I guess President Biden shouldn’t try to get more covid and monkeypox money….
The states simply are NOT gonna spend the money for possible sick people….
The only good thing is capital projects generate pay for workers…’Jobs’ money….
Republicans may complain about Democratic President Joe Biden…
Biden of course won’t broadcast HIS efforts on this….
But he HAS beenn the gift that hasn’t stopped giving…..
Relatively little of the federal aid has gone toward traditional public health purposes, according to an Associated Press review of reports filed by all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Significantly more has gone toward public infrastructure. States are pouring money into water, sewer and high-speed internet projects, as specifically envisioned by the law. But the AP found that they’re also spending billions of dollars on roads, bridges, sidewalks, airports, rail lines and buildings at college campuses and government agencies — justifying all of it under the federal government’s generous flexibility.
“We didn’t need it, to be quite honest,” said Kansas House Appropriations Committee Chairman Troy Waymaster, referring to the $1.6 billion the state received.
But the Docking building does need to come down, he said, and the new space for events and meetings could allow better social distancing during a COVID-19 resurgence or future pandemic.
If “the building itself could be used during a pandemic, then it somewhat justifies the use of ARPA funds for the renovation or infrastructure projects,” said Waymaster, a Republican….
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The Treasury asked states to classify projects in seven general categories, with 83 subcategories. It can recoup funds if it determines by the end of 2026 that spending fell outside the law’s wide guidelines.
Governments reported more than $22 billion of planned expenditures for the Treasury’s infrastructure category of water, sewer and broadband. But the AP identified a total of about $36 billion for infrastructure projects — nearly one-quarter of all planned expenditures — when including roads, bridges, buildings and public works projects reported in other categories.
By contrast, governments reported less than $12 billion of planned expenditures in the Treasury’s public health category — even though it was broadly construed to also include such things as “community violence interventions,” substance use services and COVID-19 aid to small businesses.
Some state officials may have decided not to use the relief funds for public health because they had other federal funding streams for vaccines, testing and health initiatives….
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Though public health has historically been underfunded, “a lot of health officials have struggled to get their policymakers and their bosses to commit to hiring people for the long-term because it’s one-time money,” said Dr. Georges Benjamin, executive director of the American Public Health Association.
Some states reported no public health expenditures with their discretionary American Rescue Plan funds. Those included Florida, which received the fourth largest allotment from the federal government. Florida instead devoted $1.8 billion for highway, $1.9 billion for water projects and more than $2.5 billion for construction and maintenance of public buildings, including the Capitol, university facilities and K-12 schools, according to the AP’s analysis….