
projectors and reclining seat manufacturers, an entire industry exists to support
movie theater exhibition. A dramatic reduction in the theatrical footprint could deci-
mate many of these businesses as well.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00025 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
22
Movie theaters also act as anchor tenants in malls and shopping centers. Move
theaters are single-purpose buildings, and landlords will face significant difficulty
securing new tenants in these spaces, particularly tenants that will have the same
kind of draw as movie theaters.
Solutions for Movie Theaters
Given the dire situation facing motion picture exhibition, NATO urges Congress
to swiftly enact solutions that could provide relief to theaters of all sizes and their
employees:
• Pass the Save Our Stages Act (S. 4258/H.R. 7806), as amended to include
movie theaters, with an allocation of $15 billion. The grants provided under the
SOS framework to small and mid-size theater companies, many of which have
been unable to access any other relief programs, would be a financial lifeline
to these struggling companies.
• Create a new loan program for larger companies that allows borrowers in the
hardest-hit industries to obtain lines of credit. The Main Street Lending Pro-
gram was well-intentioned, but the cumbersome application process, difficult
rules, and low lender subscription meant that very few exhibitors were able to
access the program.
• Urge the Treasury Department to continue providing liquidity to capital markets
so that publicly-traded companies in distress are able to access needed funds.
Publicly-traded movie theater companies provide nearly 40 percent of the indus-
try’s jobs. Should their firms face an inability to access capital, those jobs could
disappear.
• Provide robust unemployment support to furloughed and laid-off workers. With
hundreds of cinemas still shuttered, thousands of cinema employees remain fur-
loughed. Congress should provide robust assistance to individuals whose jobs
have been lost or paused due to the pandemic.
We appreciate the Subcommittee’s consideration of movie theaters, our 153,000
employees, and solutions that could assist this essential American industry to sur-
vive and recover.
Senator MORAN. With that, I will turn to the Ranking Member
who will join us in about five minutes. I also understand the Chair-
man of the Full Committee, Senator Wicker, would like to have
opening remarks as well. Senator Wicker.
STATEMENT OF HON. ROGER WICKER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MISSISSIPPI
Senator WICKER. Thank you very much. I do appreciate your
leadership on this important issue. The Senate Commerce Com-
mittee has taken many opportunities this year to examine the im-
pact of the COVID–19 pandemic on Americans’ lives and our econ-
omy. At the full committee level and in our various subcommittees,
we have heard about the unique hardships faced by thousands of
middle class, hardworking Americans in the manufacturing indus-
try, the transportation sector, and consumers who are most vulner-
able to scams.
Today we will hear from representatives of the live event enter-
tainment industry, a sector that has been hit particularly hard this
year. Because the coronavirus spreads so easily among large
crowds in confined spaces, Americans have essentially had to give
up attending live performances such as concerts and theater pro-
ductions. This full shutdown of live events has been devastating for
performing artists and for the venues that host their shows. But
the live event entertainment industry also supports an entire eco-
system of businesses, including lighting technicians, food vendors,
transportation providers, many [inaudible] businesses themselves
and many more just average American workers.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00026 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
23
Live events are part of the fabric of American life. The ability of
people to travel across the country and join together to experience
the great performances has been joy for many Americans. Live
music in particular is of great importance to me. After all, the
State of Mississippi is known around the world as the birthplace
of America’s music. Before the pandemic began, I was fortunate to
see Garth Brooks perform when he was honored with the Library
of Congress’ Gershwin Prize. No doubt Garth Brooks and other
stars have been financially successful enough to weather the eco-
nomic shutdown caused by the pandemic. That is not the point of
this hearing today.
Our concern today is about the average men and women behind
the lights, food trucks, and tour buses who support their families
by bringing the arts and cultural experiences to so many. It is my
sincere hope that when I see a performance like the one I saw with
Garth Brooks again, companies, large and small, and the thou-
sands and thousands of hardworking Americans that make up the
live event entertainment industry will have received the support
they need to stay in business.
Thank you very much, Chairman Moran. This is an important
hearing, and I look forward to hearing from the witnesses.
Senator MORAN. Mr. Chairman, thank you for joining us. And it
is through your encouragement that we are able to have this hear-
ing. Thank you for highlighting this issue for this subcommittee
and for the U.S. Senate.
Let me begin then with our testimony. We will begin with Mr.
Fay, followed by Mr. Hartke, followed by Mr. Laffitte, followed by
Mr. Pantuso, and followed by Mr. Strickland. I now recognize Mr.
David Fay, President and CEO of The Bushnell Center for the Per-
forming Arts in Hartford, Connecticut.
STATEMENT OF DAVID FAY,
PRESIDENT AND CHIEF EXECUTIVE OFFICER,
THE BUSHNELL CENTER FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Mr. FAY. Chairman Moran, thank you. Chairman Wicker. My
Senator, Blumenthal, I am sure will be here momentarily.
Senator MORAN. Would you prefer, Mr. Fay, that we wait till
Senator Blumenthal arrives and we should go to the next witness,
if you want to make sure that Senator Blumenthal is here when
you testify?
Mr. FAY. That is up to you. He and I have talked about this
many times.
Senator MORAN. I am sure he is very familiar. Please proceed.
Mr. FAY. OK. Thank you.
I am David Fay, President of The Bushnell Center for the Per-
forming Arts in Hartford, Connecticut.
I feel like I am in a pandemic-induced time warp. Our downtown,
like so many, has suddenly become a ghost town, all too similar to
those of the 1960s and 1970s that were decimated by the explosive
growth of suburban communities. The hard work to revitalize aban-
doned city centers like Hartford has been driven in no small part
by the substantial public and private investment in restoring and
building new performing arts venues that have become magnets for
attracting people back to our downtowns. This spawned the devel-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00027 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
24
opment of restaurants, bars, clubs, and other venues creating a vi-
tality that has led to residential and commercial development, all
of which has brought new economic strength and restored civic
pride.
It has also led to the creation of an unprecedented touring circuit
supporting tens of thousands of performing artists, entertainers,
and shows. An industry that once was centered in a few major cit-
ies is now a systemic part of a uniquely American artistic mosaic
that stretches literally from sea to shining sea. This vibrant na-
tional industry has provided an essential economic and cultural an-
chor for communities all across our country, that is, until March
when the music stopped.
Today we face an existential threat, a threat not only to our in-
dustry but to the businesses and the city centers, large and small,
that have come to depend on us. The CARES Act was a step but
it was scaled to cover a much shorter period of closure than our in-
dustry continues to face. We simply cannot reopen our venues nor
restart our industry until the virus is subdued, and unfortunately,
that does not appear likely until next fall at the earliest.
Our industry is built on venues from the smallest club where
new talent is discovered and nurtured to the playhouses and re-
gional theaters where local directors, actors, designers, stagehands,
musicians, writers, and more learn and develop their craft; to the
Broadway theaters and producers who look at those venues and
look to them for new talent and to find half of all the new shows
they open each year.
It is also built on performing art centers like The Bushnell. We
are part of a delicately balanced live entertainment ecosystem. We
depend on it to develop the extraordinary talent and shows that
grace our stages, inspiring our audiences, and uplifting the spirit
of our communities. Without your help, this ecosystem is in grave
danger of collapsing and taking with it the pulse of our city cen-
ters.
Yet, this is also about the heart and soul of our country. Even
after the virus is gone, we face a long road of healing and recovery.
The Irish playwright Sean O’Casey once said, ‘‘All the world’s a
stage and most of us are desperately unrehearsed.’’ We live in a
time when emotional intelligence is being outstripped by artificial
intelligence. Increasingly, we look to Alexa for information and to
social media for personal validation rather than pausing to look at
ourselves and reflect on what it means to walk in someone else’s
shoes. Music and theater are a lens through which we see our-
selves, our society, and our world. It is an avenue to explore the
miracle that is the Declaration of Independence, to examine the
roots and repercussions of slavery, and to try to make sense out of
the often confusing evolution of our great American society.
It has been said that everyone dies twice: once when we stop
breathing and then again when our name is spoken for the last
time. We need your help to ensure that our venues and our indus-
try will survive this pandemic so that the voices of our great Amer-
ican creative community will have the platform from which to sing
to us, to challenge and inspire us to be our best selves so that when
our names are spoken for the last time, it will be to honor the con-
tribution we made to our neighbor, our country, and to our world.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00028 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
25
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Fay follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF DAVID FAY, PRESIDENT AND CEO, THE BUSHNELL CENTER
FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS
Thank you, Chairman Moran and Ranking Member Blumenthal, for inviting me
to testify today on behalf of the live performing arts and events industry. I am
[David Fay] the President of The Bushnell Center for the Performing Arts in Hart-
ford, Connecticut. Our downtown, like so many, has become a literal ghost-town, not
too dissimilar from those of the 60s and 70s that were decimated by the explosive
growth of suburban communities. The arduous work to revitalize these abandoned
city centers over the past forty years has been driven in part by private investment
in restored and newly built performance venues, spurred by an array of federal,
state, and local tax incentives and great civic pride. This, in turn, has spawned the
development of restaurants, bars, clubs and other venues creating a vitality that has
led to new residential and retail development, adding economic strength to entire
regions who have successfully established their own unique cultural identities
around these revitalized centers.
It has also led to the creation of an unprecedented touring circuit for regional and
national performing artists, entertainers and shows. An industry that was once cen-
tered in a few major cities is now a systemic part of a uniquely American artistic
mosaic that stretches literally from sea to shining sea. This vibrant national indus-
try has provided an essential economic and cultural anchor for communities all
across our country, but today this industry is facing an existential threat. A threat
not only to the industry, but to the businesses and city centers, large and small,
that have come to depend on it. The Cares Act was a critical step, but it was scaled
to cover a much shorter period of closure than our industry continues to face. We
cannot reopen our venues nor restart our industry until the virus is substantially
subdued, and I do not expect that to occur until, at least, the fall of this coming
year—hopefully!
Our industry is built on live performance venues from the smallest club where
new talent is discovered and nurtured; to the playhouses and regional theatres
where local directors, actors, designers, stagehands, musicians, writers and more,
learn and develop their craft; to the Broadway theatres and producers who look to
these venues for new talent, and to find half of all the new shows they open each
year; and to the performing arts centers, like The Bushnell and those much larger,
who are a part of this delicately balanced ecosystem and who depend on it to de-
velop the extraordinary talent and shows that grace our stages, inspire our audi-
ences, and uplift the spirit of our communities. Without your help, this ecosystem
is in grave danger of collapsing and taking with it the pulse of our city centers.
It is also about the heart and soul of our country. Even after the virus is gone
from our shores, we face a long road of healing and recovery. The Irish playwright,
Sean O’Casey, said, ‘‘All the world’s a stage and most of us are desperately
unrehearsed.’’ I submit to you that it is in our arts and culture that we find the
greatest opportunity to explore what it means to be a human being. We live at a
time when emotional intelligence is being outstripped by Artificial Intelligence. In-
creasingly we look to Alexa and Siri for information, and to social media for per-
sonal validation and guidance, rather than pausing a moment to look at ourselves
and reflect on what it means to walk in someone else’s shoes. The arts are a lens
through which we examine ourselves, our society and our world. It is an avenue to
explore the inspiration of the Declaration of Independence, the roots and repercus-
sions of slavery, and the often-confusing evolution of our great American society.
It has been said the everyone dies twice. Once when we stop breathing, and a sec-
ond time when our name is spoken for the last time. We need your help to ensure
that the arts, our venues, and our industry will survive this pandemic so that the
voices of our great American creative community will have the platform from which
to speak to us, to challenge us and to inspire us to be our best self—so that when
our names are spoken for the last time, it will be to honor the contribution we’ve
made to our fellow man.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00029 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
26
NIVA: National Independent Venue Association
Fact Sheet and Policy Ask Update—November 9, 2020
• NIVA includes more than 2,900 independent live entertainment venues and pro-
moters from all 50 states and Washington, D.C., banding together to fight for
survival.
• Due to the national routing of most tours, our industry will not recover until
the entire country is open at 100 percent capacity. NIVA members need assist-
ance in order to survive until that day.
• According to a survey of NIVA members, 90 percent of independent venues re-
port they will close permanently in a few months without Federal funding. Cur-
rent PPP funding will not solve the crisis.
• Pollstar estimates a $9 billion loss in ticket sales alone—not counting food and
beverage revenue -if venues remain closed through 2020.
• Live events provide 75 percent of all artists’ income.
• For every $1 spent on a ticket at small venues, a total of $12 in economic activ-
ity is generated within communities on restaurants, hotels, taxis, and retail es-
tablishments.
• The estimated direct annual economic impact venues bring to local communities
is nearly $10 billion.
• NIVA members are among the hardest hit. While nearly 90 percent of U.S.
businesses have reopened in some capacity, independent venues remain shut-
tered.
The Broadway League
Touring Broadway Facts: April 2020
• In 2019, Broadway shows performed in over 240 cities across North America
and Canada welcoming over 32 million patrons. Broadway theatre had an eco-
nomic impact of approximately $20 billion in the US, fueling the economies of
all cities it visits including local restaurants, hotels, shops, transportation, and
vendors.
• Broadway tours garnered 18.5 million admissions in the 2018–19 season.
• Broadway tours grossed $1.6 billion in the 2018–19 season.
• Touring Broadway contributes an estimated cumulative $5.14 billion to the met-
ropolitan areas that host shows.
• On average, Broadway tours generate an economic impact of 3.28 times the
gross ticket sales to a local metropolitan area’s economy.
• Tens of thousands of performers, crew members, musicians, artisans, vendor
shop workers and other workers in the live entertainment industry are unem-
ployed and will remain so until the theatre industry re-opens.
Americans for the Arts
COVID–19’s Impact on The Arts Research & Tracking Update: December 7, 2020
1. Impact on Nonprofit Arts and Cultural Sector
Nationally, financial losses to nonprofit arts and cultural organizations are an es-
timated $14.6 billion, to date. 99 percent of producing and presenting organizations
have cancelled events—a loss of 481 million admissions and $15.2 billion in audi-
ence spending at local businesses (e.g., restaurants, lodging, retail, parking). The
total economic impact of organizational and audience-spending losses is $5.04 billion
in lost government revenue and 867,000 jobs no longer being supported. Findings
are based on 19,900 survey responses. (Survey. Dashboard.)
• 35 percent laid off or furloughed staff.
• 63 percent make their cultural product available online or through social media
(67 percent of these organizations expect to continue their virtual presence post-
pandemic).
• 10 percent are ‘‘not confident’’ that they will survive the pandemic (a potential
loss of 12,000 organizations).
• 41 percent of nonprofit arts organizations are currently open. 59 percent of or-
ganizations remain closed.
✓ Open: 12 percent have remained open throughout. 29 percent have since re-
opened.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00030 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
27
✓ Closed: 20 percent have a target date for re-opening. 39 percent have no tar-
get date for re-opening.
• Top 4 Barriers to Reopening: (1) customers unlikely to attend, (2) government
restrictions/guidelines, (3) staff/board do not feel it is yet safe, and (4) imprac-
tical to produce art product in current environment.
2. Impact on Artist/Creative Workers
Artists/creatives are among the most severely affected workers by the pandemic.
63 percent have become fully unemployed. They expect to lose an average of $22,000
each in creativity-based income in 2020 ($50.6 billion, nationally). Findings are
based on 30,000 survey responses. (Survey.Dashboard)
• 95 percent report loss of income.
• 79 percent experienced a decrease in creative work that generated income (62
percent ‘‘drastic decrease’’).
• 67 percent are unable to access the supplies, resources, spaces, or people nec-
essary for creative work.
• 78 percent have no post-pandemic financial recovery plan.
• Black, Indigenous, artists of color (BIPOC) have higher rates of unemployment
than white artists due to the pandemic (69 percent vs. 60 percent) and expect
to lose a larger percentage of their 2020 income (61 percent vs. 56 percent).
• Top 3 Needs for Artists: unemployment insurance, food/housing assistance, for-
givable business loans.
Senator MORAN. Mr. Fay, thank you. Very well spoken.
In my isolation in my basement on the weekends, the Smithso-
nian channel has been doing Aerial America and recently focused
on Hartford, Connecticut. Assuming I can get your Senator to in-
vite me to Hartford, I would be glad to come see one of your per-
formances as soon as that is possible.
