American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA)

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On March 11, 2021, President Biden signed the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) into law. It

provides $1.9 trillion in federal stimulus funds to individuals and communities. It is a historic

opportunity to recover from the COVID-19 pandemic and to make progress in advancing

economic mobility in all communities. It is also the largest-ever investment of federal dollars to

build state and local government capacity to use data and evidence to meet key outcomes.

The Biden Administration has signaled that it wants state and local governments to use all

the tools available to make better decisions and maximize the impact from their $350 billion

in ARPA funds. The Administration has provided signiﬁcant ﬂexibility, as well as the guidance

and tools necessary, to invest in what works through ground-breaking executive orders,

memorandum, U.S. Treasury Department interim guidance on State and Local Fiscal Recovery

Fund use, as well as compliance and reporting guidance.

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1. BUILD DATA & EVIDENCE CAPACITY

Authorizes local, state, and tribal governments to use their ARPA funds

to build and strengthen their data- and evidence-capacity.

2. USE DATA AND EVIDENCE

Encourages local, state, and tribal governments to invest their ARPA

funds in evidence-based solutions backed by strong, moderate or

preliminary evidence.

3. INVEST IN EVALUATION

Requires local, state, and tribal governments to identify if projects are

being evaluated through rigorous program evaluation that are designed

to build evidence.

4. ENGAGE COMMUNITIES

Encourages local, state, and tribal governments to seek and incorporate

diverse community feedback from constituents, community based

organizations, and the communities themselves in planning efforts.

5. ENSURE EQUITABLE OUTCOMES

Directs local, state, and tribal governments to develop and pursue

equitable outcomes that prioritize economic and racial equity.

State and local governments should leverage the following ﬁve

important provisions in the ARPA guidance to advance economic

recovery, economic mobility, and racial equity.

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1. BUILD DATA & EVIDENCE CAPACITY

ARPA authorizes local, state, and tribal governments to use their ARPA funds to build

and strengthen their data- and evidence-capacity.

•

Invest and build capacity by hiring data and evidence staff and teams, create

infrastructure to better leverage data and evidence for procurement and decision-

making.

•

Consider replicating, adopting, and scaling the leading and promising examples of

government evidence and data capacity efforts in Results for America’s Local, State, and

Federal Standards of Excellence.

IMPLEMENTATION TIPS

Results for America’s local, state, and federal government standards of excellence have identiﬁed

the following leading and promising data and evidence efforts that cities, counties, and states

should consider undertaking with their ARPA funds.

Evidence/Data Staff Leadership

City Certiﬁed Example (Mesa), City Certiﬁed Example (San Francisco), State Examples (Data Leadership:

CT), State Examples (Evaluation Leadership: TN), Federal Examples (Leadership)

Research and Evaluation

State Examples (Evaluation Policies: KY), Federal Examples (Research and Evaluation)

Resources for Evaluation

State Examples (Evaluation Resources: MN), Federal Examples (Resources)

Performance Management/Continuous Improvement

City Certiﬁed Example (Cambridge), City Certiﬁed Example (Cincinnati), State Examples (Performance

Management: MN), Federal Examples (Performance Management)

Data

Budgeting for Equity (Austin and Philadelphia), City Certiﬁed Example (South Bend), State Examples (Data

Policies: OH), State Examples (Data Use: IN), Federal Examples (Data)

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Innovation

City Certiﬁed Example (Tulsa), State Examples (Innovation: CA), Federal Examples (Innovation)

Common Evidence Standards

State Examples (Evidence Deﬁnition: NM), Federal Examples (Common Evidence Standards)

Performance-Based/Evidence-Based Budgeting

Tax Incentives Local Examples (Indianapolis, IN and Pittsburgh, PA), City Certiﬁed Example (Boston), State

Examples (Evidence Deﬁnition: NM), State Examples (Cost-Beneﬁt Analysis), State Examples (Outcome

Data: CO)

Use of Evidence in Competitive Grant Programs

State Examples (Use of Evidence in Grant Programs: NV), State Examples (Contracting for Outcomes: RI),

Federal Examples (Use of Evidence in Competitive Grant Programs)

Use of Evidence in Non-Competitive Grant Programs

State Examples: (Use of Evidence in Grant Programs: NV), State Examples (Contacting for Outcomes: NV),

Federal Examples (Use of Evidence in Non-Competitive Grant Programs)

Repurpose for Results

Local Example (Budgeting for Equity: Toledo, OH), State Examples (Repurpose for Results: PA), State

Examples (Cost-Beneﬁt Analysis: WA), Federal Examples (Repurpose for Results)

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2. USE DATA & EVIDENCE

ARPA encourages local, state, and tribal governments to invest their ARPA funds in evidence-

based solutions backed by strong, moderate or preliminary evidence including the speciﬁc

dollar spending allocated to evidence-based investments in their Recovery Plans.

