WASHINGTON, DC UPDATE: FEBRUARY 11, 2022

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

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