The Cassidy-Menendez proposal would create a $500 billion fund to help state and local governments respond to the coronavirus pandemic.
Governors may finally get their long-sought-after $500 billion in federal coronavirus aid but the devil, several toldSenators Bob Menendez and Bill Cassidy have proposed a $500 billion fund for state and local governments as part of the next coronavirus relief package. The State and Municipal Aid for Recovery and Transition bill would distribute the money according to population, infection rates and revenue loss.
The Cassidy-Menendez proposal would work like this: One-third of the funds, or $166 billion, would be provided to all 50 states and the District of Columbia. Then the rest of the money would be divvied up according to a state's share of the total U.S. infection rate and the loss of revenue that governments have experienced due to coronavirus-related restrictions.
While the bill appears to include much of what governors have publicly asked for, it may not make it through Congress—at least not anytime soon. Lawmakers are still in recess until May 4 and Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell is already pumping the breaks on the fourth coronavirus stimulus package.
But timing has become a major issue for states. Governor Cuomo, whose state is the epicenter of the coronavirus outbreak in the United States, has indicated that New York will have to cut funding for hospitals, schools and local governments by 20 percent if they don't get the federal aid soon.
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