Laurel Leader-Call
Senators ask for flexibility in states’ spending of funds
Apr 10, 2020
U.S. Sens. Roger Wicker and Cindy Hyde-Smith joined Sens. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and John Barrasso (R-Wyo.) in sending a letter to U.S. Department of the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin requesting flexibility for states to use funds from the Coronavirus Relief Fund to assist local governments with coronavirus response efforts. Mississippi will be receiving $1.25 billion from this program to pay for expenses related to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“It is critical to the success of the Coronavirus Relief Fund that Treasury consider direct emergency payments from states to units of local government in their state as eligible expenditures,” the senators wrote.
To speed the delivery of the funds to the thousands of local governments with fewer than 500,000 residents, lawmakers delegated broad authority to the states while allowing Treasury to deal directly with larger municipalities. The senators’ letter is intended to address concerns that Treasury could disregard congressional intent and bar payments to local governments from a state’s allocations.
“We have all worked closely with our Governors, Mayors and other local officials throughout this crisis. While the attention is often on Washington, they are the ones actually on the front line. We implore you to recognize this fact and to ensure that in the implementation of the Coronavirus Relief Fund you do not strangle the ability of states to work with local governments to respond to the crisis with well-intentioned rules with red tape,” the senators continued.
The Treasury Department interpretation of the Corornavirus Relief Fund, which was created within the CARES Act, is important to Mississippi where none of its 82 counties has populations exceeding 500,000.