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WASHINGTON—Congressman Paul D. Tonko released local impact figures today under the Fiscal Year 2021 Reconciliation Act currently moving through the House and Senate. The rescue package would deliver an estimated $440 million in direct federal COVID-19 relief funding to counties, cities, towns, and villages in New York’s 20^th Congressional District—which is represented by Tonko—to maintain essential services and staff including teachers, nurses, firefighters, water systems managers and countless others in the Capital Region. Under this bill:

• Public services in Albany County receive a total of $173,960,989
• Public services in Montgomery County receive a total of $16,931,078*       
• Public services in Rensselaer County receive a total of $82,699,814*
• Public services in Saratoga County receive a total of $49,867,173*   
• Public services in Schenectady County a total of $117,073,466

*NOTE: totals reflect funding for county & municipal governments within the boundary lines of NY-20

“Capital Region communities have showed incredible strength and resilience in the face of this dangerous pandemic, but this fight has weighed on our spirits and depleted our family, municipal, county and state budgets; our local communities may not all survive long months of further economic hardship without federal help,” said Tonko. “As more contagious new COVID variants continue to spread throughout the country, and with vaccinations still coming far too slowly and herd immunity still months away, we need bold leadership now to deliver that relief. Our COVID package does just that. This plan puts money in the pockets of millions of Americans, scales up vaccination production and distribution and delivers a lifeline to state and local governments to ensure local teachers, firefighters, police officers, nurses and other essential workers are supported while they work to keep our communities going. The end of this pandemic is in sight, but we still have much work ahead to crush this virus and rebuild our economy. Advancing this legislation will give us a clear path to achieve these goals and save countless lives.”

The Reconciliation Act provision includes:

• $195.3 billion to states and the District of Columbia with $25.5 billion of that total equally divided among the states and $169 billion based on the state share of total unemployed workers
• $130.2 billion to local governments, divided evenly between cities and counties
• $65.1 billion to cities using a modified Community Development Block Grant formula
• $45.57 billion for municipalities with populations of at least 50,000
• $19.53 billion for municipalities with populations of less than 50,000
• $65.1 billion to counties based on population
• $4.5 billion to territories
• $20 billion to federally recognized Tribal governments

The legislation would also provide $570 million in emergency leave for Federal and Postal Workers and an additional $117 million in funds to oversight entities to promote transparency and accountability of all federal coronavirus relief funds.

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