II 

116TH CONGRESS 

2D SESSION S. 3954 

To require States to make distributions from the State’s Coronavirus Relief 

Fund payment to local governments that did not receive a direct payment 

from the Fund. 

IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES 

JUNE 11, 2020 

Mr. MANCHIN introduced the following bill; which was read twice and referred 

to the Committee on Finance 

A BILL 

To require States to make distributions from the State’s 

Coronavirus Relief Fund payment to local governments 

that did not receive a direct payment from the Fund. 

1 Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa2 tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 

3 SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 

4 This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Local Government Re5 lief Act’’. 


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1 SEC. 2. DEADLINE FOR DISTRIBUTION OF THE LOCAL GOV2 ERNMENT SHARE OF THE STATE CORONAVI3 RUS RELIEF FUND PAYMENT. 

4 (a) PASS-THROUGH REQUIREMENT.—Subsection (b) 

5 of section 601 of the Social Security Act, as added by sec6 tion 5001(a) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic 

7 Security Act (Public Law 116–136) is amended by adding 

8 at the end the following new paragraph: 

9 ‘‘(3) PASS-THROUGH REQUIREMENT.— 

10 ‘‘(A) IN GENERAL.—Not later than June 

11 30, 2020, each State (other than the District of 

12 Columbia) shall make, from the amount paid to 

13 the State under this section, a distribution to 

14 each unit of local government in the State that 

15 is not a large unit of local government that re16 ceived a direct payment under this section in 

17 accordance with paragraph (2). 

18 ‘‘(B) AMOUNT TO BE DISTRIBUTED.—The 

19 total amount of the distributions made by a 

20 State to units of local government under this 

21 paragraph shall not be less than 45 percent of 

22 the amount paid to the State under this section 

23 for fiscal year 2020 (after the application of 

24 paragraph (2)). 

25 ‘‘(C) MANNER OF DISTRIBUTION.— 

26 Amounts distributed by a State under this 


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1 paragraph shall be distributed from the amount 

2 paid to the State under this section— 

3 ‘‘(i) upon receipt and on a pass4 through-basis; and 

5 ‘‘(ii) without requiring any application 

6 from a unit of local government. 

7 ‘‘(D) REPORT.—If a State is unable to 

8 make distributions to units of local government 

9 in accordance with the requirements of this 

10 paragraph, the State shall submit a detailed re11 port to the Secretary explaining why the State 

12 is unable to meet such requirements. The Sec13 retary shall publish each such report in the 

14 Federal Register.’’. 

15 (b) CONFORMING AMENDMENTS.—Section 601 of 

16 such Act is further amended— 

17 (1) in subsection (b)— 

18 (A) in paragraphs (1) and (2), by inserting 

19 ‘‘large’’ before ‘‘unit of local government’’ each 

20 place it appears; and 

21 (B) in paragraph (2)— 

22 (i) in the paragraph heading, by in23 serting ‘‘LARGE’’ before ‘‘UNITS’’; and 

24 (ii) by adding at the end the fol25 lowing: ‘‘For purposes of this section, the 


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1 term ‘large unit of local government’ 

2 means a unit of local government, as de3 fined in subsection (g)(2), with a popu4 lation that exceeds 500,000.’’; 

5 (2) in subsection (c)(5)— 

6 (A) in the paragraph heading, by inserting 

7 ‘‘LARGE’’ before ‘‘UNIT’’; and 

8 (B) by inserting ‘‘large’’ before ‘‘unit of 

9 local government’’ each place it appears; 

10 (3) in subsection (d), by inserting ‘‘or distribu11 tion’’ after ‘‘payment’’; 

12 (4) in subsection (e)— 

13 (A) by inserting ‘‘direct’’ before ‘‘pay14 ment’’; and 

15 (B) by inserting ‘‘large’’ before ‘‘unit of 

16 local government’’ each place it appears; and 

17 (5) in subsection (g)(2)— 

18 (A) in the paragraph heading, by striking 

19 ‘‘LOCAL’’ and inserting ‘‘UNIT OF LOCAL’’; and 

20 (B) by striking ‘‘with a population that ex21 ceeds 500,000.’’ 

22 (c) EFFECTIVE DATE.—The amendments made by 

23 this section shall take effect as if included in the enact24 ment of section 601 of the Social Security Act, as added 


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1 by section 5001(a) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and 

2 Economic Security Act (Public Law 116–136). 

Æ 


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