Senator BLUMENTHAL. You are invited, Mr. Chairman.
Senator MORAN. Thank you, Mr. Ranking Member.
Let me see. Senator Blumenthal, would you like to—Mr. Fay was
our first witness. Would you like to follow him?
STATEMENT OF HON. RICHARD BLUMENTHAL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM CONNECTICUT
Senator BLUMENTHAL. I would be delighted.
And first, thank you to David Fay, a hero of many of us who re-
vere Connecticut’s stages and venues.
And thank you to you, Mr. Chairman, for convening this hearing.
Senator Klobuchar is here. She has been a leading cosponsor of the
Save Our Stages Act as she has been on so many efforts to aid
small business.
I want to thank all of the participants who are here today on this
really critically important legislation. Our cultural institutions are
really the lifeblood of our democracy. They distinguish us as a de-
mocracy, as a country. They are examples of our cultural heritage
and treasure, and we ignore their needs at our grave peril.
I am so glad to have heard Mr. Fay’s very eloquent and powerful
remarks, and I am going to take the transcript with me all around
Connecticut and to my colleagues. Over the past months, in fact,
I have heard from theaters and stages across Connecticut, as well
as the country, who are facing life and death decisions and strug-
gling to keep the lights on, literally.
In September, I visited the Palace Theater, a 1,600 performing
arts institution, that has been a cultural center for Stanford, my
hometown, for nearly a century. In normal times, the Palace The-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00031 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
28
ater would be hosting the Nutcracker ballet to a sold-out audience,
and now like much of our lives, the ballet is broadcast online.
In Fairfield, the Fairfield Theater Company turned initially to
live stream shows. They have recently reopened for the first time
since March, but with barriers between the stage and the audience,
literally physical barriers that severely reduce capacity to accom-
modate distancing. This kind of limited performance is not sustain-
able. I have been to The Bushnell, Mr. Fay’s great institution, the
Warner, the Schubert, as well as Long Wharf in New Haven, and
I have seen for myself the limits that have been applied.
I think we need, for the sake of the employees of these great in-
stitutions, for the sake of the economic institutions that depend on
them, whether they are small businesses like retailers or res-
taurants that depend on people coming downtown—they are great
sources of economic driving impetus as well as cultural heritage.
I am proud to be a cosponsor of the Save Our Stages Act, which
has been introduced by Senator Klobuchar. This legislation would
authorize grants for theaters like The Bushnell to help cover pay-
roll and operating costs, including personal protective equipment,
and as well, the RESTART Act, which is so important also to small
businesses. We are now approaching a critical point when we must
save our stages and our small businesses that are hanging by a
thread. For the sake of the businesses in their proximity who de-
pend on them whether they are places to eat or venues to shop, for
the sake of the employees who work there, the actors, as well as
the stagehands and the lighting assistants, for the sake of our cul-
tural heritage and the great treasures of enjoyment, for the sake
of our families that come there to be together and friends and
neighbors who regard them as social centers, as well as artistic
gems, we should pass this measure. And I am very grateful to all
of our witnesses today for providing the intellectual ammunition
that we will need to convince our colleagues to include this step in
the compromised rescue package now under negotiation. It is in
that package now and hopefully it will remain there.
And, Mr. Chairman, thank you for bringing us together.
Senator MORAN. Senator Blumenthal, thank you very much.
Our second witness is Mr. Adam Hartke. He is the Owner of the
Cotillion and Wave in Wichita, Kansas. Mr. Hartke, fellow Kansan,
welcome to our subcommittee hearing, and I look forward to your
testimony.
STATEMENT OF ADAM HARTKE, CO-OWNER—WAVE &
THE COTILLION; ADVOCACY COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR—
NATIONAL INDEPENDENT VENUE ASSOCIATION (NIVA)
Mr. HARTKE. Thank you. Good morning, Chairman Moran and
Ranking Member Blumenthal and distinguished members of this
Committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify.
We are here because we urgently need your help. My wife and
I are small business people. We co-own two live music venues in
Wichita, Kansas, Wave and Cotillion. I also serve as advocacy com-
mittee Co-Chair for the National Independent Venue Association,
a coalition of nearly 3,000 independent music venues and pro-
moters in all 50 states and D.C.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00032 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
29
My early aspirations came from stories of my grandparents work-
ing shows at The Cotillion in the 1960s. My grandfather helped
manage the facility and my grandmother worked the box office.
After attending Kansas University, I took a job as a stagehand
with IATSE Local 190. I could not afford a car, so I would catch
rides with the union business agent who would always make sure
I could get to work.
In the following decade, I became operations and promotions di-
rector at the Orpheum Theater and later as operations director at
Wichita Festivals, producer of River Fest. There I shared a common
experience with my father who helped set up the infrastructure of
the first River Fest in 1970 in his role as a laborer with the parks
department.
In 2018, I became Co-Owner of The Cotillion where my grand-
parents had worked 60 years ago. My mother still has memories
of babysitting her four younger siblings on nights my grandparents
worked shows. Becoming a co-owner of The Cotillion was the real-
ization of not only my dream but it seemed to be the realization
of the dreams of numerous generations of those within my family.
In 2018, I realized another dream: to design and build a large
outdoor venue. This idea started with a drawing I did on graph
paper, and the next year Wave was built and opened with my wife
Jessie and me at the helm of its operations.
In 2019, business blossomed. We pushed more events through
The Cotillion, and Wave quickly became a favorite destination for
concert goers. Both venues drove tourism and our local economy,
drawing visitors from all 50 states. By the end of 2019, we were
projecting 2020 to be our best year on record. In preparation for the
new year, we made large capital investments in both venues. The
beginning of 2020 showed increased revenues. Then on March 13,
in response to the COVID–19 pandemic, our businesses were man-
dated closed. Operations ceased. We scrambled to understand the
impact this would have on our industry and our community as a
whole.
Our employees are our family, many of whom I worked with in
IATSE. We eat together, sweat together, bleed together, smile to-
gether, and cry together. They were our first concern, and we
quickly created a plan to pay our core staff crisis pay while shut-
tered. We then assessed hard costs. ‘‘Gutted’’ is the only word that
truly reflects how we felt in this moment.
We received PPP assistance, and the funds were used as origi-
nally stipulated with 75 percent going to payroll. These funds ran
out in June, and since then, most of our employees have been fur-
loughed or laid off. The amount of PPP, 2.5 times payroll, was not
sufficient for an industry with 100 percent of its core bills, 95-plus
percent revenue loss, and we will be fully shuttered for 18 months.
With PPP, we were able to pay about 8 weeks of payroll and about
half a month of core bills.
We also received EIDL loans. Once again, the amount of these
loans were insufficient, and within 3 months, the funds were de-
pleted. This is now a debt we have to pay off for the next 30 years.
Many of us have personal guarantees on our businesses. Without
help, we could lose our homes. Our children will not be provided
for, and everything we have worked for will vanish. A survey of
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00033 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
30
NIVA members shows that 90 percent of mom and pop venues will
go under without assistance. These are the same venues that a
2019 study showed generate $12 of economic activity for every dol-
lar spent on a concert ticket at a small venue.
Unlike many industries, we rely on a national reopening before
we can resume operations, as the artists have to tour across the
country. In other words, we have no inventory until artists begin
to tour again. These are the same artists that recently sent Con-
gress a letter on NIVA’s behalf with over 600 artists’ signatures
supporting our request for help. To date, we have had more 2.1
million e-mails sent to Congress from our fans pleading to save our
stages.
We are asking Congress to pass the Save Our Stages Act and an
extension of PUA and FPUC as part of the next COVID relief bill
this week. This is what will save us. Time is of the essence. After
9 months, venues are going under at a quickening pace. We des-
perately need help now.
On December 7 of 2020, The Cotillion celebrated its 60th year of
continued operation while our historic venue sat shuttered. Our
biggest fear is that we will have to close our doors forever and the
institutions, for which we have sacrificed so much, will be de-
stroyed. We are sitting before you pleading with Congress to help
those like us. Please do not let the music die. Please save our
stages so our small family business can survive and maybe some
day my 7-year-old son Henry will take over and the music will be
passed on for generations to come.
We thank Senator Cornyn, Senator Klobuchar, Senator Moran,
Senator Blumenthal, and other committee members for their sup-
port on the Save Our Stages Act and our industry as a whole.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Hartke follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF ADAM HARTKE, CO-OWNER—WAVE & THE COTILLION;
ADVOCACY COMMITTEE CO-CHAIR—NATIONAL INDEPENDENT VENUE ASSOCIATION
(NIVA)
Good morning Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal, and distinguished
members of this committee. Thank you for inviting me to testify. My wife and I are
small business people who co-own two live music venues in Wichita, Kansas, Wave
and The Cotillion. I also serve as advocacy committee Co-Chair for the National
Independent Venue Association (NIVA), a coalition of nearly 3,000 independent
music venues and promoters in all 50 states and DC that formed as a response to
the pandemic. My career in the live music industry began 20 years ago, as a student
at Kansas University (KU) and a member of the promotions staff at the student run
radio station KJHK, hanging posters, working merchandise tables at shows, and
helping bands carry gear. My early aspirations came from hearing stories of my
grandparents working shows at The Cotillion Ballroom in Wichita in the 1960s. My
grandfather helped manage the facility, and my grandmother worked the box office.
My uncle, who worked on the artist management and label side of the music in-
dustry for 45 years, also captured my attention as a child and seeded my future ca-
reer. In the years following my time at KU, I moved back to Wichita with the goal
of creating a thriving live music industry in my hometown. At that time there was
little opportunity for a kid without resources and capital. I found myself doing small
DIY shows, sleeping in a makeshift recording studio I had set up in an old musty
office space I was renting, and cooking ramen on a space heater. Luckily, I found
support through my colleagues and friends in the industry and landed a job with
IATSE local 190 working load ins/outs, and jumping at every chance offered when
the phone rang. I was broke and couldn’t afford a car, so I would catch a ride to
the venue with the Union Business Agent, who took a liking to me and would al-
ways make sure I could get to work. Most of my friends and family told me to forget
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00034 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
31
about doing shows and just go get a ‘‘real job.’’ But I felt I was making progress,
even though it seemed slow to those watching from the sidelines.
The following decade I continued to work diligently. I found myself a job as oper-
ations & promotions director at the Wichita Orpheum Theater, and later as oper-
ations director at Wichita Festivals Inc, which produces the Wichita River Festival.
At Wichita Festivals I shared a common experience with my father, who helped set
up the infrastructure of the very first Wichita Riverfest in 1970 through his job as
a laborer within the parks department. Live music has always been an integral part
of our family dynamic. From my parents traveling to the Denver Pop Festival in
1969 on their honeymoon to see Jimi Hendrix, Creedence Clearwater Revival, and
Frank Zappa, to the hundreds of shows they took me to as a child. Some of my ear-
liest memories stem from the joy I felt when attending shows with my parents. And
then, in 2018, I became a co-owner of The Cotillion, where my grandparents had
worked nearly 60 years ago. My mother still has memories of babysitting her 4
younger siblings on nights my grandparents had to work shows. Becoming a co-
owner of the Cotillion was the realization of not only my dream, but it seemed to
be the realization of the dreams of numerous generations of those within my family.
In 2018, I also realized another dream of mine, to design and build a large out-
door venue in downtown Wichita. This idea started with a drawing I did on graph
paper, and the next year Wave was built and opened with my wife Jessie and me
at the helm of its operations.
In 2019, both businesses blossomed. We pushed more events through The Cotil-
lion than previous years and Wave quickly became a favorite destination for concert
goers from all over the region. Both venues brought visitors from all 50 states, in-
creasing tourism in Kansas and driving our local economy. We also expanded the
cultural offerings within Wichita, taking big risks on shows that typically would not
play our market. While these shows were not always financially successful, they had
a huge impact on the overall morale of our city. We found we were in line with the
Chicago Loop study that shows for every $1 spent on a concert ticket at a small
venue, $12 of economic activity is generated for local businesses.
By the end of 2019, we were projecting 2020 to be our best year on record, and
our community was set to reap the benefits. We made facility improvements at The
Cotillion to make the experience more enjoyable for artists as well as the customers.
At Wave, we built an upper deck that would expand the capacity of our outdoor
space, create a unique show experience, and further increase the economic benefit
of our venue to Kansas.
The beginning of 2020 was going well. Revenues were up at both venues. Our fa-
cility improvements were completed, having invested a lot of capital in preparation
for a very busy year. Then, on March 13, in response to the COVID–19 pandemic,
our venues were mandated closed by Sedgwick County. All operations ceased as we
scrambled to understand the impact this would have on our industry.
Our employees are our family. Many of whom I worked with in IATSE or during
my DIY promotion days. We eat together, sweat together, bleed together, smile to-
gether, and cry together. The first concern I had was what we could do to help our
employees through this if it lasts. We quickly created a plan to pay our core employ-
ees crisis pay while we were shuttered. I then looked at the hard costs of utilities,
rent/mortgage, insurance, licensing, and all the other expenses we would still be re-
sponsible for paying. Gutted is the only word I can think of that truly reflects the
feeling my wife Jessie and I had when projecting our finances through 2020. Not
only would the business’ survival rely on furloughing or laying off our employees,
but all of our reserves and liquidity would completely dry up within 6–9 months.
We quickly realized, much to our horror, that without help, we would not make it
through this crisis. Our dreams were shattering in front of our eyes. Through no
fault of our own, we had to tell our employees that we could not continue to pay
them. We faced the looming disaster of our personal guarantees on the business
being called out, which in turn made it entirely possible that we would lose our
home, our son would not have a roof over his head, and we would lose everything.
Both of our venues received PPP assistance, but that ran out in early June; the
funds were used as intended with 75 percent going to payroll. Since then, most of
our employees have been furloughed or laid off, and we’ve done our best to help
them navigate the pandemic unemployment assistance (PUA) program. Many of our
employees have been with us for many years, or decades, and have been trained to
a point where they are some of the best in the industry. In smaller markets, like
Wichita, one of our biggest fears is that we will lose these highly trained profes-
sionals to other industries, or even worse to other communities. The restrictions on
PPP also made it impossible to pay our bills in full, and the fact that we are fully
shuttered with no work for our employees to do, further complicated our situation.
Lastly, the amount of PPP, 2.5X payroll, wasn’t sufficient for an industry that has
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00035 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
32
95 percent+ revenue loss, and has been fully shuttered now for nearly 9 months,
with likely another 9 months of being fully shuttered ahead of us. With PPP we
were able to pay 8 weeks of payroll, and about half of a month of core bills.
Beyond PPP, our venues received assistance from EIDL loans. Once again the
amount of the EIDL loans did not cover the extent of impact this crisis has had on
our industry and within 3 months these funds were depleted. This is now a debt
we will be paying off for the next 30 years. We are expecting to be closed for a total
of at least 18 months, with no revenue, but still shouldering 100 percent of our core
bills. We also fear that once we are able to reopen, we will face a recovery period
of at least 6–18 months in which our revenues will be drastically reduced due to
social distancing measures and capacity restrictions. Our business model relies on
our ability to sell a minimum of about 80 percent of our total capacities, so oper-
ating at anything less than that will automatically cause us to lose money. Coupled
with additional costs incurred due to social distancing, extra cleaning, extra safety
protocols, and the additional equipment needed to safely operate, it will be very dif-
ficult for us to simply break even. It is likely we will not realize our full revenue
streams until 2023 or later, which puts us in a very volatile situation coming off
of such a crippling closure.
Again, many of us have personal guarantees on our businesses. If we do not get
the help we need, we will lose our homes, our children will not be provided for, and
everything we have worked for will vanish before our eyes due to no fault of our
own. A survey of NIVA members shows that 90 percent of mom & pop venues,
venues like Wave and The Cotillion, will go under without Federal assistance. We
have remained closed in the name of public health and safety, risking everything
we have with no promise from anyone that we will receive further aid, only the hope
that Congress will deliver for us.
But we have not simply been sitting at home hoping we’ll get relief. NIVA formed
shortly after the pandemic so that we could not only share tips and resources to
navigate this new normal, but also to band together and fight for our survival,
which has become our full-time job. And we’ve been glad to do this alongside and
with support from others across the live event industry—from the artists to our
workers to our vendors to our fans. We are very mindful of the ecosystem of the
live entertainment industry as a whole.
