New funding for COVID and pandemic response is expected to be on the table when Congress returns from its recess next week. But some lawmakers want to know what happened to the rest of the money given out.
Local governments have spent part of the American Rescue Plan on things like ballpark upgrades, new hotels, ski areas, and prisons. The money was intended to help Americans recover from the COVID economic impact, but the broad definitions of how the money could be used allowed projects like those to be paid for with the taxpayer dollars.
"The American Rescue Plan provided $350 billion to state and local governments with very few strings attached," said Tom Schatz, the president of Citizen Against Government Waste.
"The federal government is very good at giving out money and not caring how it gets spent, and not worrying about if it comes back if it's being wasted. There are no guarantees when the money comes from Washington," he said.
A new COVID spending package would likely need to contain offsets to determine how it will be paid for. Some lawmakers have questioned the book-keeping on the billions of dollars already given out.
"There was uncertainty back then, live and learn, and we need to make sure that we're not hiding unspent COVID funds when we're talking about maybe spending more on COVID should it flare up again," said Sen. Mike Braun (R-IN).
Sen. Mitt Romney (R-UT) led the negotiations on repurposing COVID money before the break. His office said they reached a $10 billion agreement for a new bill before it hit other hang-ups.
The Heritage Foundation's Doug Badger says there will still be challenges to get the bill passed in Congress when lawmakers return.
"At this point when the administration says we need more money for COVID, it should be met with bipartisan skepticism, Congress should be asking the tough questions," he said.
There was a deal struck on new funding before the break, but it got derailed by Title 42, an immigration policy impacting the southern border. That could still play a factor when Congress returns from recess.
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