County leaders should keep the heat on the House to pass a bill that allows for more flexibility with pandemic relief funds.
That was the message Texas Republican Sen. John Cornyn delivered Monday to the National Association of Counties during its 2022 legislative conference in Washington.
Cornyn is one of several D.C. lawmakers and officials to appear at the conference, with President Joe Biden set to speak Tuesday. U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg joined Monday to highlight ways that federal dollars in the $1.2 trillion Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act can flow more quickly to counties.
“I’m glad that Treasury finally took some action last month allowing local governments to put up to $10 million toward expenses, but that’s hardly a solution for the problem,” Cornyn said, referring to the Treasury Department’s
“I hope every penny that’s spent….is spent in the most effective way but unfortunately with the current guardrails that’s not possible.”
The Senate in October 2021 unanimously approved the State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act, which would allow state and local governments to use up to $10 million, or 30% of their American Rescue Plan Act allocation, whichever is greater, for transportation, infrastructure, disaster relief and other uses that ARPA currently restricts.
The move would free up to $123 billion, according to the American Association of State Highway and Transportation Officials.
Newly eligible uses would include a wide variety of surface transportation projects ranging from national highway programs, the TIFIA loan program, nationally significant freight and highway projects and the Territorial and Puerto Rico Highway Program. The funds could also be used for transit, natural disasters and wildfire recovery.
The House late last year
The legislation “lost momentum” in the House, Cornyn said. “I’m not sure exactly the holdup but everybody wins in this legislation,” he said. “I’m here to ask you help us work with the House of Representatives [and] Speaker Pelosi to get this bill done,” he said, telling county leaders to call and write their representatives and post about the issue on social media. “You can reassure them that spending these funds will not detract from your ability to respond to COVID-19.”
NACo continues to lobby for the House to take up the legislation, said NACo’s deputy director for Government Affairs, Eryn Hurley in a session Monday devoted to implementation of Treasury’s final rule.
"NACo is pushing for it," Hurley said.
ARPA featured $65 billion for counties.
Roughly 38% of local governments have spent their ARPA funds on government operations, according to the
Zeroing in on just counties, nearly 19% of ARPA funds have gone toward infrastructure, according to the tracker, with another 27% going toward government operations and just under 11% going to housing.
Meanwhile, Buttigieg urged county leaders to acquaint themselves with DOT officials to best take advantage of all the new programs offered in the IIJA.
Counties should also work with states – which will receive the bulk of the money – to ensure their top priorities are met, and should give feedback to the DOT's request for comments on implementation, Buttigieg said.
“Getting the money lined up was just the first step,” he said. “Now we have to put the taxpayer dollars to work and we can’t do it without you.”
