House Appropriations committee hears update on ARPA spending; $63 million remains

The House Appropriations Committee on May 12 heard an update on the state's American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) spending from Douglas Farm, the chief recovery officer, who said the state has spent nearly all of its $1.049 billion allocation but still has about $63 million left to expend.

Farm told the committee the administration transmitted a 15-page report that day detailing ARPA programs and accompanying general-fund activity, and he urged lawmakers to focus on programs that remain open. "It's a 15 page PDF, and the first 7 pages are a table of all of the programs that were created under the American Rescue Plan Act," Farm said, adding that a number of programs have completed while a smaller set remain active.

Why it matters: federal closeout requires that the work be complete and invoices paid before the U.S. Treasury's deadline. Farm said the state's federal closeout will be acceptable "as long as that happens before Dec. 31, 2026," but warned that administrative lags between work completion, invoicing and payment can stretch the timeline.

Committee members pressed Farm on projects that were converted from ARPA to state general fund and therefore are not subject to the federal deadline. Farm said about $8.3 million remains in one converted community recovery and virtualization program and that general-fund awards are covered by a different legislative requirement: state language requires general-fund awards to be obligated by Dec. 31, 2027, or the funds will revert.

Farm mapped out which programs are most at risk of missing the federal closeout timetable. He flagged clean-water and wastewater programs administered by ANR/DC, including a wet-weather sewer overflow program with roughly $18 million remaining, and said those awards will need close review. He also said the broadband board has expended about $135 million and is "highly confident" it can spend the roughly $14.7 million still on its books.

Farm described the administration's operational approach: subawards should be completed by June 30, 2026, to provide time for the invoicing and payment steps required for federal acceptance. Where projects are unlikely to finish on time, AOA will compile recommended reversions and present them to the Joint Fiscal Committee for approval; any approved reallocation would create general-fund availability but would not be actionable until the legislature addresses it in the Budget Adjustment Act.

Members asked about specific line items. Farm said a clean-water flood-resilient communities program had about $1.983 million unspent for buyouts and floodplain restoration; a tech-log case-management upgrade (for state's attorneys and sheriffs) has a $1.7 million appropriation with approximately $1.5 million remaining; and a $2 million UI platform modernization project was progressing on schedule. On workforce and health-related line items, Farm said some nursing programs have shown low uptake, in part because traveling-nurse market conditions reduced recruitment.

Farm told the committee he plans to meet with every program that has remaining ARPA funds over the next two months to compile status updates, verify expenditures and identify projects that should be allowed to continue or be reverted. "Over the next 2 months, I will be meeting with every program that has remaining ARPA funds," he said.

The administration also emphasized that some general-fund conversions were done to avoid long-term federal monitoring requirements for real property and that the legislature may want to provide clarity on carryforwards and future reallocations during the FY28 Budget Adjustment Act.

The committee did not take formal action at the hearing. The chair thanked Farm and recessed; members said they expect follow-up at joint fiscal meetings this summer and an updated briefing on post-2026 closeout planning next year.