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Sen. John Cornyn Says States Will Get More Time To Spend Coronavirus Relief Funds

John Cornyn
Hannah Mckay
/
Associated Press
Sen. John Cornyn, R-Texas, arrives to attend a Senate Judiciary Committee hearing on Facebook and Twitter's actions around the closely contested election on Tuesday, Nov. 17, 2020, in Washington.

Texas Senator John Cornyn said Friday that federal lawmakers have come to an agreement on about 80% of a new coronavirus relief bill, and included in that 80% is allowing Texas and other states more time to spend the relief money they received earlier this year.

Texas has about $2 billion left to spend out of its Coronavirus Relief Funds, awarded in the CARES Act. Counties and cities of over 500,000 people that received their own allocations will also have their deadline extended.

“I have not seen the final text - we’re still awaiting that - but my understanding is it will be extended,” said Cornyn on a conference call with reporters. “I don’t know what [the] extension date is, but it will no longer be December the 31 of this year.”

The relief package isn’t done, however, and likely depends on Congress passing an omnibus spending deal as well.

Cornyn expects the new round of COVID-19 relief to include direct payments of $600 to some people and extended federal unemployment benefits of $300 a week.

Got a tip? Email Bret Jaspers at bjaspers@kera.org. You can follow Bret on Twitter @bretjaspers.

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Bret Jaspers is a reporter for KERA. His stories have aired nationally on the BBC, NPR’s newsmagazines, and APM’s Marketplace. He collaborated on the series Cash Flows, which won a 2020 Sigma Delta Chi award for Radio Investigative Reporting. He's a member of Actors' Equity, the professional stage actors union.