Pay to Print
Access a professionally printed copy of the report.
The State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds (SLFRF) program, part of the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA), delivered $65.1 billion of direct federal aid to all cities, towns and villages across the country in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Direct funding through SLFRF allowed local leaders to be part of the solution for a nation in distress, as well as provided a template for allocating direct federal funds to local governments in the future.
What Direct Funding Means to Communities
The flexibility afforded by this program has resulted in a wide range of approaches to address residents’ needs–ranging from enhancing public health and safety to revitalizing the municipal workforce, building affordable housing, and stabilizing revenue streams. This investment was so successful because it allowed communities to deftly and efficiently respond to the specific needs of their constituents.
In this report, NLC analyzed data using recipient reporting tiers designated by Treasury. NLC researchers analyzed the economic upstream impacts of the funds, how spending varied across recipients, the timeline for expending funds, and the compliance rates of recipients during the 2025 annual reporting period.
Measuring SLFRF’s Impact
To demonstrate how SLFRF supported municipalities throughout the pandemic, this report analyzes SLFRF spending data over time and the different investments many local governments made to stabilize their budgets and maintain core municipal services for residents. NLC categorized recipient project descriptions reported to Treasury into one of seven spending groups.
Small Communities Prioritized Infrastructure Projects, Large Localities Obligated Most Funds Towards Government Operations
Percent (%) of SLFRF Obligations Through March 2025, by Spending Group
Figure 2: A stacked column chart showing small communities prioritized infrastructure projects, while large localities obligated most funds towards government operations.
Download the report to learn more about the wide-ranging impact of SLFRF dollars and how federal funding dollars can be administered in the future to prioritize both efficiency and federal grant oversight.
