On October 14, counties and other recipients of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) Recovery Funds, including the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund, Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Fund (LATCF) and Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) program, received an email alerting them that:  

“After Monday, October 17, Treasury’s contact center will no longer be able to respond to phone calls. In addition, starting later this month Treasury will be forced to further ramp down staff support for the contact center and as a result response times to recipient emails are also expected to be significantly delayed.”

This scaleback is due to a shortfall in administrative funding for ARPA recovery programs that NACo has been closely monitoring since counties were alerted in September that Treasury would be scaling back recovery fund assistance. It is important to note that this shortfall does not impact any Recovery Funds counties received but will impact the types of services and assistance Treasury is able to provide counties as we continue to invest ARPA funds in our communities.

Since the enactment of ARPA, counties have been working tirelessly with Treasury to ensure Recovery Funds have the flexibility to properly address our unique needs and that we are fulfilling our role as sound financial stewards. Treasury has been a critical partner and valuable resource throughout the implementation of the Recovery Fund and with the recent release of LATCF payments, this partnership is as critical as ever.

The bipartisan State, Local, Tribal and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure and Disaster Relief Act (S. 3011/H.R. 5735), which passed the U.S. Senate by unanimous consent in October 2021 and is pending before the U.S. House, would unlock unobligated funds allocated to Treasury for administrative expenses related to operating the Recovery Fund and allow Treasury to continue to work with state and local government partners to implement this historic investment in America’s communities. Counties urge Congress to include S. 3011/H.R. 5735 in the next federal spending bill so we can continue this valuable partnership and spur long-term economic recovery and growth in our communities with this one-in-a-generation investment.

In the meantime, NACo has several resources available to counties to assist with the continued implementation and investment of the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund and Local Assistance and Tribal Consistency Funds.  

Counties may ask questions regarding ARPA recovery funds here and NACo staff will respond via email.