In 2021, a $4 billion spending plan was signed to support continued recovery across key priority areas, making substantial investments in housing and homeownership, healthcare, workforce development, premium pay for essential workers, and infrastructure. The funding, first proposed in June of 2021, will put to work a portion of the Commonwealth’s direct federal aid from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
Within this legislation, there are 130 legislative earmarks appropriated either directly to the Executive Office of Health and Human Services (EOHHS) or to our agencies. Funding of these earmarks is being prioritized, and to ensure the funds are being released swiftly and to the appropriate parties, organizations earmarked in the legislation should visit the the Executive Office of Administration and Finance's ARPA Bill Earmarks page and complete the instruction there.
Approximate timeline of an earmark release/payment to individual entities
- EOHHS will prepare and send the named entity the Commonwealth’s Standard Contract Form (1-2 weeks)
- Named entity reviews, signs, and returns the Commonwealth’s Standard Contract Form (2-3 weeks dependent on named entity’s timely return of valid information)
- EOHHS reviews, signs, and processes Commonwealth’s Standard Contract Form (2 weeks)
- Named Entity submits invoice for amount of earmark (2 weeks)
- EOHHS issues payment (1 week)
- Entity receives the payment 45 days after the payment is entered into the Commonwealth’s accounting system unless the entity is enrolled in the Comptroller’s Prompt Payment program.
The estimated time of processing an earmark is between 8-16 weeks, and is dependent upon organizations providing timely and accurate information to EOHHS staff.
Note: if the named entity in the earmark is not already established as a state vendor on the state accounting system, additional paperwork will be required and that could add two weeks to the timeline.