WASHINGTON, DC UPDATE: FEBRUARY 11, 2022

Written by mark@esca.org on February 11, 2022. Posted in News and Updates

WASHINGTON, DC UPDATE: FEBRUARY 11, 2022 

1. ECA Small Business Advocacy Week 

• This week, ECA successfully held its first Small Business Advocacy Week, a “pop up” virtual Capitol Hill fly-in for our small business owners and industry advocates

•  ECA held 20+ meetings with Senate Small Business Committee members, party leaders, and other members who are critical to passage of the ECA-supported MUSIC Act and a broader package of small business relief measures 

• ECA thanks all of the industry advocates who participated, as well as ECA alliance partners ESCA, EDPA, and IAEE for their support in recruiting event participants 

2. MUSIC Act / small business relief legislation 

• The MUSIC Act continues to be part of the ongoing efforts in the Senate to craft a bipartisan relief package for small businesses still disproportionately impacted by the pandemic o
  • At this time, a bipartisan working group of key Senators is working to assemble legislative text and identify potential offsets to pay for at least part of the package
  • Notably, the MUSIC Act only seeks to spend already-appropriated funds, which would not require additional federal spending
• Next week, Congress will extend the deadline to fund the federal government for Fiscal Year 2022 from February 18 until March 11

• • This date is important, as Sens. Ben Cardin (D-MD) and Roger Wicker (R-MS) would like to attach a small business relief package to the forthcoming government funding legislation, should it meet the 60-vote Senate threshold for moving legislation 

3. Pandemic Risk Insurance Act (PRIA) 

• Efforts continue on Capitol Hill to find a solution that would help bring back communicable disease coverage to event cancellation insurance  
• • PRIA, introduced in the House of Representatives last November by Rep. Carolyn Maloney (D-NY), currently has 11 co-sponsors
  • In the Senate, there are encouraging signs that legislation addressing pandemic risk may be brought forward in the coming months 
  • ECA also understands that forthcoming appropriations bill may contain report language that would direct the Department of Treasury to study the economic impact of future pandemic-related risk 

• ECA will continue to prioritize finding a public-private solution that restores the market for communicable disease coverage within event cancellation insurance and prevents against catastrophic financial loss stemming from future pandemics