NASHVILLE – Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee on Thursday criticized the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan Act of 2021, signed into law earlier in the day by President Joe Biden, with the Republican governor saying the country “didn’t need it.”
The governor is also objecting to a distribution formula change that will result in $160 million less aid for Tennessee than the distribution model used in prior coronavirus and economic relief packages that have been approved.
“We are about to get a $2 trillion federal package that in my view the country doesn’t need,” Lee said. “That won’t be rolled back, right? So that’s going to institute a whole level of new financial input from the federal government and all the strings that come attached to that.”
Lee’s remarks came at an event sponsored by the Beacon Center, Americans for Prosperity-Tennessee and the Millennial Debt Foundation headed by Weston Wamp of Chattanooga.
Also appearing were two former Tennessee governors, Republican Bill Haslam and Democrat Phil Bredesen. Wamp is heading an ongoing “Stewardship Series” on focusing on the national debt and other issues.