Sen. Tina Smith fighting for the Cares Act

supporting local governments

Minnesota's junior ?s senator tina smith is taking aim to improve the cares act.

Under the cares act only states and bigger units of government received direct aid from the federal government.

The senator says now is the time to take that a step further.

George spoke with senator smith this afternoon.

And katie here's the deal.

As you pointed out, under the cares act direct aid is only provided to units of government overseeing a population of half a million people or more.

Here in minnesota, that means only the state government, hennepin and ramsey counties are receiving direct aid.

Senator smith is pushing to get funding going directly to smaller units of local government.

These are the first responders that are providing emergency response fire fighters,: police officers, teachers school nurses and it seems to me and to many of us here in washington that right now is exactly the time that the federal government should be a good partner with local communities and so that's what we are fighting hard to get done and i'm hoping we'll be able to vote on that soon in the united state's senate.

Smith wants to get that funding going to local governments and make sure the funding can be used to offset lost revenu?

Which obviously there has been a lot of.

The bill that the house recently passed the ?s house has a democratic majority.

The ?

S senate has a republican majority.

So passage in the senate will require bipartisan support.

Tonight at ten, george is talking to smith about reaching across the aisle to gain republican support.