This brief explores how states propose using American Rescue Plan Act funds to bolster the workforce that provides home- and community-based services (HCBS), including increasing reimbursement rates, providing new opportunities for professional advancement, and offering recruitment and retention incentives. The COVID-19 pandemic has exacerbated existing shortages in behavioral health and long-term care. States are leveraging an enhanced matching opportunity made available through the American Rescue Plan Act to address—and potentially reverse—this shortage.