One third of the massive $3 trillion Heroes Act legislation passed by the House is dedicated to state and local governments.

The $1 trillion includes Congressman Antonio Delgado’s bipartisan Direct Support for Communities Act, legislation he introduced with New York Republican Lee Zeldin, that would enable all communities, regardless of size, to qualify for federal coronavirus relief funding.

The Senate’s counterpoint to the Heroes Act, which is called the HEALS Act, includes no money for states and local governments. But negotiations between the House and Senate are ongoing.

"What we tried to do with the Direct Support Communities Act is devise a formula, partly with my Republican colleague Lee Zeldin, to be sure that whatever the amount of funding is, for state and local, a portion of that will reach every single town, hamlet, village, based on population across the country," Delgado said. "$375 billion is the amount earmarked for local governments in the HEROES Act. Under Delgado’s formula, local relief funding would be split 50/50, half committed to cities, towns and villages, and half committed to counties."

"I have counties in the district that are laying off folks because they don’t have the means to maintain," he told Spectrum News. "We have to support our firefighters, our teachers, our law enforcement, our police officers, our nurses, doctors who work in public hospitals. There is so much that is being provided by way of local government, but they don’t have the resources right now."