Mayor Mike Duggan is issuing the following statement on today's City Council approval of the administration's American Rescue Plan Act proposal:

Today, City Council approved a plan to appropriate $826 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds so we can begin putting those dollars to use to improve the lives of Detroiters and our neighborhoods.

I want to thank Council President Brenda Jones and Councilmember Janee Ayers for their leadership and the rest of the council for moving forward on this once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for our residents.

Jay Rising, Tanya Stoudemire, Steve Watson, and the city’s finance department deserve enormous credit for their professionalism during this process. I know they will provide outstanding stewardship of these funds.

President Biden and our congressional delegation gave us this extraordinary opportunity to invest in the city.  Since I presented the original framework plan in May, we held 63 community meetings with more than 3,300 residents participating. Our citizens’ input and ideas resulted in the much more complete plan approved by Council today.

Ray Solomon and Erinn Harris from the Department of Neighborhoods and more than a dozen city cabinet officers led one of the largest community engagement efforts we’ve seen.

Detroit’s future is much brighter today because of that engagement.