President Signs Economic Recovery Bill Into Law

by Carolyn Coleman and Federal Relations Stadd

President Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act in a ceremony held in Denver Tuesday afternoon. The $787 billion recovery package includes funding for infrastructure, housing, public safety, health and renewable energy programs. Both the House of Representatives and the Senate approved the bill last Friday.

“We applaud the Senate and the House of Representatives for passing the American Recovery and Reinvestment Plan," said NLC President Kathleen Novak, mayor, Northglenn, Colo. "This bold legislation unites all levels of government in an unprecedented effort to get our country back to work and provides new resources that will help us create and preserve good jobs, strengthen the economy, and provide long-lasting benefits to our communities.”

As the House and Senate began negotiations to resolve differences, board members of NLC’s National Black Caucus of Local Elected Officials, led by President Daisy W. Lynum, commissioner, Orlando, Fla., gathered on Capitol Hill with representatives from House Majority Whip James Clyburn’s (D-S.C.) and House Appropriations Chairman David Obey’s (D-Wisc.) offices to voice their support for the package and to impress upon them the importance of African-Americans “being included in the rebuilding of America.”
 
Three Republican senators, Olympia Snowe (Maine), Susan Collins (Maine) and Arlen Specter (Pa.), were instrumental to a compromise agreement that reduced the overall size of the Senate bill and enabled its consideration to move forward.

The final package includes funding for several programs that were NLC priorities for an economic recovery package:

•    Investment in infrastructure, including: $27.5 billion for modernizing roads and bridges; $8.4 billion for improving public transit and rail; $3.2 billion for the Energy Efficiency and Block Grant Program; $6 billion for local clean and drinking water infrastructure improvements; $1.2 billion for EPA’s nationwide environmental cleanup programs, including Superfund; $4.6 billion for the Army Corps of Engineers projects; $1 billion for Community Development Block Grants to cities and states; $2 billion for the Neighborhood Stabilization Program to help communities purchase and rehabilitate foreclosed, vacant houses; and $2.25 billion in HOME funds to support public housing projects that have stalled due the credit freeze.

•    Efforts to ease the credit crunch, including incentives for banks to purchase municipal bonds by allowing them to deduct the interest paid and a provision to exclude private activity bond interest from the alternative minimum tax.

•    Assistance to vulnerable families, including: $87 billion for Medicaid; nearly $49 billion for unemployment insurance; $20 billion for food stamps; nearly $25 billion to help unemployed individuals maintain their COBRA health insurance coverage; $3.95 billion for job training including funds for adult, dislocated worker and youth programs, including $1.2 billion for up to one million summer jobs for youth; $1.5 billion for Homeless Assistance Grants; and $2 billion for Section 8 project-based housing assistance.

The bill also includes funding for local crime prevention activities — $1 billion for the Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) program and $ 2.25 billion for the Byrne Justice Assistance Grant program.

Click here to view charts summarizing key provisions in the package affecting local governments.