Legislature Meeting Amid ‘Animosity’ Over COVID Relief Cash

Alabama lawmakers are meeting for the final day of the legislative session amid a continuing dispute with Gov. Kay Ivey over how to use the state’s $1.8 billion in federal coronavirus relief funds. Lawmakers will decide whether to accept, or reject, Ivey’s executive amendment on a spending bill to broadly detail how all the COVID-19 funds should be used.

The Republican governor and Republican-controlled Legislature have been in a tug-of-war over the funds.

As of Monday, more than 12,000 people in the state had tested positive for COVID-19 and about 480 people statewide had died.

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