Covid State Aid Limits Unenforceably Vague, Sixth Cir. Says (1)

The federal government’s limits on how the states may use $195 billion in Covid pandemic aid are too vague to be enforced, a federal appeals court ruled Friday.

“Clarity is demanded whenever Congress legislates through the spending power,” the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit ruled in an opinion Judge John K. Bush. “Yet clarity is just what the Offset Provision lacks.”

Several Republican-led states have challenged the American Rescue Plan Act’s “offset provision,” which bars states from using the federal money to either directly or indirectly offset a reduction in net tax revenue.