The U.S. Treasury Department would be prohibited from taking Emergency Rental Assistance (ERA) funds away from rural America and redirecting them to big cities under legislation introduced by U.S. Rep. French Hill (R-AR).
The congressman on March 31 sponsored the Protecting Rural Renters Act, H.R. 7327, which would encourage the timely use of funds provided under ERA programs that are administered by the Secretary of the Treasury.
If enacted, Rep. Hill said that H.R. 7327 would prohibit ERA grants to rural areas from being reallocated out of those communities and requires that any unspent money that has already been clawed back to be returned to the original grantee.
“This will ensure that ERA money is not ripped away from our rural communities right when they need it the most,” said Rep. Hill, ranking member of the U.S. House Financial Services Subcommittee on Housing, Community Development and Insurance.
Congress in 2020 and 2021 enacted the ERA 1 and ERA 2 programs to help low-income COVID-impacted renters get current on their debts, according to information provided by Rep. Hill’s staff.
Under the two laws, ERA funds went to cities and counties with populations over 200,000 to support their own individualized programs, as well as to states to administer general assistance to every other place with populations under 200,000, the information states.
By statute, slow spenders in both groups are subject to a clawback of unused ERA funds that started on March 31, and which will be awarded to jurisdictions that more quickly spend funds, even if located in other states, says the information.
“Today, the Biden administration will begin taking ERA 2 funding promised to rural communities in states like Arkansas, Montana, Nebraska, South Dakota, Wyoming, and Alabama, to give more money to big cities in places like New York, California, and New Jersey which have already received their own ERA funding,” Rep. Hill said on March 31. “This reallocation of ERA money is unfair and turns a blind eye to the needs of renters who have not yet received any rental assistance simply because they live in rural areas of our country.”
H.R. 7327 would remove the state allocations from the statutory clawback provision, effectively preventing ERA funds from being taken away from rural communities and given to urban areas, the congressman said.