
“You need all those calories, but it’s hard to digest it all at once.” “It’s like the python that ate the rat,” Brad Whitehead, a nonresident senior fellow at the Brookings Metropolitan Policy Program, said of the struggle to shepherd so much federal money into state projects.
#Stimulus bill how to#
But a stronger than expected economic recovery and trillions of dollars of relief money have left states with a new problem: how to spend it. It is a far different picture than what state officials expected at the beginning of the pandemic, when budget officers across the United States warned of dire shortfalls as businesses shuttered, workers lost their jobs and health costs soared. The recent passage of the $1 trillion bipartisan infrastructure law will also send more federal funds to local governments. State spending of federal funds has surged by 35.7 percent this year, and more money is on the way, as many states will get their second tranche of relief money in 2022. States, which have until 2026 to spend the stimulus money, are getting their share of federal funds at a moment when budgets are recovering faster than expected, with many governments awash in cash and announcing large surpluses.Ī November expenditure report from the National Association of State Budget Officers found that state revenues are up 12.8 percent this year after declining in 2020 for the first time in a decade. DeSantis said.Ī Treasury spokeswoman said that the agency did not preapprove uses of funds but that any funds used “in violation of eligible uses” of Treasury’s rules could be clawed back by the federal government.

The money for that program would come from the interest generated by the state and local recovery funds, a spokeswoman for Mr. DeSantis proposed a gas tax holiday and an $8 million program to remove “unauthorized aliens” from of the state. DeSantis, and allow the state to afford to pay for priorities that are unrelated to the pandemic. Biden’s approach is surprisingly consistent with the Trump administration ’s, analysts say.ĭespite his complaints, the cash cushion could help Florida build as much as $17 billion in reserves by the end of next year, according to Mr.

#Stimulus bill series#

to turn off the spigot of out-of-control spending and get inflation under control,” said Gov. “I urge President Biden and Democrats in D.C. Biden’s stimulus bill for fueling inflation, even as they take the funds, and criticized Democrats for pushing for additional government spending plans. Other governors are faulting Congress for not giving their state enough money.Īnd, like their counterparts in Congress, many Republicans have blasted Mr. In some states, like Ohio and Arizona, Republican governors are spending the funds while attempting to undercut the law that allowed the money to flow.

Republican leaders across the country have been engaged in a similarly awkward dance over the past few months as they accept - and often champion - money from the $350 billion bucket of state and local aid included in the stimulus bill, which passed Congress without a single Republican vote.