Unlike many industries, we rely on a national reopening before we can resume
operations, as the artists that play in Wichita have to tour across the country. In
other words, we have no ‘‘inventory’’ until artists begin touring again. And due to
inconsistencies in local mandates and restrictions on venues, artists are unable to
route shows at this point. The booking and promoting process has a 3–6 month lead
time on average, which adds an additional layer of complexity to our recovery pe-
riod. Any seemingly small glitches like unexpected temporary closures or restric-
tions due to outbreaks, inconsistencies in local COVID related licensing policies, con-
sumer confidence causing low ticket sales, or many other unknown circumstances
will make navigating the national reopening much more difficult for our industry.
Our venues are the catalyst to many artists’ careers. Without smaller stages for
new artists to perform, we will see fewer superstars in the future, and in turn the
entire industry will suffer. Recently, a letter was sent to Congress on NIVA’s behalf
with over 600 artists signatures supporting our request for help. Live events provide
75 percent of artists’ income, and without independent stages, many artists will
have no options of spaces to perform once this crisis is over.
Because of our focus on artists we have a strong alliance with the National Inde-
pendent Talent Organization which represents hundreds of mom and pop talent
agents and managers. We also have support from organizations like RIAA, A2IM,
Recording Academy, Country Music Association, and Music Biz. Without these in-
dustry partners it would be nearly impossible for any of us to operate in isolation.
Beyond our industry partners, and those we do business with, our fans miss at-
tending shows at our venues. One of the biggest signals that this crisis is behind
us will be the ability to go to shows with your friends and loved ones once again.
To date, we have had more than 2.1 million e-mails sent to Congress from our fans
in support of the Save Our Stages Act.
We also have bipartisan support of 57 Senate cosponsors for the Save Our Stages
Act, as well as 172 House cosponsors. The Save Our Stages Act has been in bills
presented by Republicans, Democrats, and bipartisan groups.
What we are asking for is the passing of the Save Our Stages Act as written and
an extension of PUA to take care of our employees until we can rehire them and
resume operations. This is what will save the mom and pop venues across the coun-
try, and ensure we are there to once again be the anchors within our communities,
and the overall live entertainment ecosystem within America.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00036 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
33
The Save Our Stages Act (S. 4258/H.R. 7806) led by Senators John Cornyn (R–
TX) and Amy Klobuchar (D–MN) and Representatives Peter Welch (D–VT) and
Roger Williams (R–TX):
• Ensures forgiveness and increases access: This bill establishes a grant program
for live venue operators, promoters, producers and talent representatives. By of-
fering grants, forgiveness is ensured. In addition, grants increase access for
business owners that may not have a relationship with banks. Finally, the bill
extends eligibility to state and locally owned venues (like Red Rocks in Denver,
CO) and non-profits that otherwise meet the eligibility requirements.
• Doesn’t penalize industries that rely on part-time employees: Counts Full Time
Employees as 1 employee and part-time employees as 1⁄2 an employee.
Based on this definition, NIVA members have fewer than 250 FTEs.
• Ensures sufficient funding to survive until reopening: Rather than basing loan
amount on payroll, grants are made to eligible recipients in an amount equal
to 45 percent of gross earned revenue from 2019, with a cap of $12 million.
• Provides long-term support: Provides supplemental grants to independent busi-
nesses that demonstrate continued need based on continued revenue loss. This
is the only bill that recognizes venues will be closed well into 2021 and seeks
to provide truly long-term support.
• Ensures the ability to keep the lights on: With no restrictions on percentage used
for payroll versus other costs, the bill permits recipients to use grants for costs
incurred during the COVID pandemic for rent, utilities, mortgage obligations,
PPE procurement, payments to contractors, regular maintenance, administra-
tive costs, taxes, operating leases, and capital expenditures related to meeting
state, local, or Federal social distancing guidelines.
Make no mistake, time is of the essence. After 9 months, venues are going under
at a quickening pace. We desperately need help now, not next month or the month
after. We need Congress to pass the next Covid Relief bill this week.
On Dec 7 of 2020, The Cotillion celebrated its 60th year of continued operation.
Instead of a big show and a week-long celebration, the historic venue sat empty and
shuttered for the first time. Jessie and I sat at home, as did our employees, wanting
nothing more than to be back at work surrounded by the ones we love doing the
thing we are most passionate about. Our biggest fear, and I think I can say with
confidence that this is a collective fear of thousands across the country, is that we
will have to close our doors forever and the institutions for which we have sacrificed
so much will be destroyed after weathering so many hard times throughout history.
We are a small family business, and have always hoped we would persevere for gen-
erations to come. We are now pleading with Congress to help those like us, don’t
let the music die, and please save our stages. With your help we can survive this,
our small family business will survive and maybe someday my son Hank will take
over and the music will be passed on for generations to come.
Senator MORAN. Mr. Hartke, thank you for your compelling testi-
mony. And, I too, hope your son is capable of carrying on the family
business.
We now turn to our third witness, Mr. Ron Laffitte. He is the
President of Patriot Management in Los Angeles, California. Mr.
Laffitte.
STATEMENT OF RON LAFFITTE, PRESIDENT,
PATRIOT MANAGEMENT
Mr. LAFFITTE. Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal,
and other distinguished members of this subcommittee, thank you
for the opportunity to appear before you today for this important
hearing on the impact COVID–19 has had on the live entertain-
ment industry.
My name is Ron Laffitte, and I am the President of Patriot Man-
agement, an artist management company owned by Live Nation.
Patriot represents over 45 artists, record producers, and song-
writers, including Pharrell Williams, Ryan Tedder and his band,
One Republic, the Backstreet Boys, and Usher.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00037 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
34
I have been a part of the music business since I was 14. I started
helping local bands by doing things like selling T-shirts and mak-
ing flyers. Fortunately, for me one of those bands was Metallica.
I was able to turn that opportunity into a career. Instead of going
to college, I went on tour. That was my education.
Since then, I have had the privilege of managing many bands,
running a record company, and ultimately coming back to doing
what I love the most, representing the artists as their manager.
Before any of this, I was a music fan and I still am. From the be-
ginning, you could always find me in front of the stage somewhere
as an obsessed fan. That obsession has become my life. Most of my
closest friends are people I have grown up with in this business,
people I met on the road, those who promote the shows, those who
work in the venues, and those who manage and staff these tours.
My story is not unique. A concert is more than an opportunity
to just listen to music. It is a shared experience that creates and
requires a community.
There are many aspects of the COVID–19 pandemic that make
it an unparalleled tragedy: the lives lost, the jobs destroyed, and
the social isolation. Our industry has been deeply and profoundly
affected by this crisis. The pandemic has brought concerts and the
vast economic ecosystem that supports those concerts and all other
live events to a screeching halt.
This ecosystem starts with the artists creating their music in
bedrooms or garages with a dream of one day performing in front
of a live audience that
[inaudible] their own. Artists are feeling the pain of this pan-
demic personally and professionally. They miss performing live for
their fans but they also feel responsible for the thousands of people
who help make these concerts and tours happen.
As you all know, the live entertainment industry in the United
States is massive, with thousands of people who make each tour
and concert possible, including the road crews, the venue per-
sonnel, and the concession staff. But when you consider the eco-
nomic impact of the live entertainment ecosystem, it goes far be-
yond just these professions. It impacts many local and regional
economies. That includes the hotels where the performers, crews,
and fans stay, the restaurants where they eat, and the transpor-
tation we use to attend these events.
When the pandemic struck in the United States, live entertain-
ment jobs disappeared overnight, jobs that will not return until we
have conquered this virus. Everyone employed in this industry is
hurting, whether they have been small towns or the big cities,
whether they work in independent venues like the ones Adam
talked about, or the biggest arenas. No venue has been immune
from the impact of this crisis.
It is critical that Congress include comprehensive relief for the
entertainment industry in the next COVID–19 legislative package.
We were one of the first industries to bear the brunt of this pan-
demic, and we will likely be one of the last to get back to normal.
This relief should help every venue and every professional working
in the live entertainment space until this crisis ends.
The pandemic’s economic impact on our industry is staggering.
Ninety-five percent of all events in 2020 have either been canceled
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00038 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
35
or postponed, with 77 percent of workers having lost 100 percent
of their income. In addition, 97 percent of contract workers, the
backup bands, sound mixers, lighting companies, et cetera—every-
one has been out of work since March, and unlike restaurants or
airlines that can operate at a reduced capacity, live entertainment
is largely an all-or-nothing proposition.
There are two specific ways Congress can help.
First, all live event workers are hurting regardless of their em-
ployer. Any relief for our industry should focus on the employees
and the contractors. Grants and loans should be used for payroll
and made available to all venues with less than 5,000 seats, as well
as all public venues. Save Our Stages is a great start, but we can
do so much more. All venue employees need your help.
Second, Congress needs to extend the retention tax credits. With
these credits, workers still employed can maintain employment
until shows return and furloughed employees can continue to re-
ceive their employer-sponsored health care.
Thank you again for this opportunity to testify. I appreciate this
subcommittee drawing attention to the plight of the live entertain-
ment business, especially our workers.
I look forward to answering your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Laffitte follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF RON LAFFITTE, PRESIDENT, PATRIOT MANAGEMENT
Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal, and other distinguished Mem-
bers of this Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today
for this important and timely hearing examining the impact of COVID–19 on the
live entertainment industry. My name is Ron Laffitte, and I am the President of
Patriot Management.
Patriot Management represents over 45 artists, producers and songwriters, in-
cluding Pharrell Williams, Ryan Tedder, The Backstreet Boys, and Usher. I also
spent more than 10 years as a record label executive as GM of Elektra Records and
President of Capitol Records, where I had the privilege of working with numerous
iconic acts, including Coldplay and Radiohead.
Music plays a profound and intangible role in our lives. Music evokes a vast array
of emotions—and live entertainment is one of the most powerful and important
ways to experience it. Live entertainment is where we gather with friends and loved
ones to experience the music that stirs our emotions and the events that become
life-long memories. These experiences also have the ability to be a great equalizer,
uniting people from all ages, walks of life, and backgrounds as one community.
There are many aspects of the COVID–19 Pandemic that make it an unparalleled
tragedy—the lives lost, the jobs destroyed, the social isolation inflicted, and the edu-
cational opportunities missed. No industry has been more deeply and profoundly
crippled by this crisis than live entertainment.
The pandemic has brought concerts, and the vast economic ecosystem that sup-
ports concerts and other live entertainment events, to a screeching halt. In addition
to the economic impact of the shutdown, the isolation and despair that has made
this pandemic so difficult for many is amplified as millions of fans are missing the
connection, community, and culture these events provide.
Restrictions on mass gatherings, to rightly protect public health, have caused nu-
merous live entertainment events to be cancelled or postponed, resulting in a sharp
contraction in live entertainment revenue. Live music in the United States gen-
erated $10.9 billion in 2019,1 revenues that largely disappeared in 2020. PWC esti-
mates that live music revenue will contract 64 percent globally in 2020.2
1 PwC, Global Entertainment & Media Outlook, 2020–2024: Music, Radio, and Podcasts, 15,
Sept. 2020.
2 Id.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00039 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
36
How big is the economic impact? The United States is home to the world’s biggest
music market.3 The music industry added $143 billion annually in value to the U.S.
economy in 2016 and created 1.9 million jobs across a broad swathe of vocations.4
What is the live entertainment ecosystem in the United States? This ecosystem
starts with artists creating music in their bedrooms or garages with the dream of
one day performing in front of a live audience. Artists feel the pain of the pandemic
personally and professionally. They miss performing live for fans. They miss the joy
of telling a story through music. But, most importantly, they feel responsible for the
thousands of people who help make concerts and tours happen.
The live entertainment ecosystem is comprised of more than 80,000 businesses,
including businesses of promoters, agents, managers, performers and artists. Most
artists also have small businesses setup to employ tour managers, production man-
agers, lighting directors, audio engineers, bus drivers, and other individuals critical
to the artist’s execution of a live event. There are also the hundreds of people work-
ing behind the scenes to make a tour and concert successful from a venue’s perspec-
tive, including stage and sound crews, truck drivers, electricians, welders, security
officers, ushers, ticket takers as well as employees who operate food and beverage
concessions and sell merchandise.
Much of the workforce involved in putting on a live event of any size are highly
skilled in their craft. Lighting technicians, sound engineers and stage designers and
builders, among so many others, spend years honing their expertise to deliver mem-
orable events under circumstances that can be taxing for people physically and per-
sonally as they live much of life on the road.
But when you consider the economic impact of the live entertainment ecosystem,
it goes far beyond these professions, and implicates many local and regional econo-
mies. It includes hotels where performers, crews, and fans stay, restaurants at
which they eat, and transportation they use to attend an event and haul equipment
from one city to another. All of these industries suffer when live entertainment does
not exist.
When the pandemic struck the United States, live entertainment jobs disappeared
overnight, jobs that will not return until we have conquered the virus. I implore
Congress to help us protect and preserve this ecosystem during these challenging
times. No venue, vendor, artist or live entertainment worker has been immune from
the impact of this crisis, whether they live in small towns or large cities, or work
at small venues or large arenas. Live entertainment workers can be full-time or
part-time, part of a tour or part of a city’s base of skilled workers that bring sets,
stages, and venues to life.
I strongly urge Congress to include relief for the live entertainment industry in
the next COVID–19 legislative package. We were one of the first industries to bear
the brunt of the pandemic, and we will be one of last to get back to normal. This
relief should help every venue, company and professional involved in the live enter-
tainment ecosystem stay afloat until this crisis abates.
This is a sector which will see demand return at rates of 2019 or more once the
virus is contained. I would ask Congress to help us ensure the supply chain is in
place and strong enough to meet this demand when it returns. Businesses such as
live entertainment will be critical in fueling the United States’ economic recovery.
3 Stephen E. Siwek, Economists Incorporated, The U.S. Music Industries: Jobs & Benefits, Re-
cording Industry Association of America, 5, April 2018.
4 Id.
1215RONL1.eps
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00040 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
37
Many performers feel as isolated from their fans as their fans do from them. They
cannot wait to go back on tour to bring joy and a sense of togetherness to millions
of fans. And once they do, crews and communities across our Nation will once again
tap into the economic output of live entertainment. Congress needs to help bridge
the gap until that can occur.
As an industry, we are all hurting. And unlike restaurants or airlines that can
operate at reduced capacity, live entertainment is largely an all or nothing propo-
sition. The pandemic’s economic impact on our industry is staggering: 95 percent of
all events in 2020 have been cancelled or postponed and 77 percent of workers have
lost 100 percent of their income. In addition, 97 percent of contract workers (back-
up bands, sound mixers, bus drivers, lighting companies, etc.) have been out of work
since March.
There are three specific ways Congress can help the live entertainment industry.
First, expand the Save Our Stages legislation to provide relief to more venues, in-
cluding any venue with less than 5,000 seats as well as all publicly owned venues.
The employees of these venues and the vendor ecosystem they support need your
help just as much as those employed and supported by the subset of venues in the
current draft bill. And these venues are essential places of work not just for employ-
ees, but for contractors. They need access to grants until mass gatherings can re-
sume safely.
Second, Congress needs to extend employee retention tax credits. With these cred-
its, workers still employed can maintain employment until shows return and fur-
loughed employees can continue to receive their employer-sponsored healthcare.
Maintaining employment arrangements will limit having additional live entertain-
ment industry workers pushed into unemployment, which will ultimately allow a
quicker economic recovery and lower long-term worker dislocation within the indus-
try.
Third, I urge you to pass the Mixed Earner Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
Act (H.R. 7691) to address unnecessary burdens when filing for unemployment
faced by gig musicians with multiple employment streams.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify at this important hearing. I greatly
appreciate this subcommittee drawing attention to the plight of the live entertain-
ment industry and live entertainment workers caused by the pandemic. I look for-
ward to answering your questions and working with you to support the sector, and
the workforce, I regard as family.
Senator MORAN. Mr. Laffitte, thank you very much.
Now Mr. Pantuso, President and Chief Executive Officer of the
American Bus Association.
