On January 6 the U.S. Treasury Department (Treasury) released the Final Rule for the State and Local Coronavirus Fiscal Recovery Fund (Recovery Fund), which was authorized under the American Rescue Plan Act and allocated $65.1 billion in direct, flexible aid to every county in America. The Final Rule will go into effect on April 1, 2022. However, a county can choose to take advantage of the Final Rule’s new flexibilities and simplifications now, even ahead of the effective date.
Treasury is hosting three webinars to brief and answer questions about the Final Rule. If Treasury reaches RSVP capacity and you cannot attend a webinar or prefer to be briefed at your convenience, Treasury will post a recording of the webinar hosted on January 7. Webinar dates are as follows:
January 7, 2022 at 12 pm (CST)
January 10, 2022 at 3 pm (CST)
January 12, 2022 at 12 pm (CST)
Additionally, the National Association of Counties (NACo) is holding a national membership call on Monday, January 10 at noon (register via this link).
- Allows counties to use up to $10 million in ARPA Recovery Funds for the provision of government services without having to go through a complicated “revenue loss” calculation. NACo aggressively advocated for this concept to be included in the Final Rule, which was a significant part in the bipartisan State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act (S. 3011/H.R. 5735)
- Allows Recovery Funds to be used for the modernization of cybersecurity for existing and new broadband infrastructure, including the modernization of hardware and software
- Expands eligible uses for water and sewer projects to include culvert repair, dam and reservoir rehabilitation and stormwater infrastructure, among others
- Clarifies how counties can use Recovery Funds for certain capital expenditures to respond to public health and economic impacts
- Streamlines options to provide premium pay by broadening the share of eligible workers
NACo will release an in-depth analysis of Treasury’s Final Rule in the coming days and will give members extensive opportunities in the future to learn about the impact of Treasury’s Final Rule.