Akbari to serve on panel overseeing COVID-19 funds
State Sen. Raumesh Akbari will serve on a panel overseeing spending billions of dollars in federal funds coming to Tennessee as part of the COVID-19 crisis response.
“There are two main priorities for these federal COVID-19 dollars - do as much as we can to save lives and invest the rest in the health, safety and financial stability of families so they can make it through this pandemic and weather this economic fallout,” Akbari said.
The state is slated to receive $2.7 billion from the federal government’s $2 trillion rescue package, and much of that money is slated to go straight to Memphis and Nashville, according to Stuart McWhorter, director of the governor’s COVID-19 Unified Command.
Raumesh Akbari
About $1.4 billion to $1.5 billion will be “specific for the state,” said McWhorter, who spoke to state legislators in a weekly phone call to which The Daily Memphian gained access.
Akbari, a Memphis Democrat, will serve on the pandemic finance accountability group with Gov. Bill Lee; Lt. Gov. Randy McNally; House Speaker Cameron Sexton; state Sen. Bo Watson, Republican chairman of the Senate Finance Committee; state Rep. Harold Love, a Nashville Democrat; state Rep. Pat Marsh, a Shelbyville Republican; Comptroller Justin Wilson and Acting Finance & Administration Commissioner Eugene Neubert.
The group will set priorities for spending and allocating all of the relief and stimulus funds coming in from the federal government, McWhorter said.
“We just wanted to take a proactive stance in terms of putting this group together, so that all the information is made available and there’s transparency and good communication through this process,” McWhorter said.
Lee told lawmakers during the weekly call the state is making a “nonstop effort” to stem the spread of the virus, which has 4,138 confirmed cases, including about 840 in Shelby County and 888 in Davidson County.
About 408 people are hospitalized, and 72 people have died from COVID-19.
Nevertheless, models are showing the disease’s peak impact on the state in terms of deaths and the impact on hospitals might not be as dire as predicted a week ago.
“We’re very encouraged with the direction things are headed,” Lee told lawmakers.
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Raumesh Akbari Gov. Bill LeeSam Stockard
Sam Stockard is a Nashville-based reporter with more than 30 years of journalism experience as a writer, editor and columnist covering the state Legislature and Tennessee politics for The Daily Memphian.
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