Letter to Steven Mnuchin, Secretary of the Treasury - Reps. Cisneros and Rouda Lead Bipartisan Letter to U.S. Treasury Department Requesting Spending Guidance for Local Governments

Letter

Dear Secretary Mnuchin:

We write to ask that you provide clear guidance to States, Tribal governments, territories, the
District of Columbia, and local governments on the eligible uses of funds provided by the
Coronavirus Relief Fund in the bipartisan Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security
(CARES) Act. In particular, we ask that you provide clarity on how States, territories, and local
governments eligible for this funding may use funds to cover the costs incurred by other
counties, municipalities, towns, townships, villages, parishes, boroughs, or other units of general
government with overlapping jurisdiction due to the public health emergency with respect to the
coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19).

While the CARES Act provides $150 billion in emergency aid to States, Tribal governments,
certain localities, territories, and the District of Columbia, local governments with populations
under 500,000 are not directly eligible for this critical assistance. Local governments are on the
front lines of this pandemic providing critical resources and delaying the collection of critical
revenue so that most of our constituents can stay at home to slow the spread of the virus. Given
this, we believe it is important that the States, territories, and local governments eligible for these
funds are able to extend this essential aid to units of local government with overlapping
jurisdiction.

It is our understanding that the Department of the Treasury has informed eligible governments
that these payments could only be used to cover expenses that are necessary expenditures
incurred due to the public health emergency with respect to COVID-19, were not accounted for
in the budget most recently approved as of March 27, 2020, and were incurred during the period
that begins on March 1, 2020, and ends on December 30, 2020. Furthermore, the Department has
notified these governments that additional information on eligible uses of Coronavirus Relief
Fund disbursements will be posted as it becomes available.

As you work on additional guidance, we ask that you consider the needs of our smaller local
governments and provide clarity on how this funding may be used to cover the necessary,
unanticipated costs of units of governments with overlapping jurisdiction that are not eligible for
direct aid. We stand ready to work with you to address the needs of our local governments during
this ongoing pandemic. We appreciate your prompt attention to this matter.

Sincerely

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