American Rescue Plan Update

The American Rescue Plan is complicated, and you can read more about it here.

In this update, I just want to pass along some items of activity that we are working on in regards to three areas: Volunteer Fire Departments, Rural Hospitals, and Broadband Expansion.

For our VFDs, round 3 grants were awarded for a great number of Alabama VFDs, with the Round 3 VFDs receiving their amounts this week. (If not already.) More than half of the 972 VFDs have either been paid or will be paid this week - and nearly 90% of Alabama VFDs have applied and are being reviewed for approval.

For our rural hospitals, $30 million was appropriated to establish COVID recovery grants for rural hospitals. (This is in addition to the $40 million allocated for distribution by the Alabama Hospital Association.) Eligible rural hospitals are determined by the SHPDA, with grant amount based on bed count. This is just the first round, and I anticipate more forthcoming.

Broadband access: the $276 million has been appropriated for broadband expansion was transferred to ADECA earlier this week, and their new Alabama Digital Expansion Division will begin deploying these funds in the coming months.