As you know, the CARES Bill left in doubt federal financial support for municipalities below an arbitrary 500,000 population threshold. Last Thursday, 128 Members of the House sent a ‘Members Letter’ to Speaker Nancy Pelosi urging consideration of the needs of those municipalities in the next COVID-19 response bill.
A section of the letter reads:
“Like their larger neighbors, though, these smaller counties, cities, and towns have faced enormous costs while responding to the COVID-19 pandemic. These costs include deploying timely public service announcements to keep Americans informed, rapidly activating emergency operations, readying employees for telework to keep services running, and more.”
The letter continues:
“As you work to craft the next package to respond to the COVID-19 pandemic, we urge you to include direct stabilization funding to localities with populations under 500,000, or to lower the threshold for direct funding through the Coronavirus Relief Fund.”
We want to thank New Jersey House Members Tom Malinowski, Josh Gottheimer, Mikie Sherrill, Frank Pallone, and Albio Sires for endorsing this effort to keep your needs front and center, as Congress continues its endeavors to get ahead of the impacts of COVID-19 on public health and public finance. We want to, especially, thank Congressman Malinowski, who was one of the leaders on this. We have also heard from Congressman Payne’s office that he has contacted the Speaker on this matter, directly. We’re sure that many other members of the New Jersey delegation will be weighing in on this, as well.
If your District Representative is included among the signees, please let them know that you appreciate their advocacy. If your District Representative is not on the list please reach out to them, urging them to join their voices to this chorus of support for direct assistance to municipal governments, no matter their size.