STATEMENT OF PETER J. PANTUSO, PRESIDENT AND CHIEF
EXECUTIVE OFFICER, AMERICAN BUS ASSOCIATION
Mr. PANTUSO. Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal,
members of the Committee, thank you very, very much for giving
us the opportunity to testify today.
Our message is unique. We represent bus companies that bring
entertainers and bring fans to the venues and events.
There are three key points I would like to make today.
First, the entertainer motorcoach industry, like the entire motor-
coach industry, is in dire shape. They need a lifeline. Without one,
40 to 50 percent of the industry could be out of business by 2021.
The industry is an essential part of America’s transportation net-
work. It is very capital-intensive with high fixed costs, and it has
a very specialized workforce.
The Emergency Coronavirus Relief Act of 2020, which includes
the CERTS Act that most of this committee has sponsored or sup-
ported, is critical to our survival.
ABA’s motorcoach members represent private, mostly small busi-
nesses, including the entertainer motorcoach operators, and we also
support the travel and tourism industry around the country. The
motorcoach industry provides nearly 600 million passenger trips
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00041 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
38
annually, on par with U.S. commercial airlines. 3,000 U.S. motor-
coach companies employ approximately 100,000 individuals and
generate $15 billion in revenue. But they also support 2 million ad-
ditional jobs around the country and create over $200 billion in eco-
nomic activity.
Today the industry is operating at about 10 percent of 2019 lev-
els. 85,000 of our workers are unemployed, and the path to recov-
ery is another 12 to 24 months away. Without any direct financial
support, up to 50 percent of these businesses could close forever,
meaning their employees will be out of work permanently.
The live entertainment performances include advance prepara-
tion, onsite activities, and post-event activities, and motorcoaches
play a critical role at every juncture. The entertainer motorcoach
vehicles are built to serve the essential and unique transportation
needs of entertainers, celebrities, and their crews. But they also
serve politicians, the media, and other specialized customers. These
vehicles carry people and equipment for ground-based tours. They
are designed to include sleeping, meeting, and culinary support fa-
cilities. They get celebrities to the event, serve as a support vehicle
onsite, and then get them to the next event.
Traditional motorcoach companies also play a very important
role in the entertainment industry by bringing fans to the events
and venues. All motorcoach companies are a vital component of
this nation’s transportation network. They provide inter-city sched-
uled bus, commuter services, school transportation, charters, and
entertainment services. The industry also serves the country in
times of crisis, moving people out of harm’s way during hurricanes
and wildfires, and moving the military and their equipment for
training and deployment. Earlier this year, FEMA and State emer-
gency management agencies hired entertainer motorcoaches to
house emergency response personnel during many of the evacu-
ations and hurricane relief efforts in the Gulf region.
COVID is also having a significant impact on the motorcoach
manufacturing and downstream suppliers. In previous years, up to
1,500 new motorcoaches, valued at a cost of over $500,000 each,
were sold in the U.S. Now production and sales of new
motorcoaches to the private sector have all but stopped. The impact
of hundreds of good paying manufacturing jobs and thousands of
workers who supply engines and tires, seats, electronics, and hun-
dreds of other components are affected, and this impact will last for
years.
On top of this, the value of motorcoaches has dropped by as
much as 50 percent, making it impossible to sell used coaches or
trade them in, severely limiting the abilities of motorcoach opera-
tors and owners to borrow money to keep their businesses afloat.
In conclusion, Mr. Chairman, we appreciate your leadership in
identifying the entertainer motorcoach segment and the entire in-
dustry since it has been overlooked for a long time and it is a crit-
ical element of our nation’s transportation network. We urge you
and your colleagues to pass the Emergency Coronavirus Relief Act
of 2020, which includes the provisions of the CERTS Act, when it
comes before Congress this week. Thank you very much.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Pantuso follows:]
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00042 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
39
PREPARED STATEMENT OF PETER J. PANTUSO, PRESIDENT AND CEO,
AMERICAN BUS ASSOCIATION
Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Blumenthal, and distinguished members of
the Subcommittee: on behalf of the American Bus Association (ABA) thank you for
calling today’s critical hearing regarding the live event entertainment industry and
the impacts affecting the industry as a result of the ongoing COVID–19 pandemic.
My name is Peter Pantuso, and I am the President and CEO of the American Bus
Association in Washington, DC. As CEO, I am responsible for the Association’s day-
to-day operations, including policy development, government and regulatory affairs
activities, membership, communications and marketing, meetings and conventions,
finances, and publishing. In addition to my role at ABA, I also serve as President
of the National Bus Traffic Association and the ABA Foundation.
ABA has grown to become North America’s leading and largest motorcoach, group
tour, and travel association, and serves as the oldest and most respected voice of
this industry. In addition to representing 800 motorcoach companies and 65 percent
of all motorcoaches on the road, the ABA also represents more than 2,500 busi-
nesses in the tour and travel industry (those who rely on motorcoaches to bring
business to their communities, including retail businesses, convention centers, ho-
tels, restaurants, entertainment venues, and other attractions), along with motor-
coach manufacturers and suppliers. The ABA has also expanded the breadth and
inclusiveness of the industry by bringing management services to other organiza-
tions, including Skal International—USA and the Florida Motorcoach Association
and creating the Hispanic Motorcoach Council, Entertainer Motorcoach Council and
the Women in Buses Council, among others. The ABA also offers safety educational
opportunities to the motorcoach industry by creating the Bus Industry Safety Coun-
cil and Bus Maintenance and Repair Council. The ABA Foundation has evolved into
an $8 million organization that conducts critical motorcoach industry research and
provides scholarships to support and promote the industry, workers and their fami-
lies. Since its inception, the ABA Foundation has awarded over $1 million in schol-
arships to nearly 400 individuals.
ABA’s motorcoach members represent private motorcoach operators, including en-
tertainer motorcoach manufacturers and operators, tour operations and all facets of
small businesses supporting the tour and travel industry. More broadly, motorcoach
companies are a vital component of the national public transportation network, pro-
viding intercity scheduled bus service, commuter and shuttle operations, school bus
transportation, charter, and entertainment services, and in some cases contracted
services for public transit authorities, airlines, and Amtrak. Annually, the motor-
coach industry provides nearly 600 million passenger trips, on par with the domestic
commercial airline industry. The industry is comprised of 3,000 companies, mostly
small family-owned businesses, operating 36,000 motorcoaches. While motorcoach
companies directly employ nearly 100,000 people and generate $15 billion in eco-
nomic activity, the motorcoach, tour, and travel industry supports nearly two million
additional jobs across America and creates over $236 billion in direct and indirect
economic activity nationwide.
Before March 2020, the motorcoach, tour, and travel industry helped drive the
tourism and transportation economy, and the charter sector was preparing for an-
other strong tourist and entertainment season. However, with outbreak and spread
of COVID–19, the industry came to a standstill. Motorcoach ridership dropped on
all scheduled service routes as people stopped traveling between communities and
cities, and commuter buses stopped carrying passengers as workers shifted to work
from home and stopped commuting. All contracted trips for charter operations, in-
cluding entertainment and sports related contracts were cancelled. As the summer
proceeded, hope further faded as government directives and spiking health concerns
forced anticipated concert tours and sporting events to be cancelled. For example,
the NCAA’s March Madness tournament was one of the first national sporting
events to cancel at the beginning of the COVID–19 outbreak, impacting hundreds
of motorcoach companies that would be moving teams and fans during that one-
month march to the Final Four.
Today, the industry is operating at less than 10 percent of 2019 levels, with no
clear path forward for a possible recovery, even factoring in the positive discussions
surrounding vaccines. Lacking the support of any form of direct financial assistance,
the motorcoach industry and specifically the entertainer motorcoach sector, face a
dire situation. As this Committee examines the impact of COVID–19 on the live en-
tertainment industry, we appreciate you identifying the motorcoach transportation
industry as a supporting industry of the broader entertainment industry and includ-
ing it in your examination. To date, our industry has been entirely overlooked in
terms of its critical role in the Nation’s transportation network and economic engine.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00043 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
40
For purposes of this hearing, it is important to understand that a live entertain-
ment performance or event is a multifaceted undertaking, that includes advance
preparation, post-event activities, and the actual events. Within the scope of this un-
dertaking, motorcoaches play a critical but sometimes understated role. First, there
are entertainer coaches which serve the unique and necessary transportation needs
of not only artists, entertainers, and other celebrities and their crews, as well as
politicians, the media, and other specialized customers that rely on motorcoaches for
their businesses. These vehicles carry people and equipment, for ground-based tours
to various entertainment venues, political events, or other scheduled events, and
provide sleeping, meeting, and culinary accommodations in an efficient manner. In
terms of the larger entertainment industry, these vehicles play a critical role in ad-
vancing the event and post-event activities, facilitating the transportation of both
the lead artist and the crew. Currently, there are 30 entertainer motorcoach compa-
nies nationwide, operating over 1,000 of these specialized vehicles. But, due to
COVID–19, most of these vehicles are parked and providing zero revenue. A sad,
but noteworthy outcome of this situation, is that during recent hurricanes in the
gulf coast region hundreds of these coaches were put into service in the Lake
Charles, LA area, and other parts of the gulf to support first responders by pro-
viding sleeping facilities and restrooms. If it were not for the horrible hurricane and
wildfire season we experienced this year, where once again the motorcoach industry
stepped up to help FEMA, these entertainer motorcoach operators, as well as other
motorcoach companies around the country, would have been entirely out of work.
Many of these entertainer coach companies are also often considered second stage
manufacturers and these companies are small, family-owned businesses, often
multi-generational, that pride themselves on their unique niche in the motorcoach
industry. Generally, they purchase a bus ‘‘shell’’ from an original equipment manu-
facturer and customize it to meet the needs of their customers. An average enter-
tainer coach, depending on its configuration for the ‘‘star’’ or crew will accommodate
up to 12 passengers. Over time and use, these coaches are often modified for reuse
within the same industry, for the life of the vehicle.
In addition to entertainer motorcoaches serving the explicit travel needs of enter-
tainers and others, the motorcoach industry also plays an important role in the en-
tertainment industry by bringing fans and audiences to events and venues. As these
vehicles generally seat 35 or more, and include a bathroom facility, they provide an
opportune way for large groups to travel to widely attended events. It is not unusual
within the motorcoach tour industry to offer entertainment events as part of a tour
or larger tour package. But, like the entertainer motorcoaches, due to COVID–19
and the cancellation of tours, sports and entertainment events, this segment of the
industry is almost entirely parked and has been for months, with no to limited ex-
pected recovery within the next 12 months—even with a smooth vaccine process.
In short, ABA and its members have been at the center of the COVID–19 ‘‘storm.’’
The cancellation of entertainment events, including concerts and tours, theatrical
productions, sports schedules and more, compounded by broadly publicized warnings
against using public modes of transportation, and government directives limiting
movement, is taking a serious toll on the collective motorcoach industry. Because
the motorcoach industry is dominated by small entrepreneurial businesses, 95 per-
cent of which are privately owned family businesses who operate on very thin mar-
gins, it was not prepared to withstand this unprecedented, significant economic
downturn. For comparison, the current situation is far worse than the downturn fol-
lowing the tragic events of September 11, 2001, and the industry’s condition con-
tinues to deteriorate as we head into the slow winter season for the industry. Fol-
lowing 9/11, although fear of travel was a factor, it was focused on air travel and
travel to larger urban areas. Travel did continue by other modes and to other
venues and it returned to ‘‘normal’’ in a much shorter period of time.
We are hearing daily from our members who are struggling to survive and are
seeking a bridge to recovery, which at this point we believe is at least 12 to 24
months away. In the interim, we note that the Administration’s and Congress’s ef-
forts to assist have fallen short for our industry. The motorcoach industry is a cap-
ital-intensive business with more than 60 percent of the costs tied to equipment, fa-
cilities, insurance, and other fixed costs that companies must continue to pay de-
spite the lack of passengers and income. The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP),
although well-intentioned, reached about 10–20 percent of our membership and only
provided short-term assistance. The PPP money was quickly spent to bring employ-
ees back although there was no possible work, and the PPP program provided no
relief from the burdens associated with the capital-intensive nature of the industry.
The Main Street Lending Program, also well-intentioned, was delayed in implemen-
tation and the requirements are too steep for most struggling companies seeking a
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00044 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
41
lifeline for survival. At this point, targeted financial assistance to bridge the indus-
try through this crisis is necessary for it to survive.
We need Congress to act and include the Coronavirus Economic Relief for Trans-
portation Services Act or CERTS Act, or other direct financial assistance in a
COVID–19 relief package before the end of the 116th Congress. As background, the
CERTS Act provides direct relief for private motorcoach, school bus and passenger
vessel industries and now has 59 bipartisan co-sponsors in the Senate (S. 4150), and
over 270 bipartisan co-sponsors in the House (H.R. 7642), which is 60 percent of
the entire Congress and more than any other relief bill that has been proposed—
and both bills continue to gain support as members start comprehending the ex-
treme circumstances facing the motorcoach industry. The supporters include bipar-
tisan leaders in both chambers, including chairman and ranking members of appro-
priations and authorizing committees.
All sectors of the motorcoach industry provide vital transportation services to not
only the entertainment industry, but to the larger national transportation network.
The motorcoach industry also provides sustainable employment for hundreds of
thousands of workers, both directly and indirectly. As well, 0ne third of motorcoach
companies provide critical school bus service, and those operations of our members
have also been harmed by school districts refusing to pay contracts during school
closures in the spring and continuing this fall.
The motorcoach industry also serves this country in times of crisis, moving people
out of harm’s way, such as evacuating citizens during hurricanes and wildfires, and
serving as component of our national defense by moving our military and their
equipment for training and deployment and protecting critical infrastructure. A ro-
bust motorcoach industry is an essential element to the recovery of the live enter-
tainment industry, as well as the entire national economy. If this industry fails, the
effects will be devastating. The industry’s failure will exacerbate the unemployment
burden and reduce transportation capacity nationwide, and will reach beyond the
immediate industry to the related supply chains, affecting manufacturing, financial
services, tourism and beyond. For these reasons, an immediate investment in bridg-
ing the motorcoach industry through this crisis will yield a more long-term and sus-
tainable outcome for the national economy.
We need your leadership now and urge you to work with your colleagues in this
body and the U.S. House of Representatives to negotiate another COVID–19 relief
package with the inclusion of the CERTS Act. This legislation provides the direct
economic assistance the motorcoach industry needs. The latest $908 billion proposal
offered by a bipartisan, bicameral group of members included $8 billion in funding
based on the CERTS Act language, and has broad support in both Chambers. The
ABA strongly encourages members of this Subcommittee and all Senators and Mem-
bers of Congress to pass a bipartisan package of this nature, that includes $8 billion
for these severely impacted industries including the motorcoach industry, before the
end of this Congress.
Thank you again for the opportunity to testify today before this Subcommittee.
In sum, we need Congress to provide dedicated funding for motorcoach, tour, and
travel industry businesses. Timing is critical, and ABA stands ready to assist Con-
gress and this Committee in any capacity.
Senator MORAN. Thank you, Mr. Pantuso.
Mr. Strickland.
STATEMENT OF MICHAEL T. STRICKLAND, CHAIR
AND FOUNDER, BANDIT LITES
Mr. STRICKLAND. Thank you. I would like to thank first Chair-
man Wicker, Chairman Moran, Ranking Member Senator
Blumenthal, my own Senator, Ms. Marsha Blackburn, my Senator,
Lamar Alexander, and all of the distinguished members of this
committee for all that you have done and will do.
I am Michael T. Strickland, Founder and Chairman of Bandit
Lites. We are an entertainment lighting company. And Senator
Moran, to your point, Garth Brooks is one of my best friends and
biggest customers, a great gentleman. But Garth Brooks, Jimmy
Buffett, Alice Cooper, Barry Manilow, Carrie Underwood, the NFL,
NASCAR—these people all count as my clients.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00045 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
42
I am batting cleanup today because I have got my arms around
the entire live event industry from buses and trucks to labor forces
such as the IATSE, to catering people, to rodeos, to fairs. We are
all shut. We are like a band of gypsies. We have no lobby and we
have no PACs. We have no representation on the Hill. That is why
I am sitting here today. That is what we do.
If you remember nothing today, remember the word ‘‘spurs,’’
spurs like in a cowboy.
