Agenda - Council - 09/13/2022 - Laserfiche WebLink

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I. INTRODUCTION Overview Since the first case of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) was discovered in the United States in January 2020, the pandemic has caused severe, intertwined public health and economic crises. In March 2021, as these crises continued, the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA)1 established the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) to provide state, local, and Tribal governments2 with the resources needed to respond to the pandemic and its economic effects and to build a stronger, more equitable economy during the recovery. The U.S. Department of the Treasury (Treasury) issued an interim final rule implementing the SLFRF program on May 10, 20213 and has since disbursed over $240 billion to state, local, and Tribal governments and received over 1,500 public comments on the interim final rule. Treasury is now issuing this final rule which responds to public comments, implements the ARPA statutory provisions on eligible and ineligible uses of SLFRF funds, and makes several changes to the provisions of the interim final rule, summarized below in the section Executive Summary of Major Changes. Since Treasury issued the interim final rule in May 2021, both the public health and economic situations facing the country have evolved. On the public health front, the United States has made tremendous progress in the fight against COVID-19, including a historic vaccination campaign that has reached over 80 percent of adults with at least one dose and is 1 Pub. L. 117-2. https://www.congress.gov/117/plaws/publ2/PLAW-117publ2.pdf. 2 Throughout this Supplementary Information, Treasury uses "state, local, and Tribal governments" or "recipients" to refer generally to governments receiving SLFRF funds; this includes states, territories, Tribal governments, counties, metropolitan cities, and nonentitlement units of local government. 3 86 Fed. Reg. 26786 (May 17, 2021). 2