With House Republicans demanding major cuts in federal spending in return for raising the nation’s debt limit, Detroit Mayor Mike Duggan warned other mayors on Wednesday to spend all of their American Rescue Plan Act funding in case Congress tries to claw it back later this year.
“I would say to you that if you can responsibly speed up the obligations, I would say you do want to consider doing it,” Duggan said. He also urged mayors to have independent auditors, in addition to city compliance staff, examine and attest that ARPA funds are being spent properly and in ways that adhere to the law and Treasury Department guidelines.
“None of us wants to get our projects named in a congressional hearing in the next year or two,” he said. Duggan added: “I hope eight months from now, 10 months from now, 60 months from now, we're not in a big fight to hang on to the obligated money.”
Duggan isn’t the only mayor worried about potential ARPA funding clawbacks.
“I think every mayor shares that concern,” Republican Miami Mayor Francis Suarez, president of the U.S. Conference of Mayors, said when asked by Route Fifty about the issue at a press conference during the group’s Winter Meeting.
Duggan noted that states and localities have until the end of 2024 to decide how to spend, or “obligate,” the $350 billion of State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds included in the 2021 pandemic relief package. They have to spend the money by the end of 2026.
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