U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer was at the National Comedy Center on Monday.

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer on Monday announced “help is on the way” for Chautauqua County citizens as he detailed specifics from the American Rescue Plan he just led to passage in the U.S. Senate.

Using the National Comedy Center as a backdrop, Schumer explained that Rescue Plan contains even more for New York’s live independent venues which are eligible for their own, direct, federal pandemic relief, thanks to a provision he championed.

The Save Our Stages provision included an additional $1.25 billion for independent live venues, performing arts organizations, independent movie theaters, and cultural institutions and included a critical fix that allows venues to access a PPP loan and a Shuttered Venue Operators Grant, deducting the PPP loan amount from the grant amount. Schumer said the additional funding and technical fix would be a lifeline for New York’s independent venues, hard-hit by the economic effects of the coronavirus pandemic. Previously, a venue had to choose between getting a PPP loan or a Save Our Stages grant. The application process for the $16.25 billion program begins this week on Thursday, April 8.

SBA recently announced that the Save Our Stages program will open to applications on April 8th after Schumer’s continued push to implement the program. SBA has also released an updated PPP application that now allows venues to apply for a PPP loan as well as a Save Our Stages grant, as Schumer intended with the fix included in the recent COVID bill.

“Independent venues, theaters, concert halls, and cinemas, are the beating heart of New York’s cultural life and a driving force in the Western New York economy. These local businesses were among the first to shut down at the start of the pandemic, are struggling to stay afloat, and will be among the last to fully reopen, costing jobs and leaving a giant hole in the fabric of our communities,” Schumer said. “That is why I made sure this relief bill included a swan song – additional reliefs dollars to boost the Save Our Stages legislation and a critical technical fix to allow venues to access PPP and flexible grant support.”