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House Speaker McCutcheon: ‘Still working on’ possibility of special session within the regular session

It has been widely speculated Gov. Kay Ivey would call a special session during this year’s regular session to deal with American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds.

Monday, during an appearance on Alabama Public Television’s “Capitol Journal,” House Speaker Mac McCutcheon (R-Monrovia) addressed that possibility.

McCutcheon told host Todd Stacy there were ongoing discussions with Ivey about how to proceed. He also emphasized a desire not to mix this year’s two budgets with any allocation of ARPA money.

“Well, we’re still working on that,” he said. “As a matter of fact, this week, we’re going to sit down again with the Governor. And we’ve had a couple of meetings with the Governor — the leadership in the Senate and the House. And we’re going to meet again this week with the Governor and try to make a decision on how we’re going to approach it.”

“I think it is an issue that we do not need to confuse the ARPA funding with the budgeting process,” McCutcheon continued. “That’s a very delicate issue there because the ARPA funds are one-time revenue coming in. We do not want it to become a part of a budget line item that is a continuing expense. And so, we’ve got to be very careful on how we approach it.”

“And there are so many needs in this state that we want to make sure we address the things that we need to spend it on,” he added.

@Jeff_Poor is a graduate of Auburn University and the University of South Alabama, the editor of Breitbart TV, a columnist for Mobile’s Lagniappe Weekly, and host of Mobile’s “The Jeff Poor Show” from 9 a.m.-12 p.m. on FM Talk 106.5.

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