EDITORIAL: Millions in COVID funds are still floating around

The pandemic may seem like ages ago, but the financial fallout continues. In December, a Nevada legislative committee learned that the state still hasn’t burned through a quarter of the federal money it received from Congress during COVID. Washington plans to claw back any funds that aren’t spent by the end of this year.

The presentation to the Legislature’s Interim Finance Committee was instructive as a means of illustrating Congress’s lack of fiscal responsibility. The nation was on an unsustainable financial path before the pandemic hit in March 2020, but, during COVID, the red ink accelerated from a steady flow to a gushing hemorrhage. No doubt some aid measures were necessary given the government-ordered closures of many businesses. But the pandemic also provided cover for a massive expansion of federal spending still reflected in the soaring national debt.

Under the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, passed by the Democratic Congress in 2021 with no Republican support, Nevada received nearly $2.7 billion. Theoretically, the cash — which included payments to individuals and to state and local governments — was intended to mitigate the fallout of a U.S. economy that cratered during an urgent public health emergency. In fact, a good portion of the money ended up directed to projects that had little or nothing to do with COVID. Recall that the city of Las Vegas spent federal pandemic funds on raises for employees.

As of December, Nevada still has $700 million in unspent pandemic money, the Nevada Independent reported this month. Many other states are in the same boat. Among the projects that Nevada has yet to complete are a $25 million plan to relocate residents in the sinking Las Vegas neighborhood of Windsor Park, an $18.3 million effort to update the state’s child welfare information system, a $3.5 million project for early learning centers in two rural counties, a $1.1 million plan to replace “culinary” equipment at a northern Nevada prison and a $666,000 expenditure for the training and certification of lactation consultants.

All of these endeavors may be worthwhile. But what do they have to do with helping Americans navigate a pandemic that has long since passed?

None of this even touches on the massive fraud that was endemic in federal COVID relief efforts such as the Paycheck Protection Program and expanded unemployment benefits. The General Accounting Office estimates that as much as $300 billion ended up in the hands of cheats and grifters.

The sheer amount of pandemic money still floating around state coffers is a reflection of how members of Congress have abrogated their responsibility to set the nation on a sustainable fiscal path in favor using the U.S. Treasury as an ATM for their own self-preservation.

The views expressed above are those of the Las Vegas Review-Journal.