U.S. Sen. Todd Young (R-Ind.) said he wants the federal government’s next round of COVID-19 relief to be “targeted” at those who need help most.
Young is critical of the package passed by the U.S. House of Representatives, a $3 trillion proposal dubbed the HEROES Act. That legislation includes another direct payment to Americans, hazard pay for essential workers, more money to boost COVID testing and relief for state and local governments.
Young said Congress needs to evaluate the economic picture and more finely target its relief before passing another round of funding.
“We still have a lot of underutilized resources – including money in the Paycheck Protection Program – that have not yet been drawn down,” Young said.
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Indiana – like many other states – has been asking for help to fill a significant hole in its budget from lost revenue due to COVID-19. But Congress barred them from using previous federal relief money to do so. Young has said he doesn’t want to bail out states but is starting to change that tune.
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“I think some measure of flexibility is going to be required and would be appropriate as we appropriate all these monies so that Indiana will be able to fill some gaps with some of these federal monies,” Young said.
The Republican lawmaker said he doesn’t know if the next relief package will include another round of stimulus checks.
Contact reporter Brandon at bsmith@ipbs.org or follow him on Twitter at @brandonjsmith5.