12/18/2023

Treasury Could Improve its Administration, Oversight of State and Local Fiscal COVID-19 Recovery Funds

The GAO has issued four key recommendations

In March 2021, the American Rescue Plan Act appropriated $350 billion in state and local fiscal recovery funds to help with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Treasury is responsible for administering and monitoring these funds.

Officials in selected states and localities identified challenges with how Treasury administers these funds. For example, Treasury has a contact center to respond to recipients' questions. Some state and local officials said that the center's phone and email assistance were not timely. This issue was partly due to limited staffing.

The U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) made four recommendations to Treasury, including that it assess its contact center staffing needs.

Please select this link to read the complete article from the U.S. GAO.