Vermont officials say ARPA obligations met; $26.4 million reverted to hazard‑mitigation appropriation

At a Jan. 21 Senate Appropriations Committee meeting, state fiscal staff said Vermont has met the U.S. Treasury obligation deadline for American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) state fiscal recovery funds and has moved some balances into state accounts to reduce the risk of federal recapture. "We have obligated everything and there's no risk of recapture," Douglas Farnham, chief recovery officer for the State of Vermont, told the committee.

The overview described how roughly $1 billion in ARPA state fiscal recovery funds awarded to Vermont were appropriated through fiscal 2022 and fiscal 2023 budget acts and distributed across programs including workforce and economic supports, housing, broadband and IT, climate and clean‑water projects, and administrative needs. Committee members were advised that the obligation deadline was Dec. 31, 2024, and that ARPA expenditures must be paid (expended) by Dec. 31, 2026.

Why it matters: federal ARPA rules allow the U.S. Treasury to recapture funds not obligated by the obligation deadline and to require return of funds not expended by the expenditure deadline; the administration said its actions were intended to avoid those outcomes and to preserve program continuity.

What the administration reported

- Obligation and expend rules: Emily Burns of the Joint Fiscal Office explained basic ARPA rules: funds must be obligated (committed in a…