On Wednesday, by a vote of 47-49, the U.S. Senate failed to amend S.870, the Fire Grants and Safety Act. The amendments offered by Sen. Scott (FL) would redirect unobligated American Rescue Plan (ARP) State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) to fund this grant program. However, the efforts to rescind unobligated ARP SLFRF have not ended. Speaker Kevin McCarthy proposes to rescind the unobligated ARP SLFRF in debt ceiling proposal.
While this debt ceiling proposal has been publicly rejected by President Joe Biden, both actions indicate a growing desire to claw back unobligated ARP SLFRF to fund other federal priorities. As we have repeatedly suggested, municipalities that have not fully obligated their ARP SLFRF funds by the 2024 deadline and spent the funds by the 2026 deadline should take immediate action to do so.
The League thanks Senators Menendez and Booker for voting against this amendment.
We urge you to share this information with your municipal professionals and alert Paul Penna. Senior Legislative Analyst at ppenna@njlm.org as to the status of your municipality’s ARP SLFRF funds.
Contact: Paul Penna, Senior Legislative Analyst, ppenna@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x110.