The U.S. House of Representatives passed on February 27 the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, which would provide relief and resources for the nation’s ongoing pandemic response.
Included in the bill is $350 billion in pandemic assistance for state, territorial, tribal, city and county governments. Unfortunately, elements of H.R. 535/S. 91, the Special Districts Provide Essential Services Act, are not included in the current bill. The bill is now in the U.S. Senate, where the procedure will be governed under the Upper Chamber’s reconciliation rule, which includes the ability for Senators to propose amendments on the Floor.
CSDA and the National Special Districts Coalition are actively engaged with U.S. Senators on this matter and are working closely with members of the U.S. Senate Finance Committee to achieve an amendment to include up to a five percent set-aside of states’ relief allocations, a central component of H.R. 535 and S. 91. All special districts are encouraged to send grassroots support letters for H.R. 535 and S. 91.
Click here to commit your district’s support.
Special districts are encouraged to leverage their social media accounts in their advocacy as well. Click here to access sample tweets for districts’ account. Download infographics to include in your social media here.
Early estimations indicate California could receive as much as $41.2 billion for state and local assistance with 60 percent reserved for state programming and 40 percent for cities and counties. Eligible uses for relief funds under the American Rescue Plan Act would be expanded to include ongoing COVID-19 expenditures, revenue losses, and to address further negative impacts of the COVID-19 economic downturn. The state, counties, and cities would have the authority to transfer funds to nonprofits, multi-state port/transit authorities, and special districts but are not compelled to do so. A February 2021 survey of the nation’s special districts indicates an anticipated $30.9 billion in pandemic impacts by year’s end. California’s districts are expecting more than $2.4 billion in total COVID expenditures and revenue losses.
Regardless of whether districts achieve a 5 percent set-aside for relief, all should begin preparing to demonstrate their needs to the state, or potentially counties, under the program, which would include backfills for COVID-19 expenditures and for revenues that were either lost, delayed, or decreased based on budgets in place prior to January 27, 2020.
CSDA will continue to update special districts as news develops on CSDA’s Advocacy News and COVID-19 communities. Contact Cole Karr, CSDA Federal Advocacy Coordinator, at colek@csda.net for questions or more information.
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