President-elect Joe Biden with Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., right, and New York Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo, at the National September 11 Memorial in New York, Friday, Sept. 11, 2020.
WASHINGTON – About $2 billion in additional federal Covid-19 relief funding will be heading to New York once the Biden administration takes office, incoming Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer said Thursday.
The money will be split, with about $1 billion going to the state and a similar amount going to New York City, a Schumer aide said. So the money will likely put a slight dent in the state's 2021 budget shortfall, which the Cuomo administration puts at $15 billion, but which some experts say could be far less.
Schumer said that after talks with President-elect Joe Biden and his aides, the new administration agreed to adjust a Federal Emergency Management Agency aid formula to boost funding to New York. Under a March 2020 federal disaster declaration, the federal government had planned to cover 75% of the state's pandemic-related expenses, but under the change that Biden agreed to, the federal government will pay 100% of those expenses.
“For New York, the costs have been huge and will take years to overcome entirely, but achieving my goal of 100% FEMA cost share to New York will mean a sigh of relief for all New Yorkers because these critical dollars will help protect essential services and workers while we deal with badly burdened budgets that have been gut-punched by Covid," said Schumer, a New York Democrat.
Schumer has been pushing for FEMA to fund 100% of the state's disaster expenses ever since the pandemic began in March, writing to the FEMA administrator about the issue and discussing it with President Trump.
Jerry Zremski
Washington bureau chief
I have covered Washington for 30 years. Former National Press Club president, former Nieman fellow at Harvard and current adjunct professor of journalism at the University of Maryland. I love interacting with readers: email me at jzremski@buffnews.com.
