With the Congressional appropriations process under way, the National Association of Counties (NACo), National League of Cities (NLC), and others are directing local governments and key stakeholders to ask their Members of Congress to support adding an American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) flexibility bill to the year-end omnibus appropriations package or to the next must-pass legislation. The bipartisan bill is titled the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act (S. 3011/H.R. 5735).

Earlier this summer, the Inflation Reduction Act was passed by Congress and signed into law by President Biden. The legislation provides federal action in three main areas: taxes, healthcare and climate. To deliver approximately $370 billion in climate and clean energy funding, the Act makes reforms to the tax and healthcare systems, including a new minimum corporate tax, an extension of ACA health insurance subsidies and authorizing Medicare to negotiate lower prescription drug prices.

Advocacy and Appropriations: The U.S. House of Representatives is in recess until September 13. The Senate is in session until August 5 before breaking for the rest of the month. Centralina has historically scheduled meetings during the August-long recess with the region’s congressional delegation while lawmakers are in the state. Given the changes that will occur in November primarily as a result of redistricting, we have decided to hold these meetings after the elections. Centralina’s members should still take advantage of opportunities to advocate for local and regional priorities when seeing Members of Congress locally. The best strategy in these encounters is to keep your message short and sweet.

Capitol Hill Recognizes the Importance of Regional Councils: As Congress works through the appropriations process, it funds numerous competitive grants in multiple agencies. When these grants list local governments or non-profit agencies as eligible applicants, regional councils and councils of governments are often left out.

Every year Congress must pass spending legislation to fund the government. This is handled by the 12 subcommittees of the Appropriations Committee that are in charge of deciding how federal funding will be distributed among all programs within all federal agencies. The process officially starts with the Administration submitting to Congress the President’s budget for that fiscal year. The President’s budget details a vision for spending, but Congress decides where the money will flow.

On Monday, April 4th, congressional lawmakers unveiled a $10 billion agreement for emergency Covid-19 funding to help with costs like vaccines, tests, therapeutics and other supplies. Thankfully the bill does not rescind billions in state funding under American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to pay for the new spending package, after an earlier proposal called for taking back about $7 billion from 30 states, including North Carolina, to do so. Congressional negotiators had initially looked to take back funds promised to states to help pay for the emergency Covid funding while working on the $1.5 trillion omnibus spending bill for the current fiscal year.

Congress has passed the $1.5 trillion omnibus appropriations bill that funds the federal government through September 30, 2022 and delivers $14 billion to help Ukraine, clearing the bill for President Joe Biden’s signature. This is the first annual funding package in a decade not under the Budget Control Act of 2011 and therefore increases to many programs were possible. There is an almost seven percent increase for non-defense agencies to $730 billion. A six percent increase is included for national defense for $782 billion.

Congress is still working to finalize full-year funding for the federal government by agreeing to a broad framework that will allow them to hash out details and pass a package that could reach $1.5 trillion in the coming weeks. The federal government is currently operating under a Continuing Resolution (CR) through February 18 that keeps programs at fiscal 2021 levels, but Congress is expected to pass another short-term CR through March 11 until a final deal can be reached. The goal is to pass a fiscal 2022 omnibus bill, which would increase funding for many domestic programs and unlock the spending created with passage of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (a.k.a. Bipartisan Infrastructure Law).

If there was ever a good time to focus on federal competitive grants, it is now. Federal grants to states and local governments have risen 37%, outpacing the average annual increase of 4% in the prior half-decade. Relative to 2008, grants have increased 93% accounting for inflation. In the recently passed Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA), almost 80% of the $550 billion in new spending the law provides will go to projects funded entirely or primarily by grants. As a result, federal agencies are staffing up and on the same day President Biden signed the IIJA into law (now called the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) by the Administration), he also released an Executive Order creating an Infrastructure Implementation Task Force and named Mitch Landrieu to serve as Infrastructure Implementation Coordinator.

On November 18th, after months of negotiations between state legislators, Governor Cooper signed into law North Carolina’s first budget in nearly three years. The $25.9 billion spending plan allocates state revenue funds and appropriates the $5.4 billion of American Rescue Plan funds received from the federal government. One of the most notable items is the $1 billion investment in broadband expansion, which, when combined with the state’s forthcoming allotment of federal funding from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, will help to improve internet access statewide.