WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden will urge states and cities to use unspent money from last year’s $1.9 trillion Covid relief package to fund crime prevention programs and hire police officers.
Biden is expected to stress the need for more funding for public safety programs at an event with mayors and law enforcement officials Friday at the White House.
A number of major cities have reported surges in crime rates since the start of the coronavirus pandemic. The White House said it is pushing local governments to spend the money before the summer months, when there has historically been more violent crime compared to winter months.
“One of the reasons why the president wants to speak now was both because we are approaching another summer and he wants to stress the priority of using these dollars for public safety and violence prevention,” a senior administration official said in a call with reporters.
At least $10 billion from the American Rescue Plan, which Congress passed in March 2021, has already been committed to public safety programs, including domestic violence prevention efforts, drug abuse and mental health services, and bonuses for hiring and retaining police officers, the White House said.
About $6.5 billion was allocated in 2021 by 300 localities and more than half of states, including $2 billion for crime prevention programs to ease the burden on police and $1 billion for bonuses to help recruit and retain public safety workers, the White House said.
Without those funds, many cities would have been forced to cut back on public safety spending because of budget shortfalls after the economic impact of the pandemic and the additional costs it imposed on local governments, the White House added.
In addition, $350 billion from the rescue plan went to help governors, mayors and other local leaders support their responses to and recovery from the pandemic.
As crime continues to rise in parts of the country, Republicans have sought to make it a key issue in the midterm elections, accusing Democrats of being in favor of “defunding” police departments.
Biden, who has increasingly pushed back against that narrative, maintains that he is for funding the police and has accused Republicans of supporting cuts to police budgets, citing their opposition to the American Rescue Plan.
“The American Rescue Plan has enabled these mayors and other state and local leaders to shore up their budgets and invest in public safety,” the White House said in a statement. “Unfortunately, every Republican in Congress voted against the American Rescue Plan public safety funding for cities and rural counties across the country.”
The Biden administration has also been looking tout the Covid relief bill as one of the president’s top policy achievements, along with the $550 billion infrastructure package, as it makes the case to keep Democrats in power ahead of the elections this fall.
In his remarks Friday, Biden will call on states and local communities to spend the Covid relief money on “putting more police officers on the beat for accountable community policing, expanding evidence-based community violence intervention programs, and preventing crime by making our neighborhoods stronger.” with more educational and economic opportunities,” the White House said.
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George is Digismak’s reported cum editor with 13 years of experience in Journalism