Stating fears of misuse, 14 Republican senators wrote to the Government Accountability Office (GAO) this week to request detailed information on how $350 billion sent to state, local, territorial and Tribal governments for COVID-19 relief has been used.
The funds in question all came from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) of 2021. The senators pointed to that bill as firmly responsible for their concerns due to a lack of meaningful built-in nonpartisan oversight mechanisms leading to a lack of transparency. In that way, they added, it was unlike the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act passed in 2020.
Notably, CARES was signed under Republican President Donald Trump, while ARPA was pushed and signed by current President Joe Biden, a Democrat.
“Because of the lack of information and transparency on uses of and accounting for these federal funds, we request that the Government Accountability Office (GAO) help to ensure there is proper oversight of at least $350 billion of ARPA funding and necessary accountability to Congress and the American people,” the Republicans wrote.
In their letter, they asked GAO to investigate whether the Treasury Department is using risk assessments and monitoring components to guarantee the proper use of taxpayer resources and if those controls meet standards. They also asked if states have been tracked to ensure they do not use the funds as a tax cut and if any legal restrictions have been enforced against governments using state and local funds for pension deposits. Additionally, they inquired about reporting errors, control measures, and the overarching question of how much of the $350 billion has been recouped by the Treasury so far, as well as the monitoring process involved in this.
U.S. Sen. Rob Portman (R-OH), one of the signatories, previously claimed that up to $400 billion of COVID-19 response funds had been stolen and labeled the endeavor a massive spending fraud. In this latest push, the ranking member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee was joined by U.S. Sens. Mike Crapo (R-ID), Ranking Member of the Senate Finance Committee, along with Chuck Grassley (R-IA), John Cornyn (R-TX), John Thune (R-SD), Richard Burr (R-NC), Pat Toomey (R-PA), Tim Scott (R-SC), Bill Cassidy (R-LA), James Lankford (R-OK), Steve Daines (R-MT), Todd Young (R-IN), Ben Sasse (R-NE) and John Barrasso (R-WY).