$2 Trill Funds Delayed For Food Banks, Health, Child, Seniors, Homeless Aid; Angers Congress
- Food banks and other key programs have received a fraction of allotted coronavirus money, angering some lawmakers.- By Erica Werner, Washington Post, June 8, 2020. In some cases, agencies still have not released funds two months after passage of $2 trillion Cares Act.
More than two months after passage of the $2 trillion Cares Act, funding for some key programs to address the economic devastation from the coronavirus is moving out slowly or not at all. Even after the United States added 2.5 million jobs last month, 20 million people remain out of work and federal bureaucracies charged with processing record sums of money to respond to the crisis are struggling to snap into action.
The Cares Act directed $850 million for food banks, but less than $300 million has been sent out so far, according to Democratic staff members on the Senate Appropriations Committee. That’s despite unprecedented demand, with the number of people served at food banks increasing by more than 50 percent from a year ago, according to a recent survey by the nonprofit group Feeding America.
Similarly, Congress appropriated $9 billion in March for the Community Development Block Grant and Emergency Solutions Grant programs, which fund health facilities, child care centers, and services for seniors and homeless people..Only about $250 million of that money has been obligated..$100 million dedicated specifically to help nursing homes certify compliance standards for issues like infection control remains unspent two months..$100 million to help ensure access to broadband for Americans in rural parts of the country also remains unspent. A separate $100 million appropriation to help the Federal Emergency Management Agency purchase personal protective equipment for firefighters also hasn’t been spent.
..“In preparing for and responding to this pandemic, status quo bureaucracy is not satisfactory. It is clear evidence that President Trump has failed to meet this urgent challenge, and it is up to Congress to act,” Sen. Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, said in a statement to The Washington Post. “The Trump administration’s failure to get these resources out the door and into our communities is not a sufficient reason for slow-walking the next, desperately needed emergency relief bill.”...
Much More, https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2020/06/08/cares-act-unspent-money-congress/
- Senator Patrick J. Leahy (Vt.), top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee.
= new reply since forum marked as read
