LITTLE ROCK – The steering committee that Governor Asa Hutchinson created to recommend the best use of federal aid during the COVID-19 pandemic will utilize ZOOM technology in order to achieve social distancing when it meets for the first time at 4 p.m. today, the Governor announced.
The $2 trillion Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act, which President Trump signed on March 27, is a federal relief package designed to blunt the economic damage of the COVID-19 pandemic. The act will provide direct economic assistance to American workers, families, and small businesses.
Governor Hutchinson also announced today that Arkansas Medicaid Inspector General Elizabeth Smith will chair the fifteen-member Arkansas CARES Act Steering Committee, and Arkansas Surgeon General Greg Bledsoe will be vice-chair.
“The members of this committee have committed to determine the most pressing needs of the state and to recommend a plan to best deploy the federal assistance,” Governor Hutchinson said. “We are only beginning to understand the long-term effects of this pandemic. I am grateful for their willingness to lend their time and wisdom to tackle this unprecedented challenge without the benefit of a roadmap that is based on a similar event in our history.”
The fifteen members Governor Hutchinson appointed to the committee include six members of the General Assembly.
