State and local governments are set to receive $350 billion in funding as part of the next stimulus bill, according to draft stimulus legislation released Tuesday night by House Democrats.
The funding – which took a backseat during the Trump administration amid GOP criticism that it was nothing more than a bailout for poorly run Democratic strongholds – is slated for committee action on Friday in the House Oversight and Reform Committee after Chair Carolyn Maloney (D-NY) introduced it. The bill would bypass the traditional appropriations process which is not eligible for budget reconciliation, according to Bloomberg.
States would receive $195 billion and that money would partly be distributed based on a the share of unemployed workers. The District of Columbia would get the same share as states, unlike in last year’s relief bill. Local governments would receive $130 billion, partly based on population, with a carve-out for smaller communities. Territories would receive $4.5 billion and tribes $20 billion.
The bill also would spend $570 million to pay for 600 hours of paid leave for federal and postal workers to use for Covid quarantine or to care for infected loved ones. -Bloomberg
“Democrats’ plan to bail out locked-down, poorly managed liberal states is unfair to American taxpayers and is ripe for waste, fraud, and abuse,” said the committee’s top Republican, James Comer of Kentucky.
Meanwhile, the House Energy and Commerce Committee has drafted a proposal which would make big changes to Medicaid – offering states more money to expand public health insurance options for the poor, as well as granting them the ability to claw back funds for prices increases on certain drugs. – READ MORE
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