With more than a week gone since the signing of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Initiative (ARRA), the nation's attention has turned to examining exactly how the measures in the bill will be implemented. Legislators, analysts, and advocates around the country have begun wading through the details contained in the 1,100-page document in an effort to determine where funds will be allocated. The ARRA is a landmark piece of legislation, and Texas Impact is eager to see the state capitalize on the bill’s potential to create substantial changes across the state.
One thing that is clear is that unprecedented amounts of money will soon begin flowing into health, housing, energy, infrastructure, and community development projects across the state, and local advocates will have an important role to play in that process. Having a thorough understanding of the bill's provisions and a clear vision for how the money can be used to meet needs in Texas will be paramount in the days and weeks ahead.
Initially, Texas will receive as much as $16.8 billion in direct funding meant to shore up the state's budget through federal contributions to education, health and human services, and infrastructure projects. The state could eventually see tens of billions more dollars through subsequent grants and allocations coming from the federal agencies that have been tasked with dispersing large chunks of the ARRA. All of this is in addition to the increased benefits – primarily in the form of tax cuts – that will go directly to Texans, not through the state budget.
The first decision to be made in Texas is whether the state will make changes to state law that are necessary to access large portions of the ARRA money. Additionally, state agencies will be faced with the task of rapidly building capacity in order to administer the funds, and it remains to be seen which portions of the money will go into new programs or be allocated via existing mechanisms. Furthermore, legislators will have to factor the new federal dollars into the budget-making process, and it remains to be seen whether all of the money will be allocated to benefit Texans during these difficult times or if certain funds will simply supplant current state funds and be held in reserve. One additional challenge will be finding ways to integrate various stakeholders into the process.
On the state level, most of the activity focused on understanding the bill has been in the Texas House of Representatives, where a special committee has been convened to examine Texas' options and opportunities. With no parallel committee in the Texas Senate and precious little information coming from other sources, the Select Committee on Federal Economic Stabilization Funding will be a crucial point of interaction between legislators, state agencies, and the public going forward. The committee is chaired by Rep. Jim Dunnam, who has made it clear that he and his fellow legislators have a responsibility to analyze each portion of the ARRA and ensure that Texas uses the money efficiently and transparently.
Also on the committee are Representatives Coleman, Crownover, Darby, Eiland, Kent, Ortiz, Jr., Pitts, and Truitt. The committee has met almost daily since its inception, hearing testimony by the Legislative Budget Board, TDHCA, HHSC, and other witnesses from within the state government. Through those discussions, the committee has begun to sift through the details of how agencies will allocate money and implement projects in a transparent and effective manner.
With that in mind, it will be imperative for organizations, congregations, and individuals to involve themselves in the conversations and actions surrounding the use of the federal money. Texas Impact has been following all of the details to this point and will continue to do so as funding decisions are made.
