Arkansas governor creates committee to manage $1.57 billion in federal funding
LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — Arkansas Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed an executive order Tuesday setting up a committee to manage over $1.5 billion in federal funds coming to Arkansas.
“This is an important executive, legislative effort to manage appropriately the $1.9 trillion that the administration and congress has approved for the American Rescue Plan,” Hutchinson said at a briefing Tuesday.
Of that, Arkansas will receive about $5 billion in various forms, Hutchinson said. Much of it will go to schools, municipalities and the Department of Human Services.
The state will receive $1.57 billion to use at its discretion, to an extent. Hutchinson created the “American Rescue Plan Steering Committee” to decide how to spend those funds. The group is composed of 14 people — eight cabinet officials, three members of the house and three members of the senate.
The committee will be led by Finance and Administration Secretary Larry Walther. During the briefing, Walther said the funding is available for the next three years.
"We have time to study it, to do it right," he said. "That will be my objective, to make sure we do it right and it benefits the state of Arkansas and the citizens of Arkansas."
As part of the executive order, Hutchinson is requiring the committee to involve the community, private sector, and non profits into the decision making.
Arkansas will receive two separate payments — one that will be here “in the very near future” and one that will come years down the line, Hutchinson said.
The governor said he’d like to see the money used on capital investments rather than programmatic investments. Hutchinson said broadband investment and cyber-security efforts are a top priority. But he said short-term humanitarian needs will take up some of the funds.
“It needs to be investments that we can make that do not incur long-term spending and indebtedness of the state,” he said.
For a thorough breakdown of how much money will go to Arkansas counties and metro areas, click here.
This committee is separate from the CARES Act steering group created last year.
“Two separate steering groups for two separate pots of money,” Hutchinson said.
The American Rescue Plan included checks for $1,400 per person, $160 billion for health care, $170 billion for schools and roughly $440 billion for struggling communities.
