Newly Issued Guidance for the American Rescue Plan Act Funds

Fiscal Recovery Funds provisions, established by the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), identified four eligible uses in the statute.

• Respond to the public health emergency and its negative economic impacts
• Provide premium pay to essential workers
• Provide government services to the extent of eligible governments’ revenue losses
• Make necessary water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure investments

The US Treasury has issued an  Interim Final Rule on May 10, 2021 regarding the Funding from the Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, offering some guidance regarding the requirements on the use of the funds based on the identified eligible uses above.  This ruling has been submitted to the Office of the Federal Register (OFR) for publication and is currently pending.  There might be some minor editorial changes once published in the Federal Register.

The  Interim Final Rule has provided a non-exclusive list of items to assist with the identified four eligible uses in the statute.  We encourage you to review the Interim Final Rule in the entirety, but here are some examples:

• Respond to the public health emergency and its negative economic impacts non-exclusive list:
  1. COVID-19 Mitigation and Prevention (vaccination programs, medical care, testing, etc)
  2. Public Health and Safety Staff (public health and safety – payroll and benefits)
  3. Assistance to Unemployed Workers
  4. Small Businesses and Non-profits
  5. Rehiring State, Local, and Tribal Government Staff
  6. Services to address homelessness
  7. Evidence-based educational services and practices to address academic and social needs to students
  8. New or expanded high-quality childcare
  9. And so much more. See  Interim Final Rule for the complete listing
• Premium pay to essential workers. The  Interim Final Rule defines essential workers as the following:
  1. Staff at nursing homes, hospitals, and home care settings
  2. Workers at farms, food production facilities, grocery stores, and restaurants
  3. Janitors and sanitation workers
  4. Truck drivers, transit staff, and warehouse workers
  5. Public health and safety staff
  6. Childcare workers, educators, and other school staff
  7. Social service and human services staff.
  8. Premium Pay was defined to mean an amount up to $13 per hour in addition to the wages or remuneration the worker otherwise receives and in an aggregate amount not to exceed $25,000 per eligible worker. See the Interim Final Rule for further restrictions.
• Provide government services to the extent of eligible governments’ revenue losses
  4. Calculation of loss – Comparing actual revenue (most recent fiscal year prior to COVID-19) to the counterfactual trend (4.1 percent growth adjustment national average or own growth revenue see Interim Final Rule for details) representing what could have been expected to occur in the absence of the pandemic.
• Make necessary water, sewer, and broadband infrastructure investments
  1. Water and Sewer Infrastructure
     1. Aligns eligible uses with the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA Clean Water State Revolving Fund (CWSRF) or the Drinking Water State Revolving Fund (DWSRF)
  2. Broadband Infrastructure
     1. Service that reliability meets or exceeds symmetrical upload and download speeds of 100 Mbps. Some exceptions apply in Interim Final Rule
     2. Eligible projects should focus on locations that are unserved or underserved (lack access to a wireline connection)

For more information on the Interim Final Rule please use this link.  We will review any changes once it is approved and published by the Federal Reserve.