Variety of last-minute changes made to Senate aid package
WASHINGTON — A “perfecting amendment” the Senate adopted just before final passage of a $1.9 trillion aid package would add billions of dollars for local governments, restaurants and child care grants to states.
The changes came in a 58-page amendment from Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer, DN.Y., covering various sections of the wide-ranging relief bill. Further modifications to initial amendment text obtained by CQ Roll Call before it was adopted by voice vote Saturday morning were written into the margins.
The biggest changes involved restoring $10 billion in direct aid to cities and counties, which had been cut from the initial Senate substitute amendment to the House-passed aid bill (HR 1319). The restored funds bring the total for local governments to $130.2 billion, while preserving a $10 billion fund for state broadband infrastructure projects that the earlier amendment made room for.
In addition, the final amendment would create a new $1 billion annual program, championed by Senate Finance Chair Ron Wyden, D-Ore., for communities and tribal governments that have historically been harmed by federal government policies.
In a statement for the record, Wyden cited communities across the western United States, including his home state, that are situated on federal lands without a substantial local tax base to pay for government services. Federal environmental and wildlife protection laws have sapped rural counties’ ability to benefit from revenue-sharing arrangements involved in resource extraction, like timber, oil and gas.
Eligible communities include counties, parishes or boroughs, as well as the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. The fund would presumably benefit communities that have complained of the fiscal impact of Biden administration regulations prohibiting oil and gas exploration.
The money in Wyden’s program is available so far only for the 2022 and 2023 fiscal years, so more would need to be appropriated in subsequent legislation. Of the $2 billion, $500 million would be set aside for tribal governments.
Changes to state, local funds
Restrictions on direct aid to states would change somewhat
under Schumer’s perfecting amendment.
Gone is a requirement that the $195.3 billion be split into two tranches, with the second allotment made available 12 months later; instead, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen would be given the optional authority to withhold 50 percent of the funds up front. The language stipulates that Yellen “shall” exercise that authority based on each state’s unemployment rate.
In addition, the prescribed uses of funds for both states and localities would be revised from the earlier substitute amendment. A restriction on the uses of funds based on the need to provide government services would be tightened to stipulate that states and localities could use the money only to replace the amount of revenue lost during the pandemic compared to the prior full fiscal year.
State and local governments would gain the ability to use their allotments
to provide “premium pay” to essential workers of up to $13 per hour, capped at a maximum $25,000. Essential workers are defined as those “needed to maintain continuity of operations of essential critical infrastructure sectors” or others as designated by state and local officials as critical to “health and well-being” of their residents.
States would also gain more federal help with Medicaid costs associated with providing home and community-based services. A 7.35 percentage-point boost in the federal matching percentage in the original version would jump to 10 percentage points in Schumer’s perfecting amendment.
State grants for child care services would increase by $5 billion over a decade from the underlying Senate version.
And as restaurants and bars earlier celebrated on Saturday after the bill passed, an extra $3.6 billion for those hard-hit businesses was freed up in Schumer’s amendment, bringing total grants to $28.6 billion.