Flood of fed funds fuels tension over decisions and information
House lawmakers made clear to the Baker administration Thursday that they want more information about how the discretionary portion of $71 billion in one-time aid that’s already come to Massachusetts has been spent and want to have greater say around how another $40 billion in federal stimulus money that’s on the way will be spent.
After ceding some of its power through the early months of the COVID-19 pandemic as the governor flexed his executive authority around public health, the Legislature has in recent months shown a renewed interest in playing an oversight role when it comes to the vaccine rollout and the distribution of federal funds.
Secretary of Administration and Finance Michael Heffernan provided the House Committee on Federal Stimulus and Census Oversight with a detailed breakdown of the more than $40 billion in onetime federal funds that will soon come to Massachusetts residents, businesses and governments through the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the nearly $71 billion in aid that has already been made available.
He also pointed the committee and the public to the state’s federal funds transparency website, www.mass.gov/federalfunds.
But the questions from the committee members made clear that representatives feel they haven’t been given enough information about how much federal aid has already been spent and how the administration decided how it would spend that funding.
Rep. John Barrett told Gov. Charlie Baker’s budget chief that lawmakers “almost feel like we’re being left out of the process.”
Barrett, of North Adams, told Heffernan that he took particular issue with a comment attributed to the secretary in an October press release about the administration having worked in “close coordination with federal, state, and local partners — “including our Legislative colleagues” before announcing an economic recovery plan that drew upon federal money.
“I didn’t see that. I don’t know if my colleagues saw it, but I didn’t see that reaching out, getting our input, getting input from the leadership — both the prior House leadership and the present leadership — and that was concerning,” Barrett, the committee vice chair, said.
He added, “I don’t want to feel like the red-headed stepchild as a member of the Legislature and being left out of this, and I’m sure my colleagues don’t want to feel [that way] about it. And I don’t think we’re going to anymore, hopefully.
“I think that there has to be a reconcilation here of how this future money is going to be spent and oversight, because I believe that not all the money is being used as it’s intended to do,” Barrett said.