The Executive Appropriations Committee on May 20 recommended acceptance of five federal grants and multiple nonfederal grants and received an update showing most COVID-19-related relief funding in Utah is already under contract.

Duncan Evans, senior managing director of budget operations in the governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, told the committee that a handout and a dashboard on the office website summarize five years of federal relief funding and the status of spending. "All the spending right now is going on in the ARPA, capital project fund and the state and local fiscal recovery fund. All of the projects are, under contract," Evans said. He added there is about 18 months remaining to spend contracted funds and that the office is "on track to spend that money and wrap those projects up."

Brad Newbold, federal assistance management officer in the governor’s Office of Planning and Budget, summarized grant requests. He said five federal grants totaling $5,900,000 require Executive Appropriations Committee review and recommendation and that those awards require a combined $32,000 in state matching funds to be covered from existing program funds. Newbold said three of the federal requests are new and two are supplemental. He also told the committee there are two federal grants totaling $274,000 that the governor’s office already approved and four nonfederal grant applications totaling $576,000 that require committee approval. "None of those grants have any matching requirements, and all of the grants need supplemental authority," Newbold said. He also noted one nonfederal grant of $5,000 had been approved by the governor’s office.

Senator Reby asked whether recipients are required to report back to the committee or only to the administering entities. Newbold replied that statute requires committee approval for the two sets of grants that were listed as requiring review, while the other grants were provided for information only.

A co-chair moved to recommend acceptance of the federal and nonfederal grants as described in the committee packet dated May 20. The motion was called, and the committee voted unanimously to approve the recommendation.

Committee materials include a COVID funding dashboard updated monthly on the Office of Planning and Budget website that provides a line-item status of ARPA and Recovery Fund spending.

Ending: The committee approved the recommended grants and received the monthly COVID-19 funding status update. Staff said the dashboard and handout are available online for further review.