A federal watchdog is investigating whether Florida improperly used coronavirus aid to bring migrants to Martha’s Vineyard, as part of a widening government probe into states that funneled their pandemic dollars to controversial repression against immigration.
The Treasury Department’s inspector general confirmed his renewed interest in a letter sent last week to Sen. Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) and other members of Congress who had expressed concern that spending approved by Gov. Ron DeSantis (R). ) “violates federal law.”
Federal covid aid allowed Florida to pay for migrant flights
The investigation comes about a month after Florida flew dozens of migrants, including children, from Texas to Massachusetts, in the latest example of a Republican-led state sending migrants to Democratic-leaning communities.
To pay for the flights, DeSantis said he would tap a $12 million fund in the state’s recent budget. But that money came from interest Florida had earned on the more than $8 billion it received in the latest federal stimulus package, called the American Rescue Plan, The Washington Post reported as part of its investigation during a year on pandemic aid, known as the Covid money trail.
The approach immediately sparked legal debate, especially since the flights originated in Texas. It also raised new questions about the state of stimulus oversight in Washington, where Congress gave local governments wide leeway to spend their allocations as they saw fit. The Treasury Department said even less about how states could use the interest generated by the money while it’s not being spent, which could open the door to Florida’s maneuver.
Asked about the investigation, the White House referred the matter to the Treasury Department, which declined to comment. Its inspector general confirmed the letter but otherwise declined to comment. Spokesmen for DeSantis did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The Covid money trail
It was the biggest emergency spending spree in US history: two years, six laws and more than $5 trillion aimed at breaking the deadly grip of the coronavirus pandemic. The money saved the American economy from ruin and put vaccines in millions of guns, but it also invited unprecedented levels of fraud, abuse and opportunism.
In a year-long investigation, The Washington Post follows the covid money trail to find out what happened to all that cash.
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The probe into Florida spending is just the latest to target federal aid to Republican-led states. The Treasury Department’s top watchdog earlier announced it would review whether Texas acted improperly when it used a different budget move to tap federal coronavirus relief funds to ease border enforcement costs, as as The Post first reported earlier this year.
In both cases, the probes involve federal emergency programs that were intended to give local governments greater flexibility to respond to economic and public health needs. However, GOP leaders have repeatedly diverted the money to unrelated purposes and political pet projects, from building a prison in Atlanta to cutting taxes in Florida and elsewhere, which, as at the very least, they violate the spirit of Congressional relief efforts.
How federal pandemic aid helped Texas pay for its border crackdown
In Florida, critics described the approach as wasteful, arguing that federal money could have been better spent on improving local education, boosting hospitals or otherwise helping low-income residents. In Massachusetts, where Florida sent the migrants, Markey and other Democratic lawmakers, including Reps. Seth Moulton and Ayanna Pressley, described the flights as a “political stunt,” which they said “is contrary to the intent of Congress.”
“Although the rule was designed to provide flexibility to state and local governments, Congress did not intend or authorize state governments to use SLFRF funds for immigration enforcement,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter last month passed to the inspector general asking for probe. SLFRF refers to the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds, the $350 billion program of the American Rescue Plan that awarded Florida the money in question.
The Treasury Department’s top watchdog responded Friday, acknowledging in a letter that he is calling for “further analysis” from the agency about its guidelines.
“We will review the permissibility of immigration-related use of SLFRF funds generally and confirm specifically whether interest earned on SLFRF was used by Florida related to immigration activities and, if so, what conditions and limitations apply to this use,” Richard wrote. K. Delmar, the deputy inspector general.