What State & Local Governments Need to Know About the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Fiscal Relief Funding

2. Joe Morris
Deputy Chief Innovation Officer
e.Republic
Dustin Haisler
Chief Innovation Officer
e.Republic

3. Agenda for Today
• Federal Stimulus Overview
• Deep Dive Into American Rescue Plan Fiscal Relief Fund
• Mechanics & Funding Use-Case Highlights
• Ask Us Anything LIVE!

4. Infrastructure is #Trending

6. Federal Funding Overview

7. • CARES Act 2020 – $2.2 trillion
• Consolidated Appropriations Act –
$900 billion
• American Rescue Plan – $1.9 trillion
**American Jobs Plan – $2 trillion
**American Families Plan – $1.8 trillion
Federal Stimulus Comparison

8. Deep Dive Into American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)
– Fiscal Relief Fund

9. Update: New Treasury
Guidance Issued on
May 10, 2021
https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/13
6/FRF-Interim-Final-Rule.pdf

10. American Rescue Plan Funding Breakdown
Source: Stateside

11. Direct Allocations to Eligible State, Local, Territorial and Tribal Governments
Type Amount ($ billions)
States & District of Columbia $195.3
Counties $65.1
Metropolitan Cites $45.6
Tribal Governments $20.0
Territories $4.5
Non-Entitlement Units of Local Government $19.5
Source: U.S. Treasury

12. $350 Billion State & Local Fiscal Relief Funds
Source: Stateside

13. $350 Billion State & Local Fiscal Relief Funds
Source: U.S. Treasury

14. Relief Funds: Tech Opportunity
Source: U.S. Treasury

15. Emergency Connectivity Fund Program
• $7.17 billion
• Funding for eligible schools and libraries for
purchases of eligible equipment, including WiFi
hotspots, modems, routers, connected devices
and broadband.
• Applications to begin in June (45 days to file)
• Filing window #1: Prospective Purchases
• Purchases made: July 1, 2021 to June 30, 2022
• Filing window #2: Monies Already Spent
• Purchases made March 1, 2020 to June 30, 2021

16. Education Funds: The long tail….

18. Mechanics & Funding Use-Case Highlights for the
ARPA Fiscal Relief Funds

19. How The Funds Will Flow
• Local governments will receive funds in two tranches, with 50%
provided beginning in May 2021 and the balance delivered
approximately 12 months later.
• State governments that have experienced a net increase in the
unemployment rate of more than 2 percentage points from February
2020 to the latest available data as of the date of certification will
receive their full allocation of funds in a single payment; other states
will receive funds in two equal tranches.
Source: U.S. Treasury

20. Mechanics for Applying for Funding
• Eligible agencies can request funding through the U.S. Treasury
Funding Portal https://portal.treasury.gov/cares/s/slt
• Non-eligible entities or ‘transfer agencies’ must apply for funding
through their state government agencies
Source: U.S. Treasury

21. What About Special Districts?
• The statute authorizes state, territorial and tribal governments; counties; metropolitan
cities; and nonentitlement units of local government to transfer amounts paid from the
Fiscal Recovery Funds to a number of specified entities. By permitting these transfers,
Congress recognized the importance of providing flexibility to governments seeking to
achieve the greatest impact with their funds, including working with other levels or units
of government or private entities to assist recipient governments in carrying out their
programs.
• This includes special-purpose districts that perform specific functions in the
community, such as fire, water, sewer or mosquito abatement districts. Specifically,
under section 602(c)(3), a State, territory, or Tribal government may transfer funds to a
“private nonprofit organization . . . a Tribal organization . . . a public benefit corporation
involved in the transportation of passengers or cargo, or a special-purpose unit of State
or local government.”180 S

22. When Must Funds Be Used
• Section 602(c)(1) and section 603(c)(1) require that payments from
the Fiscal Recovery Funds be used only to cover costs incurred by
the state, territory, tribal government or local government by
December 31, 2024.
Source: U.S. Treasury

23. Reporting Requirements
• Fiscal Relief Fund documents must be retained 5 years after all funds have been
expended
• Specific Reporting Requirements
• First Interim report due August 31, 2021
• Quarterly Project & Expenditure Report (Anything over $50k) – Starts
October 31, 2021
• Recovery Plan Performance Report – First report due by July 31, 2022

24. Funding Use-Cases: Public Health
• A broad range of services and programming are needed to contain COVID-19
• public health surveillance
• public communication efforts
• enhancement of public health data systems
• State, local, and Tribal governments may use payments from the Fiscal Recovery
Funds to engage in planning and analysis in order to improve programs
addressing the COVID19 pandemic, including through use of targeted consumer
outreach, improvements to data or technology infrastructure, impact
evaluations and data analysis.
Source: U.S. Treasury

25. Funding Use-Cases: Economic Hardship/Revenue Shortfall
• Eligible uses that respond to the negative economic impacts of the public health emergency
must be designed to address an economic harm resulting from or exacerbated by the public
health emergency.
• Expenses to Improve Efficacy of Economic Relief Programs. State, local and tribal governments
may use payments from the Fiscal Recovery Funds to improve programs addressing negative
economic impacts, including through use of data analysis, targeted consumer outreach,
improvements to data or technology infrastructure, and impact evaluations.
• In considering whether a program or service would be eligible under this category, the
recipient should assess whether, and the extent to which, there has been an economic harm,
such as loss of earnings or revenue, that resulted from the COVID-19 public health emergency
and whether, and the extent to which, the use would respond or address this harm.
Source: U.S. Treasury

26. Funding Use-Cases: Infrastructure Improvements
• The Interim Final Rule outlines eligible uses within each category, allowing for a
broad range of necessary investments in projects that improve access to clean
drinking water, improve wastewater and stormwater infrastructure systems,
and provide access to high-quality broadband service.
• Necessary investments are designed to provide an adequate minimum level of
service and are unlikely to be made using private sources of funds.
Source: U.S. Treasury

27. • Water - Recipients may use Fiscal Recovery Funds to invest in a broad range of
projects that improve drinking water infrastructure, such as building or upgrading
facilities and transmission, distribution and storage systems, including
replacement of lead service lines.
• Wastewater - Recipients may use Fiscal Recovery Funds to construct publicly
owned treatment infrastructure, manage and treat stormwater or subsurface
drainage water, facilitate water reuse and secure publicly owned treatment
works, among other uses.
• Each of the state programs established under the CWSRF have the flexibility to
direct funding to their particular environmental needs, and each state may also
have its own statutes, rules and regulations that guide project eligibility.
Funding Use-Cases: Infrastructure Improvements
Source: U.S. Treasury

28. Funding Use-Cases: Broadband
• The Interim Final Rule provides that eligible investments in broadband are those
that are designed to provide services meeting adequate speeds and are provided
to unserved and underserved households and businesses.
• Eligible projects are expected to be designed to deliver, upon project completion,
service that reliably meets or exceeds symmetrical upload and download speeds
of 100 Mbps.
• The Interim Final Rule treats users as being unserved or underserved if they lack
access to a wireline connection capable of reliably delivering at least minimum
speed of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload as households and businesses
lacking this level of access are generally not viewed as being able to originate and
receive high-quality voice, data, graphics and video telecommunications.
Source: U.S. Treasury

29. Thank you for attending.