S, shut. We have been shut since March 13. We will not be open
until June or July at the earliest. Zero income. 97 percent of our
industry is sitting dead in the water. We are an $877 billion indus-
try per the U.S. Bureau of Economic Analysis. There are 10-plus
million people employed, as you have all so eloquently stated,
across all of the different strata of this industry. We are all sitting
dead still.
P, PPP. Thank you very much for the PPP you gave us in April.
It ran out in June. The virus is still with us. That money is long
gone. I urge you by this Friday in whatever it is that you pass, that
you pass another round of PPP. That will allow all of the folks in
the live event industry to get through January and February. That
is crucial because hopefully in January and February we can effect
a broader relief.
U, unemployment. I urge you to continue all the pandemic eco-
nomic relief actions that you put forth in the wonderful CARES
package back in April. That was a stunning decision. I applaud you
for what you did. Please continue those at least through June to
allow those people that are negatively impacted and need those
pandemic relief funds made available to them.
RESTART, which is really why I am here. RESTART is the only
vehicle that I have identified that holistically allows anyone that
has been devastated to survive. In the case of our industry, our in-
dustry is at zero. In order to get a Main Street lending loan or, in-
deed, in order to get a commercial loan, you have to go before a
lending institution, and you have to have three things: a strong
balance sheet, a strong profit and loss statement, and an income
stream. We have none of the above. There are $595 billion sitting
unused in the failed Main Street Lending Program. Certainly in
the future, we could repurpose some amount of that to get that
money to the people in the crushed small businesses.
I have spoken to Senator Todd Young who wrote it, and we real-
ize it needs to be retooled. At the moment it was written, a 25 per-
cent reduction in revenue was phenomenal. A year later, a 25 per-
cent reduction in revenue is not so significant. I would urge you to
retool it, up the amount of revenue loss, which narrows the bill
which will give it a CBO score which will allow it to function with-
in a bigger bill. But I know we can get there.
And the last part of this whole thing is S, Save Our Stages. I ap-
plaud you for the vision. Senator Klobuchar, Senator Cornyn, a
wonderful job. That is Omaha Beach. It is D-Day for the live event
business. We landed on Omaha Beach. You so graciously gave us
Save Our Stages. We have got to go up the cliff and on to Paris.
How do we get up the cliff and how do we get to Paris’ RESTART.
That is the only vehicle that gets us there. Save Our Stages is a
great first step. I urge you to pass it as soon as possible, but we
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00046 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
43
must go to the next step and we must have something like RE-
START that will give us some amount of our income, 45 percent
which is what is in RESTART, and it will convert to a 7-year loan
which will allow us a path to recovery.
As I said, we have no lobby. We have no PAC. And to quote a
friend and client of mine, Jackson Brown, we are running on
empty. There are lives in the balance.
I urge you to assist small business in general, live events in par-
ticular, and pass RESTART and all of these other wonderful bills.
Imagine a world with no arts and culture. That is a world with no
live events. At Bandit Lites, we coined a word years ago called
‘‘humanomics.’’ We make business decisions based on the human
effect first and the business effect second. I urge you to look at the
human effect as 10 million people are sitting idle.
Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Strickland follows:]
PREPARED STATEMENT OF MICHAEL T. STRICKLAND, CHAIR AND FOUNDER,
BANDIT LITES
Commerce Committee Chairman Wicker, Subcommittee Chairman Moran and
Ranking Member Blumenthal, distinguished members of this Committee, I would
like to thank you on behalf of myself and over ten million people in the Live Events
Industry for affording us this opportunity to testify today.
I am Michael T. Strickland, Chair and Founder of Bandit Lites, a 52-year-old
global leader in entertainment illumination. Garth Brooks, Jimmy Buffett, Alice
Cooper, Carrie Underwood, Barry Manilow the NFL, NASCAR, Carnival Cruise
Lines and over 300 others are part of our client base.
On March 13, 2020, the entire Live Event industry closed in a moment. Covid 19
was upon the world and large events were no longer possible and would not be until
the virus was eradicated. Congress moved quickly to provide the CARES Act which
included many things including the Payroll Protection Program.
By June 2020 all the PPP money was expended, but the virus continued. Most
industries found ways to pivot, alter their methods, and learn to open and survive.
Live Events could not open, as large crowds were still not possible. The issue before
Live Events was purely medical and we understand that. Unless and until the vac-
cine is eradicated, Live Events cannot return.
As we sit before you, it has been nine months that the entire industry has earned
zero income. Live Events cannot return to work until June 2021 at the earliest, and
that is only if the vaccines are effective and we achieve herd immunity, which is
not guaranteed. The return-to-work date may be even further away. Live Events is
an $877 billion dollar industry with over 10 million people per the U.S. Bureau of
Economic Analysis. There are over 500,000 companies. Every company sits idle
earning zero income. The 10 million plus people are either on unemployment or
working in a different field, at a lower rate of pay.
The companies and the people in the Live Events Industry have only received 10
weeks of PPP, and nothing else. If Live events can return to work in June 2021 it
will have been 15 months with no income aside from the original 10 weeks of PPP.
Even if a second round of PPP is provided, that would be only 20 weeks of partial
payroll to cover a 64-week period. This amount of money is not enough to remain
open and pay employees.
Congress has worked tireless for months to deliver relief to the Nation and has
done a great job in many areas. There is a still a segment of society that is at the
brink of extinction, and that is the Live Events Industry. No other industry is 100
percent shut down and will be until June 2021. Live Events is the true industry
that was the first to shut and will be the last to reopen.
Both the House and the Senate have suggested in various bills that the Save Our
Stages Act be passed to save Americas important venues which are a part of the
Live Entertainment Industry. I applaud you for this wisdom and urge you to pass
this important piece of legislation as part of a relief package. However, Save Our
Stages only provides funding for venues, managers, booking agents and promotors.
This is 8 percent of the Live Events Industry. All other segments of the industry
receive no support via Save Our Stages. Here is a partial list of companies and peo-
ple still in need of funding: Artists, Actors, Performers, Sound, Lighting, Video, Py-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00047 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
44
rotechnics, Lasers, Caterers, Rigging, Trucking, Bussing, Staging, Wardrobe, De-
signers, Dancers, Opera, Theaters, Festivals, Tours, Orchestras, Corporate Shows,
Trade Shows, Conventions, Speakers, TV Studios and Stations, Radio Stations,
Film, Theme Parks and attractions, Museums, Movie Theaters, Labor Companies,
Free Lance workers, Circuses, Fairs, Rodeos, Water Shows, Freight, Drapes, Power,
Radios, Manufacturers, and many others. We urge you to pass Save Our Stages, but
to also save the rest of the Live Events Industry. All these industries need one an-
other to survive. Venues will have no artists to play in them or people to staff the
events without holistic industry funding. Please Save All Live Events.
We have already lost 30 percent of our companies, never to return. Over 20 per-
cent of the people that have left the industry will never return. We lose more people
and companies every day. If Congress does not pass additional PPP and Enhanced
Unemployment in December, we will lose another 20 to 30 percent of the firms and
people by the end of January. But that is only the start.
No firm and no person in Live Events qualify for a commercial loan. You must
have a strong balance sheet, strong profit and loss statement and a viable income
stream to borrow money. No company in the Live Event Industry qualifies, therefore
they cannot secure a loan.
The only path that will save Live Events is the RESTART Act. RESTART will
provide every firm 45 percent of 2019 income which will allow most firms to survive
well into 2021. The portion spent on payroll and allowable expenses will be forgiven
in the style of PPP. The balance will convert to a 7-year loan with no payments year
one, interest only year two, and amortization years 3 through 7 at around 1 percent
interest. This format allows companies to survive, gather cash, and repay the loan
over 7 years. There is a $12 million dollar limit per firm. Many venues, radios sta-
tions, TV stations, and not for profits are owned by or controlled under govern-
mental agencies or municipalities. They all need relief as well, as they function as
stand-alone entities with no source of income other than their Live Event revenue
stream.
RESTART as written requires a 25 percent loss of income and is available for
firms of less than 5,000 people. The CBO Score on this is $700 to $800 billion and
is simply too costly. RESTART was written in May 2020, when a 25 percent reduc-
tion in revenue was significant. Now that we are one year into the pandemic 25 per-
cent is simply a bad year.
RESTART must be written to save small businesses that have suffered loss of in-
come over 50 percent and that have under 500 employees. This will CBO Score at
around $250 billion which is much more affordable. Much of this will be repaid as
a loan.
Repurposing of $200 billion dollars from the failed Main Street Lending Program
will fund RESTART, and this money is already appropriated, thus it would require
no new funding. There is also $134.5 billion dollars sitting unused in the PPP fund.
These two funds are more than sufficient to fund all small businesses with less than
500 employees (the Federal definition of a Small Business) with a loss of revenue
of over 50 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.
The Live Event Industry is becoming extinct as we hold this hearing. Every day
that passes, more people and firms fail. Unlike any other industry, 100 percent of
Live Events is facing extinction now. If RESTART is not passed in January, the in-
dustry will cease to exist. Imagine a world without entertainment and events. The
loss of arts and culture to our society will be a blow to us all.
Please save all the Live Events Industry as well as all other small businesses that
are on the brink of extinction. Please pass RESTART in January.
Thank you very much for your time and attention. Thank you and Congress for
all that you do for our great nation.
Senator MORAN. Mr. Strickland, thank you very much. Even in
the absence of lobbyists, you perform very well in lobbying.
Mr. STRICKLAND. Thank you.
Senator MORAN. Thank you for your presence today.
Let me see if I can take a theme that I am interested in pursuing
that resonated throughout all of the testimonies, the inability of
the Paycheck Protection Program to solve the problem. And I heard
Mr. Hartke say that it did not work in circumstances where there
was virtually no revenue and it was too short-term in its duration.
Mr. Strickland, you talked about the Paycheck Protection Pro-
gram and asked that it be reauthorized. I would ask all of our wit-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00048 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
45
nesses, tell me what has been missing in the Paycheck Protection
Program to meet your needs? Does a separate program, as some of
you have testified, need to be addressed, need to be enacted, or
what is it that the Paycheck Protection Program can do to make
it—we can do to make it work better for all of your circumstances?
Mr. STRICKLAND. Thank you, Chairman. That is a great question.
The Paycheck Protection Program, when it was initiated, I think
to Congress and, indeed, to most of us, myself included, seemed
like that would be the answer because we all believed we would be
back to work in June. The fact that it was only 10 weeks of income
in retrospect was far too little. By the time we get back to work,
it will be 74 weeks. So all we have received as small businesses is
10 weeks of payroll.
So I think the first issue would be the longevity of it. In a perfect
world, this Friday you would pass a payroll protection plan that
provided 36 to 48 weeks of PPP. I think that is a bit of a stretch.
But just the shortness of it—because even now if you pass an addi-
tional round of PPP this Friday, that is 10 weeks. That is the last
2 weeks in December and January and February. The live event in-
dustry is not going to be back until the vaccine takes hold and we
have herd immunity, and that is June, July, August, September.
And that is simply payroll. So what do we do for the rest of the
time? Ergo, RESTART.
Senator MORAN. Mr. Pantuso?
Mr. PANTUSO. Yes. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The PPP program had great intentions, and we appreciate that.
We have a very valued and skilled workforce, so we want to bring
them back. The reality is that we have no business. So when we
brought people back for that 8 or 10-week period, they merely came
and sat, collected the PPP monies and then left again and back on
unemployment. All it really did was transfer the unemployment
system from a State system or Federal system onto a private indi-
vidual using Federal dollars for a period of time.
Our business is gone. As I said, 10 percent of the business is op-
erating across the board. That is about all. And there will be no
recovery for at least another 12 months. Until that time, there will
not be an opportunity for people to come back and drive buses for
the most part. We really need to keep the industry alive so that
we can be a vibrant part of the transportation network, and to do
that, we need to help the companies stay alive either with help cov-
ering their fixed costs or their capital costs or their interest pay-
ments that they are paying on a bus that is worth $500,000 or
$600,000.
Senator MORAN. Any of our other witnesses wish to address that
question?
Mr. HARTKE. Yes. Thank you, Chairman Moran. I will jump in
with that.
You know, just to repeat what Pete just said, we have been fully
shut for 9 months now with no work for our employees to do.
Many, many, many venues across the country are completely out
of funds. So the amount of PPP and the restrictions placed upon
it will not save our industry. It will not save the venues. There are
people that will completely go out of business with those restric-
tions.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00049 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
46
So the Save Our Stages Act is targeted toward our industry spe-
cifically, and that is what is going to get us through this.
Senator MORAN. Let me ask a follow-up question with you, Mr.
Hartke. The Paycheck Protection Program I think you highlight
does not work well when there is little or no income. What about
the restrictions on audiences, the size, the distancing, the percent-
age of capacity? Is it possible for the entertainment industry to op-
erate at a smaller volume, fewer people in the audience and still
earn a living?
Mr. HARTKE. So there are a couple things with that. Right now,
no, absolutely not because there are no tours. We rely on a national
reopening to get back to work. The artists that we book in Wichita,
Kansas—they have to go through Denver or Dallas or Kansas City
or another major market around us and have those connected
across the country for them to get here. So we have no inventory.
There are no artists touring right now.
Beyond that, we operate at about 70–80 percent to capacity tick-
et sales. So if we are opening at 30–40 percent capacity, we are los-
ing money immediately. We actually tried that back in June. We
opened briefly for about 3 weeks. We booked a bunch of local
bands, and we lost more money being open than we did just in hi-
bernation mode. So that bleeds us out quicker.
Now, at the end of this, we are going to have to open at a re-
duced capacity, but hopefully there is a better understanding of
this virus. The restrictions are not, you know, ebb and flowing
right now. We are back to restrictions of the max of 100 people in
Sedgwick County for an event. So those were lifted and then rein-
stated and lifted and reinstated. So with a 3 to 6-month lead time
it takes to book a touring act and promote it efficiently, there is
no way to do that right now. So, yes, we are pretty stuck.
Senator MORAN. That unfortunately makes sense to me.
Senator Blumenthal.
Senator BLUMENTHAL. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Chairman, I would like to yield part of my time to Senator
Klobuchar so she can have the opportunity to make some opening
remarks. She is a leader of this effort. And I will save my questions
to the end of her remarks or after the next witness, if I may.
Senator MORAN. Senator Klobuchar.
STATEMENT OF HON. AMY KLOBUCHAR,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MINNESOTA
Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you. I am doing marketing of our
Save Our Stages with a mask. But I wanted to thank everyone and
just embrace everything that you guys have said in such wonderful
words. You can see the creativity of the State of Tennessee, Sen-
ator Blackburn, coming through in your turn of phrases, Mr.
Strickland. And I am more than happy to have, with Senator
Cornyn, led this, in your words, band of gypsies over here so that
we can get something done.
I think one of the things we have learned from this pandemic is
it is not one-size-fits-all, that not every business and every group
of employees are affected in the same way. I know the home State
of Jefferson Bus Lines, Minnesota, understands that. I see it in the
faces of the people literally starting to cry in an event at the
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00050 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
47
Moorehead Bluestem Amphitheater as they talked about the Merle
Haggard concert or see it in the face of Dayna Frank, who heads
up First Avenue in Minneapolis, as we stood in front of that iconic
star of Prince, knowing that he and so many other artists across
this country could not have gotten their starts without entertain-
ment venues.
And I think we all know that you cannot go stand in a moshpit
in the middle of a pandemic. I think you know you cannot sit elbow
to elbow in a small theater, whether it is in a big city or a little
town. And so many of these venues are literally the heart of our
communities. They are the place that people go.
And since we are quoting a lot of things, we do not want to be
the Congress that lets the music die, and we do not want this to
be the year that we let our cultural icons die.
So with that, Senator Cornyn and I have introduced this bill. We
are working really, really hard to get it in the relief package. We
are feeling good about the work that is going on. There still have
to be some changes made.
I am also a big fan and cosponsor of the RESTART Act that you
just spoke to, as well as the CERTS Act involving the bus lines.
And again, I just want to remind our colleagues—and I know
they know this or we would not be doing this hearing—thank you
to Chairman Moran and Ranking Member Blumenthal—if it was
not for that understanding, that not every industry—tech compa-
nies. Man, they are doing great. But so many of these small venues
are not.
