Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Treasury released its long-awaited Interim Final Rule on ARPA Flex and an Overview of the Interim Final Rule. ARPA Flex was a provision passed by Congress in December 2022.
This rule created three new expenditure categories for eligible spending:
- Provision of emergency relief from natural disasters.
- Transportation infrastructure eligible projects and matching funds.
- Any program, project, or service that would also be eligible under HUD’s Community Development Block Grant program.
The Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF), a part of the American Rescue Plan, delivers $350 billion to state, local, territorial, and Tribal governments across the country to support their response to and recovery from the COVID-19 public health emergency.
The National League of Cities (NLC), the League’s Federal partner, has a detailed blog post expanding on the new eligible uses.
As a reminder, for all eligible uses, recipients must obligate funds by December 31, 2024. Recipients must expend funds by September 30, 2026, for Surface Transportation projects and Title I projects, and by December 31, 2026, for all other eligible uses.
The Interim Final Rule will be published in the Federal Register next week, starting a 60-day comment period. The timeline for a final rule is uncertain and depends upon the volume and complexity of comments.
We encourage you to share this information with your municipal professionals.
Contact: Paul Penna, Senior Legislative Analyst, ppenna@njlm.org, 609-695-3481, x110.