•

Implement evidence-based interventions identiﬁed by clearinghouses, such as Results

for America’s Economic Mobility Catalog.

•

Leverage results-based contracts to deliver better results and engage communities.

•

Deﬁne and prioritize evidence in grants and contracts.

•

Report spending on evidence-based interventions in Recovery Plan.

IMPLEMENTATION TIPS

The ARPA Reporting and Compliance Guidance deﬁnes three tiers of evidence:

STRONG

Strong evidence means the evidence base that can support causal conclusions for the speciﬁc

program proposed by the applicant with the highest level of conﬁdence.

This consists of one or more well-designed and well-implemented experimental studies

conducted on the proposed program with positive ﬁndings on one or more intended outcomes.

MODERATE

Moderate evidence means that there is a reasonably developed evidence base that can support

causal conclusions.

The evidence base consists of one or more quasi-experimental studies with positive ﬁndings on

one or more intended outcomes or two or more non-experimental studies with positive ﬁndings

on one or more intended outcomes. Examples of research that meet the standards include: well-

designed and well-implemented quasi- experimental studies that compare outcomes between

the group receiving the intervention and a matched comparison group (i.e., a similar population that

does not receive the intervention).

PRELIMINARY

Preliminary evidence means that the evidence base can support conclusions about the program’s

contribution to observed outcomes.

The evidence base consists of at least one non-experimental study. A study that demonstrates

improvement in program beneﬁciaries over time on one or more intended outcomes or an

implementation (process evaluation) study used to learn and improve program operations would

constitute preliminary evidence. Examples of research that meet the standards include: (1) outcome

studies that track program beneﬁciaries through a service pipeline and measure beneﬁciaries’

responses at the end of the program; and (2) pre-and post-test research that determines whether

beneﬁciaries have improved on an intended outcome.

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USE DATA & EVIDENCE

• Education & youth development

• Health & well-being

• Workforce development

• Justice & public safety

• Housing

• Community development & ﬁnancial security

Results for America’s Economic Mobility Catalog can help state and local governments invest

ARPA funds in evidence-based, results-driven solutions in the following issue areas:

Rhode Island Department

of Children, Youth, and

Families

Massachusetts Social Innovation

Financing Trust Fund

New York Ofﬁce of

Temporary and Disability

Assistance

Tennessee Department of

Children’s Services

Washington Department of

Children, Youth, and Families

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3. INVEST IN EVALUATION

Local, state, and tribal governments must identify if projects are being evaluated

through rigorous program evaluation that are designed to build evidence. They are

exempt from reporting on evidence-based interventions where a program evaluation

is being conducted. For evidence-based interventions implemented, recipients must

report on required performance indicators and programmatic data.

•

Invest in evaluations or other evidence-building activities to understand impact of

programs or innovations and have the information needed to make future decisions.

•

Collaborate with a diverse set of researchers, research institutions, and other

organizations to conduct evaluations.

•

Collect, publicly report, and leverage required performance indicators and

programmatic data to support evaluation, including nationally mandated evaluations

conducted by the Treasury.

•

Engage residents and communities in crafting a learning or research questions.

IMPLEMENTATION TIPS

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4. ENGAGE COMMUNITIES

Encourages local, state, and tribal governments to seek and incorporate diverse

community feedback from constituents, community based organizations, and the

communities themselves in planning efforts.

•

Use opportunities outlined in guidance to strengthen partnerships between

community-based organizations and government to collaboratively identify and work

towards key equitable outcomes for families and communities.

•

Use inclusive processes that provide meaningful engagement opportunities in

implementation, especially for communities of color when decisions are being made

that affect them.

•

Support grantees, evaluators, and service providers from or representing communities

of color by providing technical assistance where necessary in order to reduce barriers

to participation.

IMPLEMENTATION TIPS

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5. ENSURE EQUITABLE OUTCOMES

Directs local, state, and tribal governments to develop and pursue equitable

outcomes that prioritize economic and racial equity.

Recognizing the disproportionate impact of the pandemic-related recession on low-

income communities, recipients must report whether certain types of projects are

targeted to economically disadvantaged communities, as deﬁned by HUD’s Qualiﬁed

Census Tract.

•

Use data and evaluation to maximize programmatic impact and track whether or not

programs are focused on closing gaps, reaching universal levels of service.

•

Disaggregate data by race, ethnicity, and other equity dimensions to track equality of

impact of funds.

•

Prioritize racial equity in Recovery Plans and analyze the impact of investments in terms

of impact on racial equity.

IMPLEMENTATION TIPS