President Joe Biden signs COVID-19 relief bill, includes $1,400 stimulus checks
President Joe Biden signed the American Rescue Plan, the $1.9 trillion COVID-19 relief package that includes $1,400 stimulus checks.
Associated Press, USA TODAY
Indiana plans to use some of its $3 billion for police body cameras.
Maryland used a fifth of its $3.9 billion to send checks to low-income workers, establish tax benefits for families and businesses and support other relief programs.
Louisiana could spend its $3.2 billion to repair the aging water systems that left nearly a quarter of its residents without clean water from the tap during a rare Deep South freeze in February.
And in Oregon, $2.6 billion might help address isolation-induced mental health troubles in youth, or tackle homelessness in the capital city of Salem.
The American Rescue Plan approved in March by Congress and President Joe Biden is pouring an unprecedented $195 billion directly into states’ coffers, a windfall to help them recover after COVID-19 shuttered businesses and stalled most of their states’ economy for months.
But now they have an enviable problem: Deciding how to spend billions of dollars in newfound revenue, which in some states goes above and beyond any shortfalls they had faced.
It is leading to a brewing fight in state capitals across the nation, a review by USA TODAY Network statehouse reporters found.
The politically charged debate that led Republicans in Congress to lambast Biden’s…