And so my question I guess of you, Mr. Hartke, with your cool
drum set over there in Wichita is just could you explain how it will
be really hard to bring back these venues. It is just like you cannot
snap a finger and they are going to be able to come back with your
low margins if we let the music die.
Mr. HARTKE. Yes. I mean, many of our venues have taken gen-
erations to build, as I told an example of The Cotillion in Wichita.
You know, especially in smaller markets like Wichita, this is an on-
going effort that is passed on from generation to generation. To get
the acts to come to Wichita, Kansas has been the work of many,
many decades of people.
So, you know, not only that, but to get the spaces that are appro-
priate for hosting music—I mean, you mentioned First Avenue. I
mean, that is a magical place. There is not another space like that
in the world. So if you lose a First Avenue, it is going to be nearly
impossible to replicate that. You cannot just go into any warehouse
and set a stage in it and it has that magic. And that is true of The
Cotillion in Wichita and Cain’s Ballroom in Tulsa, and all these
venues across the country that have been there. Even if they are
not historic, the new venues like Wave—I mean, it has a certain
theme to it.
Senator KLOBUCHAR. Mr. Hartke, we have limited time, and Sen-
ator Blumenthal was so kind to give me this time early on.
Could you talk about how it was hard enough for your venues
being independent venues, so many of you competing, as we have
seen more and more consolidation with some of the big guys in the
industry? To me, the pandemic has simply put a magnifying glass
on this problem. We are not going to talk about antitrust here, as
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00051 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
48
I look at Senator Lee and Senator Blackburn and Senator
Blumenthal, all involved in this issue. But could you talk about
how it is hard to get by right now anyway without the pandemic?
Mr. HARTKE. Yes. The live music industry is increasingly difficult
due to the consolidation of the industry, and mom and pop busi-
nesses are fighting tooth and nail to ensure they still get the shows
and are able to route tours to the cities. And it is hitting secondary
markets just as hard as it is hitting major markets.
Senator KLOBUCHAR. OK, very good.
I think I will end with you, Mr. Strickland. Just words for us as
we go into these next few days when everyone is waiting for a re-
sult from this Congress to be able to do a package at the end of
the year. Any advice?
Mr. STRICKLAND. Again, consider the humanomics. There are 10-
plus million people holistically across this entire industry doing
nothing. I want to reiterate that. We are not like restaurants or
gymnasiums or hair salons that open and close and have a chance
to do something. We are doing nothing. Right now, 97 percent of
the people are either unemployed or under-employed. Can you
imagine being a dental assistant and not being a dental assistant
for 18 months and having to go work at Home Depot? That is what
has happened. You have got a lot of really talented people. And we
do this in the live event industry for one reason: we love it, for the
love of the game, for the love of the music. And we have got enter-
tainment and event people scattered across the landscape working
at Home Depot and Amazon, and it is so crushing. As an indus-
try—not just venues—as an industry we will not come back if we
do not receive relief because the RESTART style relief is the only
thing that we have. We cannot go get a commercial loan.
Senator KLOBUCHAR. Thank you so much.
Senator MORAN. Next is Senator Blackburn.
But lyrics, Senator Klobuchar. I was thinking of the Wichita
Lineman. The line is: ‘‘And I want you for all time, and the Wichita
lineman is still on the line.’’ So keeping these folks in business is
an important component.
Senator KLOBUCHAR. Very good. Thank you.
Senator MORAN. I want to keep up with you and your lyrics.
Senator Blackburn.
STATEMENT OF HON. MARSHA BLACKBURN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM TENNESSEE
Senator BLACKBURN. Yes, and there is a neat story behind how
that song was written and how it came to be Wichita. And in Nash-
ville we say everything begins with a song, and indeed it does.
And to our witnesses today, I want to thank you for being avail-
able to us.
To Chairman Moran and Chairman Wicker, thank you for work-
ing with me and my team so that we could have this.
The live entertainment industry is vitally important to us in Ten-
nessee. It is a complete sector of our state’s economy. It is not just
an add-on. It is not something that is just there for the fun of it.
It is the music business.
And I appreciate what Senator Klobuchar has done with Save
Our Stages—and she and Senator Schumer and Senator
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00052 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
49
Blumenthal. And that really is the front-facing part of the indus-
try. That is what you see when the curtains open. That is what you
see in the videos on stage in these venues. That is great. And we
want these venues to thrive.
However, in order to make those shows appealing and exciting
and to keep these venues open, there is an entire behind-the-cur-
tain that takes place. And full disclosure, in the mid-1990s I led
the Tennessee Film, Entertainment, and Music Commission. That
is when I got to know many of the folks that drive the buses and
the motorcoaches. It is when I got to know the caterers and those
that are grips and gaffers. And it is when I got to know Mr. Strick-
land and appreciate what Bandit Lites does.
But this sector of the industry does not benefit from what will
be passed in Save Our Stages. And to my colleagues on the other
end of the dais, this is why we need you to work with us so that
the support system that makes those venues work is able to stay
live, so that they are able to participate because right now, I have
a lot of friends and neighbors in Nashville that they basically go
out and crank the motorcoach every week to be sure that the
things are still going to be operational. They go through and they
check the catering equipment. They go through and they check the
equipment that is sitting in the warehouse waiting for the lights
to go back on on these stages so they can gear back up. And right
now, there is no avenue for them.
They did nothing wrong. And I think this is an important thing
to realize. These folks that support live entertainment did nothing
wrong. They did not cause this. But when the pandemic hit, when
the economy got shut down, they went from running wide open to
a dead stop overnight. That was it. I talked to people that were on
tour buses. They turned the tour buses around on the interstate
and headed back to Nashville. They did not go to the next stop.
They boxed up equipment and they sent it back to Knoxville. So
it is important to realize they do not have another source.
And, yes, Save Our Stages is good but you got to have something
to save the stage with and it is the support network.
So let me do this. I am running out of time. You know, we are
so determined to help with this industry. Mr. Strickland and Mr.
Hartke, let me come to you with my question. Talk to me about
what the next 6 months is going to look like for this industry and
how you think you are going to be able to recover? So, Mr. Strick-
land, you first.
Mr. STRICKLAND. Thank you, Senator Blackburn.
I have a degree in business from the University of Tennessee,
Haslam College of Business. Even Wharton College of Business
does not teach one how to run a business for 18 months with no
money. It is just simply not taught.
To answer your question and the biggest point here is the indus-
tries, the companies, and the people within these industries—we
are not almost out of money. We have been out of money. 30 per-
cent of our industry is gone now. If nothing is done by February,
60 percent of our industry will be gone. 60 percent of the people
will either be unemployed or doing something else. We simply, as
you so eloquently stated, Senator Blackburn—we have no alter-
native. If the Federal Government does not step up with a RE-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00053 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
50
START-style relief for small business in general but for the live
event space in particular, we simply have no alternative and the
companies will all be shuttered.
Senator BLACKBURN. Mr. Hartke.
Mr. HARTKE. Without the Save Our Stages Act passing imme-
diately, we will not last 6 months. We will not be here for a recov-
ery period. It is as simple as that. With a relief bill, then we will
get back to work and we will hire staff back and we will start plan-
ning for a reopening. But without it, we will not be here.
Senator BLACKBURN. Thank you.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Senator MORAN. Thank you, Senator Blackburn, for your leader-
ship on this issue.
Senator Blumenthal.
Senator BLUMENTHAL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Let me say, first of all, to Mr. Pantuso, I really appreciate your
being here. The transportation, the motorcoach industry is often
overlooked in its importance to our economy. I recently visited the
DATTCO company in New Britain, Connecticut. It is a family run
motorcoach school and school bus operator, a third generation, and
it is vital to our economy, as are the companies that you have re-
flected in your remarks. So I am so glad that you are here.
Let me ask Mr. Fay a question because I think that, Mr. Fay,
you have brilliantly outlined the ecosystem that is at stake here.
Senator Blackburn referred to a part of it, but it is also the small
clubs, the sources of the talent that eventually reach The Bushnell
and Broadway. It is also the restaurants that are providing service
to patrons of The Bushnell when they go there. The Bushnell is the
type of community anchor that will show the Lion King musical
one evening and a political debate the next. They also run innova-
tive community-based programming that brings art and literacy to
countless inner-city children.
What I would like to know from you is some examples, number
one, of those smaller institutions that depend on The Bushnell and
theaters and venues like it and also the timeline that is necessary
for you to have a production on your stage. You cannot just snap
a finger and have it overnight. It takes infinitely difficult planning.
And if you could speak to that issue and the smaller parts of that
ecosystem that depend on you.
Mr. FAY. That is a good question.
First of all, let me address the second one first, and that is, it
has been already pointed out that getting started, restarting this
business is going to take the entire country opening up and in a
way that we can really open to full capacity. We have explored, as
others have, over the last several months the ability to do smaller
performances at different times, but they just do not work.
But one of the biggest problems with that is our public is fright-
ened, and until the vaccine is out and really takes effect, even after
that it is going to take months and months for our public to decide
that it is safe for them to come back and that they are comfortable
doing it. Patterns of behavior have changed dramatically. And an-
other 6 months of this is absolutely something we are facing. To
come out of that, it is going to take many, many months. It is prob-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00054 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
51
ably going to take 2 or 3 years for us to really come out of it. So
being in a position to open is critical.
The challenge of the small businesses around us that we partici-
pate with and work with all the time is very real. There are six
or seven major restaurants that have closed in downtown Hartford
since we opened.
One of the other aspects of this is as a result of all the work from
home and the digital working, there is a real concern that, on the
one hand, businesses will never repopulate the downtown area
with as many employees. The work from home is probably going to
become a part of our economic process and businesses in the future.
As a result, there will be fewer feet hitting the street at 5 or 6
o’clock in the evening. We are going to be one of the real major fea-
tures of trying to bring people back to the downtown area in the
evening, as we were back in the 1970s and 1980s when we started
trying to rebuild these cities. So that aspect of it is frightening for
our own mayor who has expressed his concern that we be alive and
thriving as soon as possible to pull people back into our downtown.
You mentioned how our venue and others do more than just con-
certs. There are all kinds of events. Hartford Hospital raises over
$1 million a year, an event that they do in our theater on the var-
ious stages that we have. The smaller clubs—the Infinity Hall, 450
seats, a beautiful space, doing tremendous business under new
ownership, and all of a sudden, after 6 months of their new owner-
ship, shut down.
So it all works together. There is an ecosystem that is in a deli-
cate balance. And every one of the people who has testified today
represents a significant part of that ecosystem. If any part of it
falls apart, then the whole thing kind of crumbles.
So we will rebuild but it could be decades to rebuild if we do not
get this help now.
Senator BLUMENTHAL. Thank you, Mr. Fay.
My time has expired, but I just want to thank you and all of the
venue operators. I have been to that Hartford Health Care benefit.
I am a regular. I have also been to The Bushnell in the last couple
of months when it has been empty, and there is nothing so heart-
breaking and gut-wrenching as an empty theater, as a venue like
yours that is so full of life and laughter and the kinds of perform-
ances that really make memories for people when we know it will
take months and maybe as long as a year, as you have said, to re-
open. And the Hartford community really depends on The Bushnell
and other venues like it as an essential piece of the economy but
also our culture.
So thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.
Senator MORAN. Senator Blumenthal, thank you.
Senator Lee.
STATEMENT OF HON. MIKE LEE,
U.S. SENATOR FROM UTAH
Senator LEE. Thanks, Mr. Chairman.
Thanks to all of you for being here.
The COVID–19 pandemic has turned everyone into a state of dis-
array. It has been hard on so many industries. Basically every as-
pect of our economy has been harmed by it. It has devastated busi-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00055 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
52
nesses of all shapes and sizes from the food industry, manufactur-
ers, travel and tourism, energy and transportation, just to name a
few. So today’s hearing with the live entertainment industry is im-
portant.
Luckily with the approval of a COVID–19 vaccine and hopefully
more approvals yet to come, along with an effective distribution
chain for those vaccines, I am guardedly optimistic that we will
soon find ourselves coming into or at least able to see a better out-
come in the coming year.
While I am confident in our logistics networks and our ability to
swiftly transport the vaccine, we know that it is going to take some
time before all Americans are going to have access to it. And to-
day’s hearing acknowledges that there is still a lot left to be done
as we consider the full economic impact of the pandemic and the
government’s response to it and as we carefully consider alter-
natives that we have, solutions that not only provide funds but also
ensure a smooth trajectory toward reopening and a swift bounce
back to normal, which is what we all crave.
But the live entertainment industry has certainly suffered very
severe economic harm during the pandemic, and I am glad that we
could hear your testimony today.
So with the vaccine on its way, now seems like a good time for
us to address policy solutions of every stripe that we can imagine
to help facilitate that smooth transition back to normal. Federal
regulations, bureaucracy, Federal rules put in place by Executive
Branch agencies can be one of many things in an economy that can
slow things down. And it is especially important right now, in addi-
tion to considering the funds that have been appropriated and may
yet be appropriated, for us to also look at ways in which we could
get government to not do things that it might otherwise do that
might be harmful and that might slow down a return to normal.
So I was wondering if each of you could just identify—is there
any regulation that Congress ought to be aware of, that Congress
ought to be looking at carefully in such a way that could help re-
store your transition to normal? We will start with you, Mr. Strick-
land.
Mr. STRICKLAND. If I might chime in. Thank you, Senator Lee.
A great question. It goes a lot of different directions.
The 500-pound gorilla—and I hesitate to mention it—is the li-
ability indemnity situation. Unless and until there is something
dealt with on liability indemnity, all of the live events business is
at risk. Let us assume that we in one way or another resolve the
financial struggles and issues. If the liability situation is not re-
solved in a manner such that class action lawsuits are not ramp-
ant, then you will find very few venues, promoters, artists, cities,
states that will want to put on a large-scale event.
Let us go to Garth Brooks, a client of mine. We have three sold-
out 100,000-person stadium shows from last year that we have
moved to this year. We want to do a lot more of those. 100,000 peo-
ple in a football stadium with no liability protection is a class ac-
tion waiting to happen. You will find 5,000 people that will join a
class action.
So legislatively and administratively, that is probably the next
big issue. And as I tell people why did I bifurcate financial relief
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00056 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
53
from liability indemnity, I learned from watching what has gone on
in Congress for the last 9 months that we keep getting back to li-
ability indemnity as a sticking point. So I find it imperative that
we resolve the financial issue first to allow the live event industry
to survive and then we start drilling down and looking at what we
can do about liability indemnity.
Senator LEE. There are those who say states can handle that fine
on their own. We do not need a single Federal standard. What is
your response to that?
Mr. STRICKLAND. It absolutely will not work and here is the rea-
son. As other people have referenced today, our industry is reliant
largely on what we call a tour, which is when a large band goes
to, in most cases, all 50 states and does shows. And if you have a
patchwork situation where you cannot play in particular states be-
cause it is a hazard or because the rules are different, you will
never be able to book a tour. And when you cannot book a tour,
which is the backbone of the live event industry, then suddenly you
are stuck with no ability to mount large-scale tours such as Garth
Brooks or the Rolling Stones or U2. But even when you work down
to the smaller level, the smaller acts will not be able to work until
there is a singular fit.
Now, it has been suggested, as you all I am sure know, flood re-
lief falls back on the Federal Government simply because there is
no insurance agency, years ago, that would step up and take that.
There probably is some kind of a work-out whereby a situation like
the flood relief becomes the pandemic relief. But again, I would
leave that to those of you in Congress to figure out the details.
Senator LEE. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I see my time is expired. Thanks so much.
Senator MORAN. Senator Lee, thank you.
Senator Sinema.
STATEMENT OF HON. KYRSTEN SINEMA,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ARIZONA
Senator SINEMA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I ask unanimous consent to enter into the record a letter from
the Endurance Sports Coalition.
Senator MORAN. Without objection.
[The information referred to follows:]
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00057 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
54
1215ENDU1.eps
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00058 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
55
1215ENDU2.eps
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00059 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6621 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
56
Senator SINEMA. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And I want to thank our witnesses for their testimony on this
important topic.
Arizona has a vibrant entertainment economy that creates thou-
sands of jobs and provides Arizonans with opportunities to enjoy
art, theater, and music and sports. These numerous entertainment
options also draw tourists to Arizona, in addition to our excellent
weather and our stunning landscape.
