The federal government has issued several important updates of
interest to California counties. Read on for information on
Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce guidance as well as
the much-anticipated guidance on “necessary expenditures”
approved for reimbursement in the CARES act.
Cybersecurity
The federal Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency
(CISA) released a new version of their
Essential Critical Infrastructure Workforce
guidance on April 17. For this third iteration,
CISA reorganized the healthcare and public health section to
include Emergency Medical Services workers and added lawyers and
legal aid workers to the list of essential workers. Version 3.0
also includes a new statement indicating that sick workers should
avoid the workplace and colleagues. Read the guidance
here, and please direct any questions to CISA.CAT@cisa.dhs.gov.
CARES
The US Treasury Department issued much-anticipated CARES Act
guidance for state, local, and tribal governments regarding the
Coronavirus Relief Fund. The document clarifies the requirement
in the bill that funds may only be used for “necessary
expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency.”
As expected, CRF payments may not be used to cover loss revenue.
However, the guidance specifies that payments can be used to
cover expenses of providing paid sick and paid family and medical
leave to public employees. The four-page
guidance document provides several other specific examples of
allowable and unallowable costs. The
frequently asked questions document points out that unspent
funds will need to be returned and that states may transfer funds
to local agencies, along with two other questions. The Department
also included a link to their
general information page specific to the CRF.
