Courtney Announces Over $420,000 in American Rescue Plan Funding for Live Venues in Eastern Connecticut

NORWICH, CT—Congressman Joe Courtney (CT-02) today announced the award of federal pandemic relief grants totaling more than $420,000 to two live venues in eastern Connecticut. The grants were awarded to the Submarine Force Library and Museum Association in Groton, and to Niantic Cinemas (Niantic Cinema Corp.) in Niantic. Both grants were awarded through the Shuttered Venue Operators Grant (SVOG) program, a relief program authorized by Congress and supported by the American Rescue Plan Act (H.R. 1319) to target support specifically towards live venue operators—theaters and performance arts organizations, museums, cinemas, and other similar entities.
"Our region's local theaters, museums, and live venues don't just make eastern Connecticut a great place to live, they also create real, good-paying jobs," said Congressman Courtney. "There was a lot of talk a few months back about where American Rescue Plan funding was going—a lot of that talk has faded lately as folks keep seeing relief being delivered in a variety of ways directly to our local communities. American Rescue Plan funding is helping our schools stay open, it's supporting our local police stations and firehouses, and now it's being delivered directly to our local live venues and theaters. Our recovery is going strong in eastern Connecticut, but many of our live venues are just starting to feel the rising ride—the Submarine Force museum just recently re-opened, and Niantic Theaters has their re-opening scheduled for this Friday. For these small businesses and many others, this new support will make a big difference as they press forward and re-open this summer—that's exactly why I voted to pass the American Rescue Plan."
A federal SVOG grant of $137,247 will be awarded to the Submarine Force Library and Museum Association in Groton, and an SVOG grant of $284,148 will be awarded to Niantic Cinemas. The SVOG program was authorized by Congress to provide economic relief to venues shuttered by COVID-19, and is administered by the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA). Impacted venues are able to put SVOG relief funding to use in a variety of ways, from payroll costs, to rent and utility payments, scheduled mortgage and debt payments, worker protection expenditures, state and local taxes and fees, insurance payments, maintenance and administrative costs, and a wide variety of other ordinary and necessary business expenses. Click here to read more.
Rep. Courtney helped create the SVOG program when he voted to pass H.R. 133 in December 2020, which authorized $15 billion for the program. The America Rescue Plan authorized an additional $1.5 billion to assist shuttered live venues, which have all suffered financially during the COVID-19 pandemic. The program also includes $500,000 for technical assistance to help qualifying venues apply, and the American Rescue Plan allowed for venues to apply for both the SVOG program and PPP loans. Rep. Courtney voted to pass the American Rescue Plan Act on February 26, 2021, and the bill was signed into law by President Biden on March 11, 2021.
The SBA is still working to process SVOG grant applications from venues across the region, and is expected to provide updates on outstanding grant applications in the coming days.

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