The Senate began considering the first coronavirus pandemic relief measure of the new legislative session on Tuesday.
Senate Bill 36 allocates nearly $95 million in a federal relief package Congress passed in December to health care providers, local health departments and hospitals for coronavirus vaccinations, about $1.6 billion to help schools reopen and ensure our students, teachers, and staff can safely return to in-person learning and more than $546 million in emergency rental assistance. An additional $155 million in rental assistance will go to local governments with more than 200,000 residents.
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The bill also gives parents of school-aged children additional time to apply for $335 state grants to help pay for online learning expenses and provides $39 million in state tax money to expand broadband in rural areas. The deadline for the Extra Credit grants had been the end of December, but the proposal would push that back to May 31.
It also extends other deadlines for spending pandemic relief funds and requires more reporting about how the money is being used.
“This bill builds on of our commitment to helping North Carolinians recover from the COVID-19 pandemic,” Sens. Brent Jackson, R-Sampson, Kathy Harrington, R-Gaston, and Ralph Hise, R-Mitchell, said in a statement.
The three co-chairs of the Senate Appropriations committee co-sponsored the bill, which easily cleared the committee on Tuesday morning.
“These funds are absolutely critical. They’ll allow us to help get vaccinations to those who want them and aid those who need it the most," Jackson, Harrington and Hise said. "North Carolina is set to receive several billion dollars of aid in the coming weeks, and we anticipate more bipartisan work to be done to lift us out of the pandemic."
They said they expect more pandemic-related legislation in the coming weeks.