Nationwide 85 percent of the live entertainment industry has
been furloughed. I am hearing daily from Arizonans and Arizona
small businesses in the entertainment industry that are struggling
to stay afloat as our venues are closed or strictly limited due to the
pandemic.
I am proud to be a cosponsor of the Save Our Stages legislation
and the RESTART Act, both of which can provide necessary assist-
ance to the entertainment industry. The Save Our Stages bill will
provide $15 billion to support independent clubs, theaters, concert
halls, and movie theaters that meet certain criteria. The RESTART
Act includes a new loan program to support businesses that have
taken a substantial revenue hit during the COVID–19 pandemic.
As the bipartisan COVID discussions continue, I will continue to
encourage my colleagues to provide assistance to Arizona’s enter-
tainment industry.
My first question is for Mr. Strickland. The sports and live ath-
letics industry has struggled during the pandemic. I was looking
forward to many races and events this year, such as the Boston
Marathon, that were canceled or made virtual. When a large event
like a marathon is canceled, it is not just the participants who are
disappointed. The vendors who provide services for those events
are also out of work.
I understand that your company has provided lighting for many
live athletic events, including races like the Country Music Mara-
thon and the National Rock and Roll Marathon. From your per-
spective, how would the RESTART Act help companies like yours
that provide services to marathons, triathlons, or similar events?
Mr. STRICKLAND. Thank you, Senator. I appreciate that.
You are very correct. We have moved into what I call the less
sexy side of the live event business. When you are doing sound and
lights and production for a foot race or for a baseball game—I was
once involved with SkyCam, the flying camera system. When you
are doing those kind of things, it is not anything sexy. It is not
anything that is obvious that anyone wants to talk about, but it is
very vital. And indeed, as we sit here today, the cameras, the
microphones, the folks working this stuff today are part of the live
event ecosystem. They are part of the 3 percent that is working.
So sports are near and dear to my heart. I sit on the Board of
the Women’s Basketball Hall of Fame. One of my mentors was the
late Pat Summitt. They are struggling mightily, and again, they
are sort of part of the lost set of people that you do not realize are
infected by that. And these are again people that RESTART holis-
tically allows the largest number of people to survive. And to quote
the gentleman that founded Maryville College in Tennessee, ‘‘do
the most good on the largest scale.’’ That is what we need to do.
I do not think that Congress intends to pick winners and losers,
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00060 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
57
and I think that by passing a holistic bill like RESTART with a
high revenue loss trigger, you would allow those devastated busi-
nesses, including those in the sports sector, to survive.
Senator SINEMA. Thank you.
My next question is for Mr. Hartke. An 87-year-old family owned
chain of movie theaters based in Phoenix, Harkins Theaters, has
experienced a 95 percent drop in revenue since the pandemic
began. Harkins’ CEO described the difficulty of making payroll,
rent, tax, and utility payments without taking in revenue. I am
told that Harkins’ patrons are so eager to support the business that
they are buying the movie theater’s popcorn to go.
Other Arizona independent venues are expressing the same con-
cerns. For example, the Rhythm Room, which is an R&B venue in
Phoenix, is supposed to celebrate its 30th anniversary next year,
but last week they put up a gofundme page because they are in
danger of closing after 9 months without revenue.
I understand that you and your wife co-own two live music
venues. From your perspective, which aspects of the SOS Act are
essential to supporting our independent theaters and music
venues?
Mr. HARTKE. Thank you for that question, Senator.
You know, we love the SOS Act because that focuses on the small
mom and pop businesses, independent venues. And, you know, this
ranges from venues of 250 capacity to 18,000 capacity. Actually
here in Kansas we have a member that is 40 capacity that is an
independent venue, and we also have an 18,000 capacity at Provi-
dence Medical Amphitheater. It also includes nonprofits. It in-
cludes for-profits, and it includes publicly-owned venues. So we
cover the gamut with the bill which is first and foremost to us and
those within our industry.
Beyond that, it has a flexibility on spending. Payroll is not our
biggest expense, so we are able to pay our bills that we either have
not paid or need to pay now. And then it gives us a little bit of time
that we can persevere this 18-month foreclosure.
Beyond that, it is a grant. It is not a loan. Many of us are highly
leveraged. You know,
[inaudible] just the nature of our business. So we have grants or
we have loans out on our businesses already. So taking out a loan
is not what people really want to do right now or they have already
exhausted that option.
So those are kind of the main points.
Senator SINEMA. Thank you.
Mr. Chairman, I see my time is expired. If there are no other
members, might I ask one more question to Mr. Hartke?
Senator MORAN. There are other members, but go ahead and ask.
Senator SINEMA. You are very kind, Mr. Chairman.
Mr. Hartke, one final question for you. In 2019, the Rialto The-
ater in Tucson hosted over 400 shows throughout the year. In 2020,
they only had 68 shows, and every single one of those was before
March 12. They used to employ 106 staff, but they have not opened
their doors to the public in 9 months.
Similarly, the owner of Rebel Lounge in Phoenix—his club has
been closed for months, and he told us that the PPP program did
not work well for his business.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00061 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
58
You shared the same experience in your testimony. Can you tell
us why PPP did not work for you? And did you have access to the
EIDL programs or any other access to capital?
Mr. HARTKE. Yes. And the PPP loan did not work, A, for the
amounts. 2.5 times payroll was not sufficient for an industry that
has been closed for 9 months, and we have another 9 months at
a minimum ahead of us before we can get back to work. Payroll
is not our biggest expense. I think Pete mentioned that earlier. We
paid 75 percent as originally stipulated into payroll, and many of
our employees did not have a lot of work to do since we were fully
shuttered. So those two are the biggest components of why PPP
does not work.
Additionally, it is a loan. We are trying feverishly not to draw
more debt.
Senator SINEMA. I appreciate that. Thank you, Mr. Hartke.
And, Mr. Chairman, thank you for your indulgence. I appreciate
it.
Senator MORAN. You are welcome, Senator Sinema.
Senator Young.
STATEMENT OF HON. TODD YOUNG,
U.S. SENATOR FROM INDIANA
Senator YOUNG. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
And thank you to our witnesses.
Every person, business, and industry has been impacted by this
pandemic, but there is no question the live entertainment industry
has been hit especially hard.
Mr. Strickland, in your testimony you touch on the fact that $877
billion is the size of the live entertainment industry hole right now.
It has earned zero income since mid-March.
Yesterday we saw the first shipments of COVID–19 vaccine de-
livered to hundreds of disbursement centers across the country.
That, of course, is very encouraging. It is going to provide light at
the end of the tunnel to help the American people and businesses
of all kinds. However, the live entertainment industry inherently
relies on large crowds to operate, leaving the industry in a particu-
larly vulnerable place far beyond the first wave of vaccinations. So
it is going to be a while before the industry can really recover.
And it is not just sports and entertainment venues and field
houses and so forth. We have a lot of those throughout the State
of Indiana, many iconic ones. But there are small, medium, and
large businesses across the country that make up the massive sup-
ply chain that keep this industry chugging along.
I think you and I have discussed Tyler Truss Systems. It is a
company based in Pendleton, Indiana that I visited. In March 2020,
they had 72 employees and were actively looking to hire more Hoo-
siers. Today, their picture looks a lot different, just months later.
They are down to, after two rounds of layoffs, less than 20 people.
Melrose Pyrotechnics. It is a fireworks company based in
Kingsbury, Indiana. I have spoken to their owner, and they have
been forced to lay off 75 percent of their employees.
So it is vital we take necessary steps to support the live enter-
tainment industry and small Hoosier businesses like Melrose and
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00062 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
59
Tyler Truss during this unprecedented public health crisis, and
there are additional measures, of course, needed to do that.
I want to thank Chairman Moran, who is chairing this sub-
committee hearing, for becoming the 60th cosponsor of my RE-
START Act which I do believe would provide the requisite solution
to the challenges your industry is facing and other very hard hit
industries in the midst of this global pandemic and subsequent gov-
ernment measures that disrupted industries like your own. I feel
like there is a moral imperative for us to act in response.
My RESTART proposal would target our limited resources to
help those hard hit businesses and provide flexible loans to help
employers with a broad set of operating expenses instead of the
heavy focus on payroll costs. This is especially important for those
who cannot maintain full payrolls due to significant and sustained
loss in revenues.
Mr. Strickland, can you discuss why it is so important to restruc-
ture the PPP program to focus more on revenue rather than payroll
retention like my RESTART proposal would do and its benefit to
your industry?
Mr. STRICKLAND. Thank you, Senator Young. A great question.
Senator Young and I did not know each other 9 months ago, and
we know each other fairly well now.
I wish it were like Baskin-Robbins and I wish we had before us
32 options of what small business in general but the live event in-
dustry in particular could do to survive. But we do not.
I only really see one option and that is RESTART, which Senator
Young and Senator Bennet authored. It is important because it will
give you, as written, 45 percent of your 2019 income. You can use
it all for operations and overheads and basically keeping the lights
on or you can use some of it for payroll and payroll-related ex-
penses which will be forgiven, and then the rest will convert to a
loan.
As I said earlier, it is very, very important that we be able to
use a vehicle like this because no one—and I mean no one—in the
live event space today has the ability to secure the Main Street
Lending Loan or a commercial loan. The banks have turned their
backs on us, and we understand that. As I said earlier, we do not
have a balance sheet. We do not have a P&L. We do not have an
income stream. We have nothing that is bankable. We cannot get
a loan. We are literally here with our hat in our hand begging.
Senator YOUNG. And Congress should help you out. Frankly I am
very frustrated that we have not helped you out. Again, a govern-
ment mandate for understandable and I think appropriate public
health reasons is one of the main reasons that your rank and file
workers are hurting, and they deserve some help.
You know, if we believe in institutions—conservatives are sup-
posed to believe in institutions. Government is one of those institu-
tions, and government should be there during a time of emergency
to help people, to help ordinary Americans or they are going to lose
faith in government and government leaders.
With your indulgence, Mr. Chairman, I just have one other line
of inquiry. It will not take long.
Last month during a House Financial Services subcommittee
hearing on pandemic insurance, several committee members indi-
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00063 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
60
cated that Congress should wait until the current crisis is over be-
fore contemplating a program to address any future occurrences.
This is for either you, Mr. Strickland, Mr. Laffitte, or each of
you. What are your thoughts on the development of a Federal pan-
demic insurance program that might provide coverage for your in-
dustry in the event of a future government-mandated shutdown
due to another pandemic or another national crisis? Because, you
know, word on the street is because of a number of different fac-
tors, our increased globalization and the change in the atmosphere,
many other factors, trade patterns, this is not going to be the last
pandemic that this or future generations, living generations, will
face. So what are your thoughts about that insurance model?
Mr. STRICKLAND. As I stated earlier, we cannot purchase insur-
ance. We cannot purchase liability protection. We cannot purchase
pandemic insurance. It simply is not offered, and we understand
that. Insurance companies are not interested in it. So the only fea-
sible solution that I see is what I mentioned earlier, a program not
unlike the Federal flood insurance program where the Federal Gov-
ernment stands in between disaster and the affected businesses. As
to what that would look like, I would model it after the flood insur-
ance program.
Senator YOUNG. Thank you very much.
Mr. Laffitte, anything else to add, sir?
[No response.]
Senator YOUNG. OK. I yield back, Mr. Chairman. Thank you.
Senator MORAN. You have nothing to yield back, but thank you,
Senator Young.
Senator Rosen? Senator Rosen, are you with us? Senator Rosen?
[No response.]
Senator MORAN. Senator Cantwell.
STATEMENT OF HON. MARIA CANTWELL,
U.S. SENATOR FROM WASHINGTON
Senator CANTWELL. Thank you, Mr. Chairman, and thanks for
holding this important hearing.
And to the witnesses and for people participating, I want to
thank thousands of the independent artists and venues who have
worked so hard to try to communicate this issue. Obviously, in the
State of Washington, when you are talking about organizations like
the Foo Fighters and the Dave Matthews Band, Macklemore, Pearl
Jam, and many others, you can see that music is a pretty big and
important issue to the State of Washington.
I want to thank our colleagues, Senator Klobuchar and Cornyn,
for their work on legislation. And I was pleased to see there is bi-
partisan support in a stimulus package, but we have a long way
to go to making sure that all becomes a reality.
A survey by the Washington Nightlife Music Association found
that without relief, 63 percent of our state’s independently owned
clubs would have no choice but to permanently close. You guys
have been talking about many of those issues and what happens.
Even in Spokane, the Pin, a staple of the music scene there, closed
its doors, and independent venues like Spokane Arena, the Knit-
ting Factory, Martin Woldson Theater, the Fox, and many others
are impacted by these closures and looking for relief.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00064 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
61
So when I hear these comments this morning and our colleagues,
you would think this would just be a slam dunk, if nothing else,
just go ahead and pass legislation for us, those 38,000 Washing-
tonians, about a $2.4 billion music industry overall. So we do not
want to see permanent closure because it is very hard to start
these again.
We have been talking a lot about the problem, but you could give
us, any of the witnesses, some real life examples of what people are
struggling with right now? I mean, so much of our state—they have
been trying to hold on. They have been trying to hold on and trying
to hold on because they know closure means probably permanent
closure. But could you give us some examples of what people are
trying to do just to hold on?
Mr. STRICKLAND. Yes. Thank you. A great question.
And to bring up about the great State of Washington, I was in-
volved in an endeavor September 1st called Red Alert Restart,
where we lit all the buildings red across the Nation. The band,
Pearl Jam, from Seattle made magic—thank you very much—in Se-
attle. I cannot give them enough kudos. They reached out to me
and then they went to work and turned Seattle red beginning with
the Space Needle and flowing from there.
I have a 1.2 million person e-mail chain. I receive calls and let-
ters and texts. To answer your question, 30 percent of the busi-
nesses have closed. We are not having a conversation at this mo-
ment about what might happen. We are having a conversation
about what has happened and what is happening and what will
continue to happen.
The smaller companies and what we now call the gig workers—
those people have already shifted out of this space, and they are
now working at Amazon or somewhere else. They have left the in-
dustry that they love, some never to return. We anticipate 20 to 30
percent will never return to this space. Some of the smaller compa-
nies have shuttered and folded and lost all of their assets through
auction, and of course, that money does not go to them.
So I wish I could give you a story of happiness and how people
have been able to survive, but the simple truth is no one is sur-
viving. They are failing daily. And we are not at the edge of the
cliff. We have gone over the cliff. And like the cat in the cartoon,
most of our industry is hanging on by a thread.
Senator CANTWELL. That is exactly what I wanted you to illu-
minate. So thank you for doing that.
We have got to get our colleagues to understand we need to act
now on this legislation. Thank you.
Senator MORAN. Senator Cantwell, thank you for joining us.
Let us see if Senator Rosen is now available.
STATEMENT OF HON. JACKY ROSEN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NEVADA
Senator ROSEN. Here I am. Can you hear me this time?
Senator MORAN. Yes, ma’am. Senator Rosen.
Senator ROSEN. There you go. Technology is great when it works.
Sometimes that microphone gets you. But thank you.
And I want to thank all the witnesses for being here and for
what you are doing across the country and in your communities.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00065 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
62
So most industries are continuing to experience challenges due to
the COVID–19 pandemic, but the live events industry has been
amongst the hardest hit. Live events are a major draw to my home
State of Nevada, and they help drive our State’s tourism economy.
Nearly half a million jobs are part of our live event and tourism
ecosystem.
Unfortunately, Nevada’s once vibrant live events community is
now struggling. Performers, support staff—they have seen their
work come to a complete halt as venues are not able to open during
the pandemic.
There is no doubt that Congress needs to provide targeted finan-
cial assistance to the live events industry, as you have all been
speaking to today, and I will continue to be supportive of those ef-
forts.
But to revive the live events economy, aid cannot merely be a
one-time cash infusion. As we look to the future of safely operating
and increasing capacity at live event venues, we will also need to
implement creative and innovative solutions to help those venues
and other businesses reopen and give the public just more con-
fidence to go back into these indoor spaces.
So given that live event venues depend on large in-person gath-
erings, I am going to ask three of you to talk about this. But can
you first talk about the importance for both safety and consumer
confidence that we provide businesses with all funding, lots of
funding for PPE and the technologies that make indoor activities
safer for workers and the public?
