Oklahoma lawmakers Wednesday handed virtually $323 million in water infrastructure, behavioral well being and digital medical information projects funded by federal pandemic relief {dollars} on to an upcoming particular session of the Legislature.
The House and Senate are anticipated to take up the most recent pandemic relief spending payments by late September, however legislative leaders haven’t but settled on the precise dates.
Meanwhile, some lawmakers expressed frustration with what they known as the manager department’s continued sluggish tempo of sending cash to projects already accepted.
The state has $1.87 billion to spend beneath the American Rescue Plan Act. Some projects accepted final December have but to obtain funding, stated Sen. Chuck Hall, R-Perry.
“I don’t understand how when the Legislature directs an appropriation, it doesn’t get done immediately,” Hall stated. “We are all concerned about mishandling or clawbacks related to these ARPA funds, but we have done our due diligence.
“These projects have gone through the [online] portal, through working groups, to the joint committee, to the floor of the House and Senate and to the governor and are ready to deploy.”
The governor’s workplace stated no person from the manager department is holding up federal relief funds.
Some of the beforehand accepted projects have enactment dates of Sept. 1, whereas others went into impact 90 days after they turned regulation in the event that they didn’t have an emergency clause, stated Carly Atchison, Stitt’s communications director.
Atchison stated the Office of Management and Enterprise Services has been working with state businesses to get grant agreements in place to make sure the state complies with federal pointers.
“The Stitt administration is committed to following all federal guidelines,” Atchison stated.
The Legislature in May modified its approval course of for pandemic relief projects and arrange a brand new fund to seize the federal relief {dollars}.
That meant relief projects accepted late final 12 months didn’t have a funding supply and wanted to be a part of the brand new legislative appropriations course of via accepted particular session payments, stated Caden Cleveland, a spokesman with the Office of Management and Enterprise Services.
Behavioral well being, water projects accepted
In Wednesday’s Joint Committee on Pandemic Relief Funding, lawmakers in separate votes unanimously accepted 10 projects totaling $323 million. The Legislature earlier accepted greater than $200 million in numerous projects funded by the federal relief {dollars}.
House Speaker Pro Tempore Kyle Hilbert, R-Bristow, stated lawmakers wish to get the “lion’s share” of federal pandemic relief funds accepted in the second particular session, which is dedicated to pandemic relief funding. That particular session would finish robotically in mid-November if lawmakers don’t dissolve it earlier.
“With inflation, things are getting more expensive, so we need to get these projects out the door,” Hilbert stated.
He stated lawmakers and legislative workers have been working for the reason that finish of the common session in May on pandemic relief projects. Ideally, he’d prefer to see their work accomplished on a giant chunk of the projects earlier than the subsequent common session begins in February.
The projects accepted Wednesday had been:
$87 million to exchange Griffin Memorial Hospital in Norman, which dates to the Nineties and is the state’s largest psychiatric hospital. The substitute would add one other 100 beds, bringing the whole staffed beds to 275 for adults and 55 for adolescents.
$38 million so as to add 50 beds to the 56 present beds on the Tulsa Center for Behavioral Health. That renovation and enlargement challenge already has $26 million in funding commitments from different donors.
$50 million to the Oklahoma Water Resources Board for a grant program for water infrastructure projects. This is the second a part of a $100 million grant program. The Legislature earlier accepted the opposite $50 million because the water board labored on the necessities for the grant program.
$44 million to the University Hospitals Authority for an digital well being information system for OU Health.
$35 million to Oklahoma City to relocate a 60-inch water transmission line that serves greater than 400,000 metropolis residents. If not relocated, the water line could be inside a pending enlargement of Tinker Air Force Base, inflicting safety and security points for ongoing upkeep and repairs. The metropolis is utilizing its personal cash for a close-by street enlargement associated to Tinker’s progress.
$26 million to the Oklahoma State Department of Health for an digital well being information system to exchange the paper information and faxes used at county well being departments throughout the state.
$22.15 million to the Oklahoma National Guard for a holistic well being heart that may serve the bodily and psychological wants of the National Guard and state first responders. Once constructed, it could be staffed utilizing federal funds and in addition present household companies and sexual harassment and assault companies.
$12 million for an identical program for regional tribal water infrastructure projects. The Legislature earlier accepted $20 million in matching funds for tribal water projects.
$6.23 million to the Administrative Office of the Courts for a number of projects, together with digital case submitting, catastrophe restoration information know-how companies and video-conferencing techniques and tools. It additionally consists of cash for court docket interpreters and translators.
$2.52 million to the Oklahoma Department of Public Safety for 2 cellular response models to assist first responders like troopers, firefighters and EMS personnel take care of work-related trauma. The cellular models would permit for a safe place to debrief first responders at catastrophe websites and supply trauma counseling.
Additional projects might be taken up in working teams in the subsequent few weeks, and lawmakers plan to convene one other joint pandemic relief committee on Sept. 20, Hilbert stated.
The House and Senate will put these projects into “shell” payments already deep into the legislative course of throughout the particular session anticipated on the finish of September.
That means the complete House and Senate simply must approve the payments earlier than sending them to the governor for approval.
The state has till the top of 2024 to allocate the pandemic relief funding, and the cash have to be spent by the top of 2026.
More than 1,400 functions had been made to the state for the relief funds, totaling virtually $18 billion. Oklahoma Watch has compiled a database of the functions, which may be searched right here.
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