Senate reaches agreement on bipartisan COVID-19 supplemental legislation

On April 4, a group of senators unveiled a bipartisan, $10 billion COVID-19 supplemental appropriations bill to support the ongoing domestic response to the public health emergency.

The final agreement would provide $10 billion to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) for the procurement of vaccines, therapeutics and testing capacity as well as funding for research and development of vaccines to protect against emerging COVID-19 variants.

Of particular note, the final agreement includes the bipartisan State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act (S. 3011/H.R. 5735) that unanimously passed the Senate in October 2021 and would provide additional flexibilities for counties to invest ARPA Recovery Funds. In addition to the $10 million revenue loss standard allowance for the provision of government that was ultimately included in Treasury’s Final Rule, the bill would allow the greater of $10 million or 30 percent of a county’s total ARPA allocation to be for infrastructure-related activities, including surface transportation programs authorized under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law, and Community Development Blog Grant (CDBG) projects. Counties applaud the inclusion of this critical legislation and additional ARPA flexibility.

To learn more, visit: https://www.naco.org/blog/senate-reaches-agreement-bipartisan-covid-19-supplemental-legislation