North Carolina House to vote on $1.7B COVID-19 spending bill
(The Center Square) – The North Carolina House is expected Wednesday to approve a COVID-19 relief package that spends $1.7 billion in federal aid.
House Bill 196 includes $600 million for COVID-19 testing, tracing and other prevention tasks. It allocates funding to support schools, colleges, universities, farms, fisheries and small businesses, and it bolsters mental health and substance abuse services.
The federal funds were provided through the Consolidated Appropriations Act, which was passed by Congress and signed by former President Donald Trump in December. North Carolina received a total of $4 billion in direct aid from the federal measure.
The General Assembly passed a bill last month that set aside $2.2 billion of the federal aid for reopening schools, COVID-19 vaccine distribution and rental assistance. Gov. Roy Cooper signed the legislation.
Cooper released his proposal last month for spending the federal aid, which called for $287 million for colleges and universities. The Republican proposal provides $290 million for higher education emergency relief. Lawmakers plan to allocate more than $100 million to K-12 public schools and another $40 million to support summer learning programs under the bill.
The measure also follows Cooper’s directive for child care grants of more than $330 million. The funds would be used for cleaning and sanitation, copayment assistance and other initiatives. The measure would set aside $47 million for mental health grants and $11 million for substance abuse prevention.
Lawmakers also honored Cooper’s $94 million request for vaccine distribution and nearly $550 million for rental assistance. Instead of using state funding to support small businesses, lawmakers allocated at least $20 million in federal aid to businesses.
HB 196 allows local tourism authorities to apply for federal Paycheck Protection Program loans. Any part of the loan that is not forgiven would be repaid with occupancy tax collected by the authority.
The measure also maintains relaxed regulatory requirements for notaries and courts and allows COVID-19 vaccine doses to be administered in pharmacies. It also extends other COVID-19 exemptions on charter school enrollment and interest deferment for past due University of North Carolina System tuition and allows system employees to continue to use vacation and bonus leave time for COVID-19 related absences.
HB 196 extends a 5% Medicaid fee-for-service rate increase for providers from March 31 to June 30 or until the public health emergency ends.
HB 196 was approved Tuesday by the House Appropriations Committee and the Committee on Rules, Calendar and Operations of the House without debate. Committee members proposed several amendments with technical changes ahead of advancing the bill to the House floor for a full vote.
“I appreciate budget leaders preparing this vital legislation that maintains the General Assembly’s commitment to addressing the most pressing needs of North Carolinians as soon as possible this session,” House Speaker Tim Moore, R-Cleveland, said in a statement.
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