LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Gov. Asa Hutchinson signed an executive order Tuesday, setting up a committee to manage over $1.5 billion in federal funds coming to Arkansas.
Send Larry Walther, secretary of the Department of Finance and Administration, will chair the governor s American Rescue Plan Steering Committee.
Gov. Asa Hutchinson on Tuesday set up a 14-member American Rescue Plan Steering Committee to oversee the spending of $1.57 billion of the about $5 billion in federal pandemic aid coming to Arkansas.
The $1.57 billion is the amount going directly to state government; the rest will go to educational institutions, cities, counties and the state Department of Human Services.
About $285 million in funding will flow through the state Department of Finance and Administration to Arkansas communities with less than 50,000 residents, department spokesman Scott Hardin told Arkansas Business by email on Wednesday. The money allocated to each community is based on a formula that was established in guidance from the U.S. Department of the Treasury, he said.
Governor talks COVID-19 vaccines for 12+ and plans for $5 billion in federal aid Governor Hutchinson talks about plans for American Rescue Plan funds.
Anxious Arkansas parents hoping to secure COVID-19 vaccines for children ages 12 and up have just a tiny bit longer to wait.
Governor Hutchinson announced Tuesday that we’re still waiting on guidance from the CDC’s Advisory Committee on Immunization Practices (ACIP) before 12- to 15-year-olds can roll up their sleeves for a first shot of the Pfizer vaccine that’s been cleared for use in adolescents.
The advisory committee, chaired by Arkansas’s own
Dr. José Romero, is scheduled to meet on this issue tomorrow. In the meantime, Hutchinson said parents can go ahead and start scheduling appointments, keeping in mind that only the Pfizer version of the vaccine is cleared for use in young people (the Moderna and Johnson and Johnson versions of the vaccine are available in Arkansas but are not yet app
Head-scratcher bill on Racing Commission director
RACING COMMISSION BILL: Sen. Jane English (left) and Jan Bartlett testify.
In a Senate committee last week,
Sen. Jane English failed to muster sufficient votes for approval of her SB 596 to allow the
director of Finance and Administration, currently Larry Walther, to
appoint the director of the state Racing Commission, a division of DFA.
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The Racing Commission director, John “Smokey” Campbell, currently serves by gubernatorial appointment. So does the director of Finance and Administration. The Racing Commission itself is appointed by the governor.
Why change the appointment from the governor to his hand-picked DFA secretary?