In the News

Gov. Hutchinson lays out health care infrastructure needs for Arkansas

KATV
05/13/2020

LITTLE ROCK (KATV) — The state’s CARES Act Steering Committee met Wednesday to further discuss allocating funds from the $1.25 billion in federal funding Arkansas received due to the pandemic.

Congressman French Hill spoke to the committee – sharing what is happening in Congress – and reassuring the committee they’re working as quickly as possible to continue appropriating funds to Arkansas.

“In a typical year the federal budget is approximately $4.5 trillion, that includes over $3 trillion in mandatory spending and approximately of $1.5 trillion of annual appropriated funds for everything from aircraft carriers to national parks,” Hill said.

Hill also commented on the support businesses in Arkansas have received so far.

“As of May 8, over 38,000 small businesses here in our state have been approved for $3.3 billion in paycheck protection loans, further the SBA has directly injected more than $100 million in emergency loans and grants to Arkansas businesses.”

Hill added, Congress has supported health care providers and hospitals, including rural hospitals, and Arkansas is set to receive $586 million.

Compared to the rest of the country, Hill said, Arkansas is one of the states that has seen the least impact on consumer spending and unemployment.

Gov. Asa Hutchinson also asked the committee to consider funding the state’s health care infrastructure in terms of testing, tracing, and the ability to administer vaccines - when it becomes available.

“To utilize this money for our health care infrastructure for delivery and for dealing with any upticks that we might see or resurgence that we might have in COVID-19 next year,” said Hutchinson. “We hope that it reduces in terms of the summer, but everybody from nationally to here in Arkansas understands there’s a risk of it trying to come back and peak again next year, so we want to be prepared for that.”

Hutchinson discussed three key areas: the Arkansas Department of Health, the Arkansas Division of Higher Education, and funding antibody testing capabilities – testing to be done in partnership between ADH and the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences.

Arkansas Department of Health

ADH estimates it will need around $71 million to meet its goals of testing, contact tracing, and the ability to administer a vaccine.

Hutchinson shared a breakdown of spending for the committee:

$2 million for personal protective equipment; $9 million for lab equipment and supplies; $20 million for contact tracing personnel; $4 million to software; $1 million for a quarantine facility if needed; $30 million estimate for vaccination administrating capabilities; another $5 million for miscellaneous.

The Arkansas Division of Higher Education

In order to prepare students and staff to return to college campuses, Hutchinson discussed plans to build at least five testing sites to serve higher education. The sites, built in partnership with UAMS, would provide rapid testing for college students and personnel throughout the state. Higher Ed would need about $15 million to build, operate, and maintain these sites.

Secretary of Health Dr. Nate Smith, a member of the committee, said it’s important to give them the capacity to respond quickly. “Having the ability to rapidly respond and test I think will be very important for colleges and universities coming back in to the session in the fall, and they will work very closely with us, but give them the capacity to respond very quickly.”

Antibody testing capabilities

A third focus for the governor was the ability for antibody testing. Hutchinson said in partnership with ADH and UAMS, the goal is to eventually perform 3,000 tests per day. In order to meet that goal, they will have to appropriate funds for equipment, personnel, and ongoing infrastructure. Hutchinson couldn’t provide a cost, he’s still awaiting an estimate.

Dr. Smith stressed the importance of the state having the ability to perform antibody testing in-house rather than depend on outside labs.

The Arkansas Ready for Business Grant

Secretary of Commerce, Mike Preston, who is also a member of the committee shared an update on the Arkansas Ready for Business grant.

Out of the 12,233 applicants, Preston said, 250,000 employees were represented – roughly 25 percent of Arkansas’ workforce.

Preston explained that 94 percent of requests came from business with 50 of fewer employers, but due to the stipulations placed by the Arkansas Legislative Council - requiring that at least 75 percent of the grant funding be awarded to businesses with 50 or fewer – Preston’s team has had to rework the funding formula.

While $147.7 million was the total requested by businesses, and the total approved by ALC, Preston said they can meet the stipulations placed with a total of $124.5 million.

The new formula now proposes fully funding businesses with 50 or fewer employees, funding around 70 percent of businesses with 50-100 employees and funding 50 percent of businesses with 100 or more employees.

To track spending, coupled with changes, Preston said they want to disburse the grant to businesses in two transactions.

During the first round, they would direct-deposit half of the grant money to businesses then require they turn in receipts along with a plan for how they plan to spend the second half of the money. Preston said whether a business requests the second half, they will still be required to produce receipts for proof of purchases. Any funds not spent by a business will have to be returned by the spending deadline of this grant - December 31st.

Preston is hopeful businesses in Arkansas will start to see funds hit their accounts as early as next week, pending any potential changes that could be made by ALC at Friday's meeting.

Sen. Missy Irvin, R-Mountain View, motioned to recommend an additional $24.5 million for the grant – that’s in addition to the $100 million the committee had already recommended to ALC – and it passed unanimously.

The CARES Act Steering Committee meets again next Wednesday, while ALC will meet this Friday.