WASHINGTON – Today on the floor, U.S. Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) called for a vote on his amendment to make several categories of infrastructure investments eligible for leftover, unspent Coronavirus Relief Fund and State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund dollars. Excerpts of Sen. Cornyn’s remarks are below, and video can be found here.
“It gives state and local leaders the ability to spend COVID relief funding that they already have on infrastructure projects that might otherwise be neglected. They’re not required to do so, but our amendment would allow them to do so rather than to claw that money back.”
“If a city, or state, or a county has plans to use their funds on pandemic-related expenses, those plans will not be interrupted or called into question. But it simply provides our local leaders what they’ve asked each of us for most, and it starts with flexibility.”
“We know that many states and localities simply don’t have enough qualifying expenses to use the money that they’ve been given. They’re looking for ways to spend the dollars they already have.”
“Our amendment has been endorsed by two dozen organizations that represent a diverse range of stakeholders.”
“We’re in the process of making some final tweaks to ensure that we receive broad bipartisan support as well as that of the White House, and I hope we’ll have a vote on this amendment on the Senate floor soon.”