The Creative Economy Revitalization Act (CERA): putting creative workers to work for community recovery

What is the Creative Economy Revitalization Act?

The Creative Economy Revitalization Act (CERA), H.R. 5019, is a bi-partisan bill  to invest in jobs for artists and other creative workers in support of local economies harmed by COVID-19.

 U.S. Rep. Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM) and U.S. Rep. Jay Obernolte (R-CA), along with Reps. Chellie Pingree (D-ME), Rosa DeLauro (D-CT) and Ted Lieu (D-CA) introduced the bill.

CERA's specific, directed investment in creative workers will jumpstart local economies, reduce unemployment, and improve health and vibrancy of communities. 

What would CERA do?
 
CERA would authorize $300m through a grant program at the U.S. Department of 
Labor, in coordination with the National Endowment for the Arts. 

These grants would go to local, state, and tribal agencies; workforce agencies; and 
public or private nonprofit entities. They would support business initiatives to 
employ creative workers. 

The grant recipients would hire local creative workers to produce publicly available creative projects that meet community needs and priorities. 

Projects could include public artworks,  festivals, performances, visual and media art, arts education work, and written works that capture narratives from first responders and historically marginalized communities. 

These projects will put creative workers to work, support local small businesses, create economic ripple effects, enrich and celebrate communities, and increase access to culture for all!


Why do our creative workers, businesses, and communities need CERA?

COVID-19 crushed local economies and particularly damaged creative businesses and displaced large numbers of creative workers.


What is the creative economy?

Over 675,000 for-profit and nonprofit creative businesses and 5.1 million artists, educators, entrepreneurs, vendors, policy makers and funders, that’s what! 

Creative economies exist in every American community, powered by people who use their creativity to drive jobs, revenue, community resources, and cultural engagement. 

​Creatives work hard! 91% of all creative businesses are solo entrepreneurships, and a third of all creative workers are 
independent contractors or gig workers. 


The biggest action item at the moment is to support Leger Fernandez and Obernolte’s efforts to add co-sponsors in the House to CERA. There is an Action Alert below that you can use for that, or you can independently reach out to your Representative to encourage their co-sponsorship. Reps Lieu (CA), Pingree (ME), and Delauro (CT) have already come on as co-sponsors.
 
The Creative Economy Revitalization Act has now been officially introduced. It is HR 5019.

• Click here for the official release from Rep. Leger Fernandez announcing the introduction of the bill.
• Click here for the official bill text.
• Click here for Rep. Leger Fernandez’s list of endorsing partners. If you believe your organization endorsed the bill, but you are not listed, please email me and I’ll inform the Congresswoman’s staff—it is apparently a bit of a challenge to get PDFs updated on official government sites, so they’re asking for coordinated submission of edits.
• Click here for a one-pager on the bill created by Rep. Leger Fernandez’s staff.

 

• Congresswoman Leger Fernandez and Congressman Obernolte also, on August 18, sent a Dear Colleague letter encouraging co-sponsorship from their House colleagues. A copy of that Dear Colleague letter is attached for reference.ACTION ITEM: To encourage additional co-sponsors, we have created a co-sponsorship Action Alert that can be filled out by anyone and automatically sent to their Representative in Congress. 
• It can be found here. Please complete it and encourage others to do so!
• A subset of the Get Creative Workers Working coalition, working alongside partners from Be An Arts Hero, the Cultural Advocacy Group, and the State Arts Action Network, have created an FAQ/Explainer on CERA, which can be found here.

 

• Americans for the Arts’ government affairs team took high points of the FAQ/Explainer and turned it until an infographic, which is attached to this post. 

 

• The bill has been directed to the House Committee on Education and Labor, as we anticipated.
• Beyond getting co-sponsors, the next big effort is going to need to be getting the Ed and Labor Committee to put CERA on the agenda for active consideration, and to ideally recommend it be taken up by the House. If you see your Representative on this list below, they are a member of this committee, and need to hear from you that they should actively take up (and vote to move forward) the Creative Economy Revitalization Act. If you need assistance in reaching out to your Representative, please let us know! (ORGANIZED BY STATE BELOW)

-          Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
-          Mark Takano (D-CA)
-          Mark DeSaulnier (D-CA)
-          Michelle Steel (R-CA)
-          Joe Courtney (D-CT)
-          Jahana Hayes (D-CT)
-          Frederica Wilson (D-FL)
-          Lucy McBath (D-GA)
-          Rick Allen (R-GA)
-          Mariannette Miller-Meeks (R-IA)
-          Russ Fulcher (R-ID)
-          Mary Miller (R-IL)
-          Frank Mrvan (D-IN)
-          Jim Banks (R-IN)
-          Victoria Spartz (R-IN)
-          John Yarmuth (D-KY)
-          James Comer (R-KY)
-          Julia Letlow (R-LA)
-          Kweisi Mfume (D-MD)
-          Andy Levin (D-MI)
-          Haley Stevens (D-MI)
-          Tim Walberg (R-MI)
-          Lisa McClain (R-MI)
-          Ilhan Omar (D-MN)
-          Alma Adams (D-NC)
-          Kathy Manning (D-NC)
-          Virginia Foxx (R-NC) – Ranking Member
-          Gregory Murphy (R-NC)
-          Madison Cawthorn (R-NC)
-          Donald Norcross (D-NJ)
-          Mikie Sherill (D-NJ)
-          Gregorio Camacho Sablan (D-N. Marianas Islands)
-          Teresa Leger Fernandez (D-NM)
-          Joseph Morelle (D-NY)
-          Mondaire Jones (D-NY)
-          Jamaal Bowman (D-NY)
-          Adriano Espaillat (D-NY)
-          Elise Stefanik (R-NY)
-          Suzanne Bonamici (D-OR)
-          Susan Wild (D-PA)
-          Glenn Thompson (R-PA)
-          Fred Keller (R-PA)
-          Joe Wilson (R-SC)
-          Diane Harshbarger (R-TN)
-          Joaquin Castro (D-TX)
-          Burgess Owens (R-UT)
-          Bobby Scott (D-VA) – Chair
-          Bob Good (R-VA)
-          Pramila Jayapal (D-WA)
-          Mark Pocan (D-WI)
-          Glenn Grothman (R-WI)
-          Scott Fitzgerald (R-WI)
 

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