The Congressional Budget Office estimates that halting the use of unobligated pandemic relief funds would result in a net spending reduction of $30 billion over the next decade. “If the money was authorized to fight the pandemic but was not spent during the pandemic, it should not be spent after the pandemic is over," House Speaker Kevin McCarthy said while introducing the GOP's debt-limit package last month. Biden appears likely to go along with that. With the expiration of the nation's public health emergency, Republicans contend it's time to claw back leftover pandemic-era funds. Still other funds were designated for state and local governments to offset their lost revenues or finance programs, services and projects. Other funds went to offset the economic and social effects of the pandemic, including aid to the unemployed and homeless and assistance for schools that had to shift to online instruction or take extra classroom precautions. Some of that went to things directly associated with the virus outbreak, such as vaccines, COVID-19 test kits, public health expenses and stockpiles of masks and other personal protective equipment. Collectively, those laws provided about $4.6 trillion for pandemic response and recovery efforts. Republican debt-limit proposals to trim federal spending target six coronavirus relief laws passed by Congress in 20. Several smaller programs contained in that same law - including one that helps schools and libraries connect people to the internet - could lose funds that have not yet been committed to particular projects. That's because the Treasury Department already has distributed nearly all of the $350 billion of flexible aid for states, territories and local governments. The potential cuts would spare one of the more prominent portions of the 2021 American Rescue Plan. House Republicans voted last month to rescind those funds as part of their debt limit bill, which has served as their starting point for talks with the White House. What’s in jeopardy is the COVID relief money that hasn’t yet been committed - or obligated in government parlance - to specific recipients.
#Congressional budget office series
That's just a tiny fraction of the $4.6 trillion authorized under a series of pandemic relief laws enacted under Presidents Donald Trump and Joe Biden. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that $30 billion of pandemic-related spending could be canceled. With the pandemic officially over, leftover coronavirus relief money for vaccines, public health initiatives and other programs has become a target as negotiators try to reach a budget deal to raise the nation's debt limit.
0 kommentar(er)
