With the pandemic officially over, leftover coronavirus relief money for vaccines, public fitness projects and other systems have a goal, as negotiators seek to succeed in a budget deal to raise the county’s debt limit.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that $30 billion in pandemic-related spending can be written off. That’s just a small fraction of the legal $4. 6 trillion under a series of pandemic relief legislation enacted under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden.
What’s in jeopardy is COVID relief money that hasn’t yet been committed, or forced in government jargon, to express recipients. House Republicans voted last month to cancel those budgets as part of their debt restraint bill, which served as a starting point for talks with the White House.
The potential cuts would save one of the maximum portions of the U. S. bailout. UU. de 2021. De fact, the Treasury Department has already distributed nearly all of the $350 billion in flexible aid to states, territories, and local governments.
Several small systems contained in the same law, adding one that is helping schools and libraries connect other people to the Internet, may lose budget that has not yet committed to quick projects.
Republican debt-limiting proposals to reduce federal spending target six coronavirus relief expenditures approved by Congress in 2020 and 2021. Collectively, those laws have provided approximately $4. 6 trillion for pandemic response and recovery efforts. Some of this money disintegrated in connection with the virus outbreak. , such as vaccines, COVID-19 control kits, public spending on fitness, and stocks of masks and other non-public protective equipment.
Other budgets have been used to offset the economic and social effects of the pandemic, adding assistance to the unemployed and homeless and helping schools that have had to transfer to online instruction or take extra precautions in the classroom. and local governments to compensate for lost profits or to fund programs and projects.
With the expiration of the nation’s public fitness emergency, Republicans argue it’s time to reclaim the remaining pandemic-era budget. Most likely, Biden will settle for this.
“If the cash was legal to fight the pandemic but was not spent during the pandemic, it deserves not to be spent after the pandemic is over,” House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said at the unveiling of the GOP’s debt containment package last month.
The Congressional Budget Office estimates that avoiding the use of the uncommitted pandemic aid budget would result in spending relief of $30 billion over the next decade.
The CBO said much of the relief can come from public health, infrastructure, contracting assistance, network progression and crisis relief programs. But it provided estimates of how much can be lost for fast programs.
Democrats on the House Appropriations Committee have provided their own estimates of the pandemic relief budget that could be cut, adding billions of uncommitted dollars for vaccines, fitness service providers and public fitness initiatives.
One program that could face cuts is the Emergency Communications Fund administered by the Federal Communications Commission. The approximately $7. 2 billion program provides cash to schools and libraries to acquire laptops or tablets, Wi-Fi access points, modems, routers and broadband for use through students, college students and library users.
Data provided through the FCC indicates that, as of May, about $6700 million had been committed to projects. If the remaining budget is withdrawn, no further requests may be approved.
Some local government officials first worried that debt-limit-like spending cuts could recoup billions of dollars not legally spent under the U. S. bailout. UU. mil million to use as they please for dozens of possible purposes, adding to cover public fitness costs, fill budget gaps, or invest in water, sewer and high-speed internet projects.
Treasury Department regulations require recipients to dedicate that budget to special purposes through the end of 2024 and earmark the money through the end of 2026.
Although the Treasury has already distributed the money, many state and local governments are still deciding what to do with it.
States and territories had committed $111 billion of their $200 billion total through the end of 2022, according to an Associated Press study of the most recent information available from the Treasury. Counties and cities that earned at least $10 million had committed about forty-five percent of their $100 billion accumulated through the end of last year, the AP found. Small local governments did not have similar data.
The National League of Cities warned last month that canceling the uncommitted budget could jeopardize local investments in public safety, infrastructure and other network priorities. the Treasury is returned.