And could you speak more specifically to—if your businesses or
businesses that you work at have upgraded their HVAC or their air
purification, any of those technologies that improve the air that we
breathe? As we know that we do that, we can mitigate the spread
of COVID–19 through the air.
So let us begin with Mr. Hartke and then Mr. Strickland and
then Mr. Fay, please.
Mr. HARTKE. Thank you for the question, Senator.
We are definitely in a whole new world now, and we are rapidly
learning what that means to our industry.
And the answer is yes. Safety is the number one protocol in our
industry. I mean, we are an industry that gathers a large group
of people together, and so inherently there are numerous things
pre-COVID that we had to plan for and now this is just another
layer of that. So safety first is always a big priority for live events.
With that, some have invested in their air purification systems.
Some simply do not have the funds to do it. But it is part of
everybody’s plan to take the steps necessary to ensure that the
public is safe when they return to live events.
Senator ROSEN. Thank you.
Mr. Strickland?
Mr. STRICKLAND. Yes. Thank you, Senator Rosen.
Las Vegas, not unlike New York, California, and Nashville—you
mentioned to begin with the economic impact. It is broader than
the economic impact purely on the live event industry because
when you bring a live event, as you know, certainly to Las Vegas,
you generate hotels and restaurants and taxis and airlines and all
the ancillary businesses. So the effect is far-reaching in all 50
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00066 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
63
states. When you do not have events, everyone suffers, and we are
seeing that now.
But moving to the safety side, you have got two conditions to
look at. You got the medical condition, which is vaccine-related and
exactly how the vaccine does or does not work and what the out-
come from the vaccine is. We will plan for the worst and hope for
the best.
So let us assume that the vaccine works and is safe. We then
move to the social or the human condition. How safe will people
feel? How much will you want to go and see a show? That is an
answer that 340 million people will answer one at a time.
Now, we do have a lot of information telling us that there is a
high degree of confidence. As I shared earlier, we have three sold-
out Garth Brooks stadiums, and we have had literally no requests
for refunds. The same thing can be said for a number of other large
events next year. The refund rate at this moment is very low. So
that indicates to us a high degree of consumer confidence. Having
said that, let us discuss that question after the first event is held.
Senator ROSEN. Thank you. I see my time is just about up, and
I would like to submit some questions for the record and talk more
about our air purification systems, how we support that so people
can feel confident to go back indoors to our wonderful venues.
Thank you.
Senator MORAN. Senator Tester, I believe you are cleaning up.
STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA
Senator TESTER. I do not know about cleaning up, but anytime
I can get on a committee that is chaired by Senator Moran, I am
there. So thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Look, I came to this late because we have a bunch of conflicts
in the Senate, but I have heard talk about a number of bills that
I am on, Save Our Stages, the RESTART Act, ENCORES Act. And
I hear everybody saying the right thing. And by the way, while I
am on this, if you are listening, Senator Young, I would be more
than happy to work with you in a bipartisan way on liability insur-
ance for these entities because I think Mr. Strickland is correct.
These venues have unusual circumstances.
But getting back to what I was going to say, I have heard people
talk and I do not think anybody has said that you guys are full of
BS. I think everybody that I have heard anyway has said we feel
your pain. And I do not know if you guys are frustrated because
we continue not to do anything, but it frustrates the hell out of me.
You guys are sitting out there. You have been impacted by some-
thing that you do not have any control over. You can be the best
business people in the world. You can do everything right, but yet
you are getting submarined by this damn coronavirus.
You know, I work with a number of folks in my state, Nick
Shikota. I have had Shawn Lynch that put on their small venues.
And by the way, Mr. Strickland, you are right. For every dollar
spent in those small venues, it results in $12 of economic activity
within those regions. So you are absolutely right. What you do im-
pacts a hell of a lot more than just going to a concert.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00067 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
64
So from the five folks we have—or at least I see four. There is
five on my agenda. Could you tell me what happens 6, 8, 10
months from now to your business? Let us assume that the vaccine
is good. Let us assume people go back to the concerts again. But
we all know it is going to be 6, 8, 10 months. Your projections may
be that or may be longer. I do not know, but that is the way I see
it. Are you guys still going to be around?
Mr. HARTKE. Thanks for that question, Senator.
Without help, no, we will not be around. We are at a cliff right
now. We have been 9 months closed with no revenue and still all
of our expenses. So without help, the independent venues will not
last.
If we do get help, then yes, by all means we will be around and
we will put all of our effort into a recovery. And, you know, recov-
ery is important. Our venues’ involvement in recovery is super im-
portant for our local region because we are going to drive tourism.
We are going to bring people back out to do things. But it is going
to be a slow recovery. You know, we are going to have open to a
reduced capacity just to see how everything works, and that is
probably a 6 to 12, maybe 18-month period where we are at se-
verely decreased revenue.
So not only does Save Our Stages Act help us survive now, which
is our sole focus, but it also helps us with our recovery. And we
all fully anticipate once we get through this and consumer con-
fidence is back and the virus has been best[inaudible], then we are
going to see a boom. The live music industry—I do not know about
you, but I am real excited to go out and see a show right now, and
I think a lot of people feel that way. But that is going to be down
the road. That is not going to be immediate. So this not only helps
us survive, but it helps us be a part of the recovery period.
Senator TESTER. Anybody else like to respond to that?
Mr. STRICKLAND. Yes, I would like to jump in if I might, Senator.
That is the value in the RESTART Act. The value in the RE-
START Act is very simply that it is a 7-year loan with no payments
in year 1. That is critical. We will have no money in year 1 because
if we got RESTART money late February, if we began in June or
July, we are going to be broke. So in year 1, there are no payments.
Year 2, interest only. Year 3 to 7, we amortize the note. We can
live with that. That is a path to survival. If you gave us all $10
million tomorrow but payments began next month, it just would
not work.
Senator TESTER. But if we do nothing, which it does not feel like
we are going to do much right now from this Senator’s perspec-
tive—and I hope we do. But if we do nothing, will you be in busi-
ness?
Mr. STRICKLAND. No, sir. We disappear as an industry.
Senator TESTER. Anybody else want to talk about this?
Senator MORAN. Mr. Pantuso.
Mr. PANTUSO. Thank you, Senator.
In the motorcoach industry, we want to be part of the solution.
We want to be part of the recovery.
In terms of how it relates to this hearing, a lot of our companies
are already over the cliff. I saw a report from the Department of
Transportation not long ago that showed that as many as 400 to
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00068 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
65
500 companies have lost operating authority, which essentially
means they are closed.
As business comes back, we want to be in a position to take peo-
ple to those venues, to those stages, but we also know in the travel
and tourism industry that we represent, that planning process
takes a long, long time. We are going to continue to lose companies
over the next 6 months until business starts to open up again. And
that planning process in many cases to get people back on the
buses and back on tours again or back to work in commuter sched-
uled service may take another year beyond that. So we need help
now. We cannot wait another 6 months.
Senator TESTER. Right on.
Well, look, I just want to say you guys have got to be going crazy.
I mean, your livelihoods are on the line here and you look to have
a Federal Government that has got your back and you look back
and it is not there.
I am going to continue—I will give you my personal word. I am
going to continue to make sure that we try to get all three of these
bills across the finish line. And I think the liability issue is a good
one.
But in the end, we have got to come together and we have got
to help the economy. I talked to a good economist this morning.
You guys are hurting. This economist says if we do nothing, we are
going to go back into a recession and potentially a depression be-
cause we are not done with the worst part of this pandemic yet.
And so I just think that the folks here in Washington, D.C.—and
I am concerned about the debt too, but when you have challenges
like this, you acquire the debt, keep the economy going, pay the
debt off down the line. And I think it is really, really important.
I want to thank you guys for being here, and I want to thank
you for what you do because I think it is important for our society.
So thank you.
Senator MORAN. Senator Tester, thank you.
I would highlight for you in particular that I would be happy to
be the Chairman of any committee that you are a member of, and
we will see if that is the case come January.
Senator TESTER. Amen.
Senator MORAN. And, Senator Tester, thank you for sharing your
frustration. I gave remarks on the Senate floor maybe 3 weeks ago
saying just because we cannot do everything, let us do what we can
do. Let us do something. And then maybe a week or 10 days ago,
additional remarks saying, well, we seem to be doing something
but it seems to be so slow. Can we speed up the process? So let
us figure out among our colleagues what we can do. There are
some things that seem incapable at the moment, but that does not
mean we should not do what we can agree on. And I think that
is a wide array of options and particularly the legislation we talked
about today. They seem to be things that we could do with broad
bipartisan support, and we need to speed up the timeframe. As in-
dicated today, these businesses are in jeopardy of no longer exist-
ing.
We are going to conclude this hearing in just a moment, but I
want to ask a couple of questions of Mr. Laffitte. Mr. Laffitte, ear-
lier I mentioned the Paycheck Protection Program. It was the main
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00069 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
66
relief program created by Congress to retain employees. In your ex-
perience did music artists utilize PPP and why or why not?
Mr. LAFFITTE. Thank you for the question, Senator.
The PPP program was a great program for as long as it lasted
which, as you know and has been stated time and again today, it
did not last long enough.
I did have several clients who qualified and as a result of that
qualification, we were able to take care of some of our road crew
and essential workers who spent their entire lives literally doing
nothing except going from tour to tour. Again, as you know, the
issue here is the money has run out and there is no next tour.
Senator MORAN. Mr. Laffitte, tell me a little bit about the indus-
try that you are involved in. How much of an artist’s income comes
from touring or performing on the road? Particularly for smaller
artists, what form of Federal assistance would be most effective in
helping those people?
Mr. LAFFITTE. Again, thank you for that question.
I would say anywhere from 70 to 90 percent of the income comes
from live performance, particularly for the smaller acts. A big artist
or a great songwriter could generate income writing songs through
radio airplay and public performance of that music on the radio or
television. That being said, most of the income today is earned on
the road.
And so what I would hope for as an artist manager would be to
get help from Congress to help keep our workers alive. ERTC, PPP
program being expanded, Save Our Stages being expanded. We
need help everywhere. We are talking about an entire workforce
that has nowhere else to go.
Some of the people here are personalizing stories. One of my tour
managers, who has been with us for 15 years, is selling a new bev-
erage. He is going from convenience store to convenience store to
just try to make ends meet.
So, again bringing it back to solutions, please expand PPP,
please expand ERTC, please expand Save Our Stages. There is a
giant workforce from top to bottom that needs help. You know, the
ticket taker at the small club has their needs. They need to put
food on the table and keep a roof over their head. So does the usher
at the big arena. We need to help everybody here.
Senator MORAN. Mr. Laffitte, you indicated that you support—
please pass the SOS, Save Our Stages Act. Is there any points that
you would highlight where that legislation falls short?
Mr. LAFFITTE. My understanding is that Save Our Stages only
covers about 30 percent of the venues that qualify. So obviously,
the vast majority, 70 percent, of those are not covered. Again, I
think we need to expand the scope. I think we need to get more
venues qualified.
Senator MORAN. Thank you very much.
I thank all of our witnesses for being here. It is my usual prac-
tice in hearings that Senator Blumenthal and I conduct to give any
witness the opportunity to add anything to what they said or to
correct anything they said, something that they misspoke. Is there
any witness who would like to add anything to the record before
we conclude this morning’s hearing? Mr. Pantuso?
Mr. PANTUSO. Yes. Thank you, Senator.
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00070 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
67
I would like to follow up on a question that Senator Lee had a
little earlier about what can the Federal Government do. And I can
give you one example. Right now, we are hearing from some of the
national parks that they will only allow a bus with 10 individuals
to come into those parks. Grand Canyon is a perfect example. They
are also not allowing companies to come in that do not already
have passes in 2020 or what is called a CUA, commercial use au-
thorization, permit. It means that as we get to the recovery and
companies want to bring more people to our national park system
or to the Grand Canyon, they will not be allowed to because you
cannot run a bus with 10 individuals, one being the driver and one
being the guide, only eight paying customers. And if you have not
already been to the park and have a CUA in 2020, it means you
cannot get one in 2021. So it is one example where the Federal
Government needs to get out of the way and open the doors up to
allow the recovery to continue.
Senator MORAN. Thank you.
Senator BLUMENTHAL. Mr. Chairman, if I might respond.
Senator MORAN. Senator Blumenthal.
Senator BLUMENTHAL. I think that point is very well made in
general about the Federal Government getting out of the way, but
more particularly about our national parks and the example of that
being a destination for our motorcoach industry and our travel in-
dustry in general. Travel agents suffer from the potential closure
of many of these venues, and our transportation industry.
I also want to mention or emphasize a point made by Mr. Fay
about The Bushnell being a source of education and resources for
our children in school. It is part of our educational system. If we
lose The Bushnell, we lose a vital source of culture and education
for students. The Ridgefield Playhouse in Ridgefield, Connecticut
has been serving as a free source of education for Bridgeport, Dan-
bury, and Stamford school children. So making these venues avail-
able is absolutely critical for our educational system.
Thanks, Mr. Chairman, and I want to thank all of the witnesses
who are here today and who have participated virtually because
you have added a tremendous amount to the understanding we
have of this issue. Thank you.
Senator MORAN. Thank you, Senator Blumenthal.
Any of our witnesses have anything they would like to say before
we conclude?
Mr. STRICKLAND. Mr. Chairman, I would like to say thank you
first and foremost to this committee and to you folks for doing this.
I would like to go back to what Senator Tester said. We are not
upset. We understand that Congress has a huge challenge in front
of itself. You have to deal with a huge number of bills, thousands
of bills. So your knowledge and your time is very valuable, and
thank you for taking it. We understand the process. We just hope
and pray that today we have made the live event industry’s plight
known.
And I will close by saying that we are very vertically integrated.
It is like that game—is it Jenga where you pull the blocks out? If
one block goes, the whole tower falls. And what you see at the top
is the big star, and what you see at the bottom are the manufactur-
ers like Senator Young referenced. And when this thread begins to
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00071 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6601 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
68
unravel, the venues, the sound people, the bus people, the labor
people, the radio people, the rodeo people, and the manufacturers
and the birthday party people and the party rental houses—it all
falls apart because there is no chain. There is no ecosystem. And
then it becomes the knock-on economic effect of the rest of the com-
munity.
Again, thank you for your time.
Senator MORAN. An analogy well stated.
Mr. Hartke, I think you wanted to say something.
Mr. HARTKE. Yes. Thank you, Chairman Moran.
Again, I just wanted to state the urgency of this. We have em-
ployees whose PUA has ran out, and we have venues that have
closed. Lots of them. And lots of them are facing closures. And I
wanted to remind everybody that these are locally owned busi-
nesses. We live in the communities in which we own the business.
It is mom and pop venues of all sizes across the country that this
act, Save Our Stages Act, will help. So we do not have a month to
wait. We do not have a week. We do not have 2 months. The time
is now. After 9 months, people are going under quick and it is just
going to be over the edge if we wait any longer.
So that is all I have to say. Thank you.
Senator MORAN. Thank you.
Hopefully this hearing and its timing corresponds with the mo-
ment in time in which the U.S. Senate is prepared to act—the U.S.
Congress. And thank you all for highlighting the importance of
these bills and this issue to the American people and to the em-
ployees and to our economy.
The hearing record will remain open for two weeks. During this
time, Senators are asked to submit any questions for the record.
Upon receipt, the witnesses are requested to submit their written
answers to the Committee as soon as possible. What that is saying
is that there may be questions submitted to our witnesses, and we
would ask you to respond as quickly as you can.
This concludes the hearing, and I thank again the witnesses for
appearing today. This hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 11:55 a.m., the hearing was adjourned.]
Æ
VerDate Nov 24 2008 12:29 Jul 20, 2023 Jkt 000000 PO 00000 Frm 00072 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6611 S:\GPO\DOCS\52921.TXT JACKIE
File and source
- File
- 039-undated-ppr-int-dd32cc917343efb2-examining-the-impact-of-covid-19-on-the-live-event-entertainment-industr.pdf
- Size
- 3,780,080 bytes
- SHA-256
- 25ccff7355316df40ae9815fa4b4e2532e95b5dbdf2fa6c479a366dc98bc8adf
- Original
- www.govinfo.gov