On March 27, President Trump signed into law a $2.2 Trillion package of legislation entitled the "Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act" (CARES Act) to provide federal resources for response to the coronavirus outbreak, including various loans, grants, and other forms of assistance for businesses, industries, states, local governments, and hospitals. Click here to read our review of the 880-page CARES Act are the hundreds of billions of dollars and many programs devoted to issues that are of major importance to local governments and public agencies.
Local governments are serving as navigators to resources for their small businesses, which are vital to the economies and municipal budgets of many towns and cities across America. Sustainable Strategies DC has put this summary together that we will continue to update to provide an overview of the federal resources available or soon to become available to support small businesses facing the impacts of COVID-19.
On April 7, 2020, Sustainable Strategies DC co-hosted a webinar with ICMA entitled, ""Understanding Local Government Resources Available in the CARES Act & Other Recent Federal Legislation." This webinar provided an overview of the three major COVID-19 legislative packages, offered guidance for organizing effectively to pursue relief resources, and offered detailed information about funding available to localities now.
Congress and the U.S. Treasury has continued to push monies out to states and units of local government to react to the pandemic, most notably through the Coronavirus Relief Fund; however, funding levels are not sufficient to respond to the operational revenues crisis and real needs of local governments. Sustainable Strategies DC has put together this Action Alert Memo to provide local government leaders with four actions they can take to ensure that there are necessary resources for cities and counties to recover and rebuild from the virus crisis.
On July 27, the Senate rolled out the $1 trillion Help, Economic Assistance, Liability Protection, and Schools (HEALS) Act as an initial proposal to negotiate with the House "HEROES Act." The HEALS Act does not allocate additional funding for state and local aid beyond what was included in the CARES Act Coronavirus Relief Fund. Sustainable Strategies DC has put together this Action Alert Memo to provide local government leaders with two actions they can take to call for the resources necessary for cities and counties to recovery and rebuild from the virus crisis.
The team at Sustainable Strategies DC has reviewed the current state of play as of Friday, September 18 and have attached our summary as well as a call to action as it relates to the needs and priorities of local governments and public agencies. At this point in time, nobody knows what the correct and achievable level and focus of federal stimulus legislation should be – but all of us in local government know that Congress must act to preserve our communities and help us rebuild from this unprecedented COVID crisis. This alert urges you to keep in touch with your Members of Congress and their staffs to stress how important it is to get real compromise and action on a COVID stimulus package.
This memorandum provides an overview of five (5) components of the new package of $3 billion in grant resources from U.S. Economic Development Administration created by the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021. This memo covers four other memos which provide more detailed descriptions of the EDA “Build Back Better Regional Challenge” grant, the EDA “Good Jobs Challenge” grant, the EDA “Travel, Tourism & Outdoor Recreation’ grant, and the EDA “Economic Adjustment Assistance Grant”. Within this cover memo, we also provide an overview of the “Statewide Planning, Research & Networks Grants”.
Every week, Sustainable Strategies provides updates to our clients about upcoming grant opportunities through our Spotlight Newsletter. This newsletter will also provide updates on key COVID-19 legislation and funding, as well as opportunities to advocate on behalf of local governments during the COVID-19 public health crisis. Sign up here to receive our weekly newsletter.
Help to ensure that local governments receive the relief funds they need to keep communities up and running. Join the National League of Citie's COVID-19 Action Campaigns.
Coronavirus Resources for Local Governments
Sustainable Strategies DC is helping communities across the country to respond to the COVID-19 public health crisis. We are providing our clients with action alerts, summaries of key legislation, resources to provide to small businesses, webinars on emerging relief packages, and other support designed to help localities to shape, navigate, and secure federal COVID-19 resources. While new COVID-19 resources and key information for local governments is changing daily, we plan to update this page to provide municipalities with access to helpful information, and we encourage you to reach out to us with your questions about how to ensure your locality receives the relief it needs to continue serving your community.