From: lessgovt@gmail.com   
      
   Don’t Let Unspent Covid Funds Become Slush Funds   
   By Joel Zinberg, May 7, 2023, WSJ   
   The House has passed the Limit, Save, Grow Act, which would raise the debt   
   limit for a year in exchange for deficit-relief measures. One of those   
   measures—recovering billions of dollars of approved but unspent Covid-19   
   relief funds—shouldn’t be    
   controversial. The official public-health emergency ends Thursday. The actual   
   emergency has been over for a long time. But some lawmakers want to use the   
   money as a slush fund.   
      
   Congress appropriated $4.6 trillion for pandemic response and recovery in six   
   Covid-19 relief laws enacted between March 2020 and March 2021. More than two   
   years later, $444 billion of the total remains unspent. More than $114 billion   
   hasn’t even been â   
   €œobligated,â€� or committed to pay for goods and services ordered or   
   received. Of this amount, $90.5 billion remains available for obligation and   
   $23.7 billion has expired, meaning that it can’t be used to incur new   
   obligations.   
      
   Section 201 of the House bill calls for the rescission—permanent   
   cancellation—of these unobligated balances. Rep. Rosa DeLauro (D., Conn.),   
   ranking member of the House Appropriations Committee, objects and has produced   
   an eight-page list of projects    
   she says wouldn’t be funded if the unobligated balances are rescinded.   
      
   Undoubtedly, some of these projects are worthwhile, but Ms. DeLauro’s   
   catalog raises a big question: Why, more than two years after the money was   
   appropriated, hasn’t it been spent on these presumably valuable projects?   
      
   Bureaucratic agencies never return unused funds. They always spend them   
   regardless of the merits. If these unobligated funds, which agencies haven’t   
   found worthwhile uses for in more than two years, stay with the agencies, they   
   will be obligated and    
   spent.   
      
   The funds should be returned to the Treasury. That would reduce the deficit   
   and restore decision-making authority to Congress. If future projects are   
   truly valuable, lawmakers should fund them.   
      
   Cutting the deficit will require hard choices. Recovering unspent Covid funds   
   well after the emergency has ended is an easy choice.   
      
   Dr. Zinberg is a senior fellow at the Competitive Enterprise Institute and   
   director of the Paragon Health Institute’s Public Health and American   
   Well-Being Initiative.   
      
   https://www.wsj.com/articles/dont-let-unspent-covid-funds-become   
   slush-funds-pandemic-emergency-deficit-house-democrats-congress-   
   ppropriations-68b71057   
      
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