Local Government Relief Act

II 116TH CONGRESS 2D SESSION S. 3954 To require States to make distributions from the State’s Coronavirus Relief Fund payment to local governments that did not receive a direct payment from the Fund. IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES JUNE 11, 2020 Mr. MANCHIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Finance A BILL To require States to make distributions from the State’s Coronavirus Relief Fund payment to local governments that did not receive a direct payment from the Fund. Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa- 1 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Local Government Re- 4 lief Act’’. 5 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:13 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00001 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3954.IS S3954 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 2 •S 3954 IS SEC. 2. DEADLINE FOR DISTRIBUTION OF THE LOCAL GOV- 1 ERNMENT SHARE OF THE STATE CORONAVI- 2 RUS RELIEF FUND PAYMENT. 3 (a) PASS-THROUGH REQUIREMENT.—Subsection (b) 4 of section 601 of the Social Security Act, as added by sec- 5 tion 5001(a) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic 6 Security Act (Public Law 116–136) is amended by adding 7 at the end the following new paragraph: 8 ‘‘(3) PASS-THROUGH REQUIREMENT.— 9 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than June 10 30, 2020, each State (other than the District of 11 Columbia) shall make, from the amount paid to 12 the State under this section, a distribution to 13 each unit of local government in the State that 14 is not a large unit of local government that re- 15 ceived a direct payment under this section in 16 accordance with paragraph (2). 17 ‘‘(B) AMOUNT TO BE DISTRIBUTED.—The 18 total amount of the distributions made by a 19 State to units of local government under this 20 paragraph shall not be less than 45 percent of 21 the amount paid to the State under this section 22 for fiscal year 2020 (after the application of 23 paragraph (2)). 24 ‘‘(C) MANNER OF DISTRIBUTION.— 25 Amounts distributed by a State under this 26 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:13 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00002 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3954.IS S3954 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 3 •S 3954 IS paragraph shall be distributed from the amount 1 paid to the State under this section— 2 ‘‘(i) upon receipt and on a pass- 3 through-basis; and 4 ‘‘(ii) without requiring any application 5 from a unit of local government. 6 ‘‘(D) REPORT.—If a State is unable to 7 make distributions to units of local government 8 in accordance with the requirements of this 9 paragraph, the State shall submit a detailed re- 10 port to the Secretary explaining why the State 11 is unable to meet such requirements. The Sec- 12 retary shall publish each such report in the 13 Federal Register.’’. 14 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 601 of 15 such Act is further amended— 16 (1) in subsection (b)— 17 (A) in paragraphs (1) and (2), by inserting 18 ‘‘large’’ before ‘‘unit of local government’’ each 19 place it appears; and 20 (B) in paragraph (2)— 21 (i) in the paragraph heading, by in- 22 serting ‘‘LARGE’’ before ‘‘UNITS’’; and 23 (ii) by adding at the end the fol- 24 lowing: ‘‘For purposes of this section, the 25 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:13 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00003 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3954.IS S3954 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 4 •S 3954 IS term ‘large unit of local government’ 1 means a unit of local government, as de- 2 fined in subsection (g)(2), with a popu- 3 lation that exceeds 500,000.’’; 4 (2) in subsection (c)(5)— 5 (A) in the paragraph heading, by inserting 6 ‘‘LARGE’’ before ‘‘UNIT’’; and 7 (B) by inserting ‘‘large’’ before ‘‘unit of 8 local government’’ each place it appears; 9 (3) in subsection (d), by inserting ‘‘or distribu- 10 tion’’ after ‘‘payment’’; 11 (4) in subsection (e)— 12 (A) by inserting ‘‘direct’’ before ‘‘pay- 13 ment’’; and 14 (B) by inserting ‘‘large’’ before ‘‘unit of 15 local government’’ each place it appears; and 16 (5) in subsection (g)(2)— 17 (A) in the paragraph heading, by striking 18 ‘‘LOCAL’’ and inserting ‘‘UNIT OF LOCAL’’; and 19 (B) by striking ‘‘with a population that ex- 20 ceeds 500,000.’’ 21 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 22 this section shall take effect as if included in the enact- 23 ment of section 601 of the Social Security Act, as added 24 VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:13 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00004 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6201 E:\BILLS\S3954.IS S3954 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS 5 •S 3954 IS by section 5001(a) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and 1 Economic Security Act (Public Law 116–136). 2 Æ VerDate Sep 11 2014 04:13 Jun 27, 2020 Jkt 099200 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6652 Sfmt 6301 E:\BILLS\S3954.IS S3954 ctelli on DSK30NT082PROD with BILLS