New York may have temporarily dodged a federal government shutdown but there’s still a gigantic policy hole where laws, rules and regulations around migration and the border should exist.

Capital Tonight discussed the needs of county governments and what they hope to see from the Biden administration with Stephen Acquario, executive director of NYSAC, the New York State Association of Counties. 

One idea? Reconfiguring a federal program that already exists: the Impact Aid law, which was created under Title VII of the Elementary and Secondary Education Act of 1965.  

The funding “was initially intended to support local school districts with heavy concentrations of children who reside on Indian lands, military bases and other federal properties."  

Acquario intends to ask U.S. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer to expand the program to include migrants. 

“The Congress needs to act, and we are asking the Congress …to create a program or expand a program called Impact Aid. It’s done right now for the Department of Defense,” he said. “We need to tweak that language and add a new formula for the impact on the local governments from the migrant crisis.”

Acquario describes the current impact on counties as a human services issue affecting both housing and education. 

While municipalities are constitutionally obligated to educate school-age migrant children, Acquario argues that the education of migrant children should be paid for by the United States government. 

“Local taxpayers will be paying for the school and education costs of children; that should be the responsibility of the United States,” he said.