To amend the Public Works and Economic Development Act of 1965 to authorize the Secretary of Commerce to make grants to professional nonprofit theaters for the purposes of supporting operations, employment, and economic development.
About This Bill
Committee
Latest Action · April 9, 2024
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment and Public Works.
The STAGE Act establishes a new federal grant program to provide financial support to professional nonprofit theaters across the United States. Eligible theaters must be tax-exempt organizations with at least three years of programming history that either have experienced revenue loss or primarily serve historically underserved communities, and they must pay workers prevailing wage rates and maintain strong labor and employment law compliance records. The program authorizes one billion dollars annually from 2024 through 2028, with grants capped at the lesser of twenty million dollars or twenty percent of an organization's annual expenditures, and at least half of annual funding reserved for entities that primarily produce theater. Theaters can use grant funds for payroll, facility improvements and maintenance, production costs, marketing, workforce development, and other operating expenses that support employment and long-term economic viability. The bill also requires a two-year federal study on sustaining the broader nonprofit arts sector and includes protections to ensure grant funds support professional employment rather than replace workers with trainees or interns.
Take Action
Your position
Add a comment
to comment on this bill.
Annotate the text
Highlight any passage on the Summary or Full Text tab to attach a note. Annotations appear on the Annotations tab.