US creative community welcomes the passing of the American Rescue Plan Act

By Emmanuel Legrand

Organisations representing the music and entertainment industries have welcomed the passing by Congress of the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, the Biden administration's Covid-19 relief and economic stimulus bill.

  The package include $470m to be allocated to cultural organisations, with $135m each for the National Endowment for the Arts and the National Endowment for the Humanities, and $200m for the Institute of Museum and Library Services (IMLS).

  “The American Rescue Plan provides absolutely essential economic relief for workers in the American creative community who continue to face an uncertain path back to work due to the pandemic," said the organisations in a statement.

Desperate need for funds

  They added: "This legislation’s extension of CARES Act and Mixed Earner Unemployment Compensation benefits into early September, as well as critical tax forgiveness for the first $10,200 of unemployment insurance claimed in 2020, will provide much-needed certainty for creative community workers and their families. We are also grateful for the inclusion of additional funds for shuttered venue operators and live entertainment businesses, and continued support for the Paycheck Protection Program. Businesses are in desperate need of these funds."

  The coalition includes: Actors’ Equity Association, American Association of Independent Music( A2IM), American Photographic Artists, ASCAP, The Authors Guild, BMI, Copyright Alliance, CreativeFuture, AFL-CIO, Digital Media Association (DiMA) , Music Managers Forum-US(MMF-US), Music Workers Alliance (MWA), Nashville Songwriters Association International (NSAI), National Independent Talent Organization (NITO), National Music Publishers’ Association (NMPA), National Writers Union (NWU), RecordingAcademy Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), SAG-AFTRA, Songwriters Guild of America, Songwriters of North America (SONA), and SoundExchange, among others.