Porter sends follow-up letter urging governor to get CARES Act dollars to Hoosiers before deadline

INDIANAPOLIS – State Rep. Gregory W. Porter (D-Indianapolis) today sent a follow-up letter to Governor Holcomb readdressing and offering new expenditure areas for the over $1 billion Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security (CARES) Act dollars left unspent. Out of the $1.4 billion marked for expenditure less than $300 million has been dispersed. If the federal relief money is left unspent, Indiana will be forced to return it to the federal government while Hoosiers are left suffering.

On July 15, Porter sent a letter to Governor Holcomb urging him to allocate CARES ACT dollars to a multitude of public resources and programs to aid Hoosiers during the pandemic. These expenditures included the covering of costs for personal protective equipment (PPE); aiding election expenses with expanded mail-in voting measures; funding for minority communities affected by COVID-19; insurance access; rental assistance and assisting suffering local governments. To date, these programs have been underfunded or completely neglected.

“Since the beginning on the pandemic, I've stressed the importance of getting relief to the tens of thousands of Hoosiers in need,” Porter said. “Now more than ever, I fear that Indiana will be forced to return millions of dollars in aid to the federal government if left unallocated by the end of the year. It is senseless that Hoosiers are continuing to suffer while the state sits on unused resources.”

Read today's follow-up letter from Porter below.

The Honorable Eric Holcomb
Governor of Indiana
200 West Washington Street
Indianapolis, IN 46204

Dear Governor Holcomb,

I am writing today as a follow-up to my letter to you this past July related to Indiana's timely and efficient expenditure of our state's $2.44 billion allotments of Corona Virus Relief Fund (CVRF) dollars derived from the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

Unfortunately, I continue to be dismayed that after seven months Indiana has not yet even designated how over $1 billion in our CVRF allocation is intended to be spent. With less than three months to go before CVRF has to be spent or reverted to the Federal treasury, I am increasingly concerned that even if my new and revised COVID-19 response recommendations were to be funded it may be too late to avoid fiscal tragedy for the Hoosier State.

Almost equally disturbing is the fact that there has been minimal action on spending the approximately $1.4 billion that you and your CVRF Advisory Team have previously identified for expenditure from Indiana's share of the CVRF. Records show that of the $1.4 billion in CVRF dollars identified for expenditure less than $300 million has been disbursed and spent.

I firmly believe that we are at a real crisis point when it comes to the expenditure of CVRF and CARES Act funding with so much apparent need out there for these monies. I hope that this letter serves as some motivation to engender some type of action before we are deprived of resources granted by Congress to address COVID-19.

Please feel free to contact me to discuss my update recommendations for the quick but fiscally sound and people-focused reasoned expenditure of Indiana's remaining CVRF dollars.

Sincerely,

Gregory W. Porter
State Representative
Indiana House District 96