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A national watchdog is investigating whether Florida improperly tapped coronavirus assistance to alert migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, portion of a widening authorities enquiry into states that enactment their pandemic dollars toward arguable migration crackdowns.
The inspector wide for the Treasury Department confirmed its caller involvement successful a missive sent past week to Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and different members of Congress who had expressed interest that the spending approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) “violates national law.”
The probe comes astir a period aft Florida flew dozens of migrants, including children, from Texas to Massachusetts, successful the latest illustration of a Republican-led authorities sending migrants to Democratic-leaning communities.
To wage for the flights, DeSantis said helium would pat a $12 cardinal money successful the state’s caller budget. But that wealth came from the involvement Florida had earned connected the much than $8 cardinal it received nether the past national stimulus package, called the American Rescue Plan, The Washington Post reported arsenic portion of its year-long probe into the pandemic aid, known arsenic the Covid Money Trail.
The attack instantly generated ineligible debate, not the slightest due to the fact that the flights originated successful Texas. It besides raised caller questions astir the authorities of stimulus oversight successful Washington, wherever Congress gave section governments large latitude to walk their allocations arsenic they saw fit. The Treasury Department said adjacent little astir however states could usage the involvement generated connected the wealth portion it remained unspent, perchance opening the doorway for Florida’s maneuver.
Asked astir the probe, the White House referred the substance to the Treasury Department, which declined to comment. Its inspector wide confirmed the missive but different declined to comment. Spokespeople for DeSantis did not instantly respond to a petition for comment.
It was the largest burst of exigency spending successful U.S. history: Two years, six laws and much than $5 trillion intended to interruption the deadly grip of the coronavirus pandemic. The wealth spared the U.S. system from ruin and enactment vaccines into millions of arms, but it besides invited unprecedented levels of fraud, maltreatment and opportunism.
In a yearlong investigation, The Washington Post is pursuing the covid wealth way to fig retired what happened to each that cash.
The probe into the spending successful Florida is lone the latest enquiry targeting national assistance successful Republican-led states. The Treasury Department’s apical watchdog previously announced it would reappraisal whether Texas acted improperly erstwhile it utilized a antithetic budgetary determination to instrumentality vantage of national coronavirus alleviation funds to easiness the costs of borderline enforcement, arsenic The Post archetypal reported earlier this year.
In some cases, the probes impact exigency national programs that were meant to springiness section governments large flexibility to respond to nationalist wellness and economical needs. Repeatedly, though, GOP leaders person enactment the wealth toward unrelated purposes and political favored projects — from constructing a situation successful Atlanta to pursuing taxation cuts successful Florida and elsewhere — that, astatine minimum, interruption the tone of the legislature alleviation efforts.
In Florida, critics described the attack arsenic wasteful, arguing that national wealth mightiness person been amended enactment toward improving section education, boosting hospitals oregon different helping low-income residents. In Massachusetts, wherever Florida sent the migrants, Markey and different Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Seth Moulton and Ayanna Pressley, described the flights arsenic a “political stunt,” which they said “runs contrary to legislature intent.”
“While the regularisation was designed to supply flexibility to authorities and section governments, Congress neither intended to allow, oregon authorized, authorities governments to usage the SLFRF funds for migration enforcement,” the lawmakers wrote successful a missive past period to the inspector wide requesting the probe. SLFRF refers to the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, the $350 cardinal programme nether the American Rescue Plan that awarded Florida the wealth successful question.
The main watchdog for the Treasury Department responded connected Friday, acknowledging successful a missive that it is seeking “more elaborate analysis” from the bureau connected its guidelines.
“We volition reappraisal the allowability of usage of SLFRF funds related to migration generally, and volition specifically corroborate whether involvement earned connected SLFRF was utilized by Florida related to migration activities, and if so, what conditions and limitations use to specified use,” wrote Richard K. Delmar, the lawman inspector general.
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