WASHINGTON, DC, Oct. 31, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — The American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 (ARPA) includes a condition to a tax cut ban that requires states receiving federal bailouts to relinquish their ability to cut state taxes. This attempt by Congress to usurp state legislative powers violates fundamental provisions of the US Constitution that define and limit legislation at the federal level. The New Civil Liberties Alliance, a nonpartisan, nonprofit civil rights group, submitted a motion amicus curiae meager today in State of Texas, et al. v. Janet Yellen, et al.argues against the federal tax cut ban because it places constraint on spending, orders government officials in violation of the Tenth Amendment, and attacks a core component of state sovereignty that precedes the Constitution.

ARPA authorizes direct distribution of approximately $195 billion to states to provide financial assistance to address economic disruption caused by the Covid-19 pandemic. The funds in question represent 13 percent of Texas’ 2021 budget, 31 percent of Mississippi’s budget, and 7 percent of Louisiana’s budget. These funds are only available if a recipient state agrees not to enact laws or regulations that would reduce state taxes. After Congress passed ARPA enforcement legislation, it unconstitutionally delegated authority to the US Treasury Department, which in turn issued a final rule on January 27, 2022 purporting to implement the tax cut ban. A state must consult the Treasury Department’s rule to test any policy decision or risk reclaiming bailout funds. But without full state control over tax and spending policies, the constitutional guarantee of dual sovereignty is doomed to morph into a mother-may-do relationship between subservient states and the federal government.

Because money is fungible any ARPA funds received by the Claimant States could be considered indirectly compensatory any Reduction in net tax revenue through an amendment to the state law …