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Law360 (November 30, 2020, 8:49 PM EST) -- A bipartisan group of attorneys general want federal lawmakers to pass a measure to make sure that funding under the coronavirus relief law is available until the end of next year, saying the current end of 2020 deadline no longer makes sense.
On Monday, 49 attorneys general from states, Washington, D.C., and U.S. territories sent a letter to leaders in the U.S. House of Representatives and the U.S. Senate asking that they extend the deadline for when the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act can cover expenses.
Originally, money under the CARES Act could only cover costs incurred between the beginning of March and Dec. 30. That deadline, however, "now seems unreasonable" given that COVID-19 cases continue to increase and many states have put emergency health measures in place, the attorneys general said.
"In some states, attorneys general are being called upon to help distribute CARES funding, a role that has given us firsthand knowledge of the difficulties posed by the current deadline," the letter read.
In late March, President Donald Trump signed the $2.2 trillion stimulus bill to address the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The package of relief measures was aimed at supporting jobless Americans, boosting business activity and providing resources for health care workers struggling to treat COVID-19.
While the cutoff for spending was originally set for the end of December 2020, the attorneys general said that the deadline should be extended through at least Dec. 31, 2021.
Democrats – including Iowa Attorney General Tom Miller, California Attorney General Xavier Becerra and Washington, D.C., Attorney General Karl Racine – along with Republicans like West Virginia Attorney General Patrick Morrisey and South Dakota Attorney General Jason Ravnsborg signed the letter, joining attorneys general from some U.S. territories as well.
"In March, nobody had any idea how long this was going to go on, and Congress made a good fiscal decision to say 'let's not leave this open ended,'" Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost, another signee, told Law360 on Monday. "The end of the year seemed like a very prudent thing to do, but think about what we didn't know in March and what we know today. That deadline was artificial. Based on what we know today, it doesn't make any sense."
As of Monday evening, there were about 13.5 million confirmed cases of COVID-19 in the United States, with about 267,600 reported deaths, according to Johns Hopkins University data. Globally, there have been nearly 63.1 million confirmed cases and about 1,465,111 deaths, according to Johns Hopkins.
--Additional reporting by Stephen Cooper. Editing by Steven Edelstone.
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