GFOA Testifies on Municipal Liquidity Facility

On September 17, GFOA President Marion Gee, Finance Director of the St. Louis Metropolitan Sewer District, and Pat McCoy, a past president of GFOA and current Director of Finance of the New York MTA, testified before the Congressional Oversight Commission (COC). The COC is charged with overseeing how the U.S. Treasury and the Federal Reserve (FED) are utilizing specific taxpayer funds to provide economic stability as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The purpose of the hearing was to examine the Municipal Liquidity Facility (MLF) established by the FED pursuant to Section 4003(b)(4) of the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

The MLF is intended to support the FED’s efforts to provide emergency liquidity to states and localities facing severe uncertainties as a result of the economic crisis driven by the pandemic. GFOA has engaged the Fed throughout the last few months to offer recommendations on how the MLF might be enhanced to better serve public issuers as they continue to face fiscal challenges due to the ongoing pandemic response. The GFOA witnesses will focus their comments on some of those recommendations, including expanding direct access to the facility for a broader, diverse pool of issuers, and implementing other changes to make the MLF a more practical option for public issuers facing fiscal challenges.