Panel backs $5.6M in relief aid for UAMS; staffing, bed shortages spur endorsement

The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus in Little Rock is shown in a June 2016 file photo.
The University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences campus in Little Rock is shown in a June 2016 file photo.

A legislative committee on Monday endorsed a request to use about $5.6 million in federal coronavirus relief funds to go toward addressing staffing and bed shortages at the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

The Legislative Council's Performance Evaluation and Expenditure Review Committee also recommended the Legislative Council on Friday approve requests to use nearly $150 million in American Rescue Plan funding for rural broadband expansion projects, as well as a request to use $1.65 million from the federal Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act for costs associated with testing for covid-19 on college campuses and addressing health care of members of minority groups.

The $5.625 million appropriation for UAMS is part of a larger funding request that was endorsed by the state's American Rescue Plan steering committee to help hospitals retain and recruit staff members. Earlier this month, the steering committee endorsed and the Legislative Council authorized using $129.2 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds for the state Department of Human Services to aid hospitals, including $97.3 million to make payments to hospitals to offset the extraordinary costs related to retaining and acquiring front-line staffers.

According to an Aug. 19 letter to state Department of Finance and Administration Secretary Larry Walther from UAMS Chief Financial Officer Amanda George, $4.05 million of the UAMS funding will go toward attaining and retaining front-line health care workers. Another $1.125 million is for the hospital's participation in the Arkansas COVIDComm system, through which it receives patients who are positive for covid-19 from other facilities.

The remaining $450,000 of the funding is for monoclonal antibodies administered to covid-19 patients.

Separately, the committee on Monday approved $65,625,013 for "shovel-ready" broadband projects as well as $2.5 million for a contract with the Center for Toxicology and Environmental Health.

The state Department of Finance and Administration also has been authorized to use $10 million in American Rescue Plan funds to contract with a partnership of the North Little Rock company and the Haggerty Group of New Jersey to develop and implement a database to track for submission of proposals and then monitor use of American Rescue Plan funds.

Rep. Lane Jean, R-Magnolia, made a motion to allow the chairmen of the Legislative Council to approve an additional $81,587,675 worth of Department of Commerce broadband projects once they are at the stage where construction can begin, which the committee recommended the Legislative Council approve.

Arkansas is set to receive a total of $1.57 billion through the American Rescue Plan Act. The steering committee, appointed by Gov. Asa Hutchinson, reviews proposals for the funding and makes recommendations to lawmakers. The American Rescue Plan is the $1.9 trillion federal relief package signed by President Joe Biden in March aimed at combating the public health and economic impacts of the coronavirus pandemic.

In addition, the state received $1.25 billion in 2020 from the federal CARES Act, which was enacted by Congress and then-President Donald Trump in March 2020, for which Hutchinson appointed another steering committee to recommend various projects.

In a letter in July, state Department of Health Chief Financial Officer Jo Thompson requested that the agency be authorized to spend $1.65 million in CARES funding on two projects: reimbursing college campuses for covid-19 testing expenses on behalf of the state Department of Higher Education and Health Department's Minority Health Commission's support of a mobile health unit.

Information for this article was contributed by Michael R. Wickline of the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette.

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