How Much Coronavirus Funding Has Gone to Your State?

Below is a description of the methodology used for compiling and collecting state-level data for certain programs that provide federal funding in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. This appendix includes a brief definition of each program, an indication of where the data came from, when the data was collected, and any data caveats.

Paycheck Protection Program

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) provides $670 billion worth of federally backed loans in an effort to incentivize small businesses to maintain their payroll during the crisis; those loans will be forgiven if used for certain expenses such as payroll, rent, or utilities.

The data comes from the Small Business Association (SBA), the agency that administers the program, and is updated through August 8 — when the program closed.

Emergency Injury Disaster Loans and Loan Advances

Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL) are small, low-interest loans with options for principal and interest deferment. EIDLs are designed to provide economic relief to businesses that are currently experiencing a temporary loss of revenue; the loans can be used to cover working capital and normal operating expenses such as payroll costs, pay for sick leave, and debt-service costs. The SBA has provided data for the program through August 24. Legislation that was enacted in response to the coronavirus included appropriations of $50 billion for EIDLs, which Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) has said would be enough to support an estimated $300 billion in loans. That figure is used as an estimate for the total amount authorized for the program and is consistent with a subsidy rate of about 17 percent.

Economic Injury Disaster Loan Advances, also referred to as EIDL grants, provide up to $10,000 of economic relief to qualified small businesses and agricultural businesses that faced economic injury because of the pandemic. Unlike the loans, EIDL advances do not have to be repaid. The SBA reports that EIDL advances have been fully disbursed as of July 15.

Economic Impact Payments

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued direct payments, often referred to as stimulus checks and usually totaling $1,200 for individuals and $2,400 for married couples, to help Americans mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The Congressional Budget Office estimates those payments will cost a total of $281 billion through 2021.

As of August 28, the IRS has disbursed about $269 billion in Economic Impact Payments. Stimulus payments sent to Americans living abroad are included in the U.S. Territories category.

Unemployment Compensation

The Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act extended unemployment benefits through three programs, all of which are included in this analysis. The total expected cost of each program comes from the Congressional Budget Office. Below is the methodology for collecting data on each program.

• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation
  The Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program increased unemployment benefits by $600 per week. The state-level distribution of spending under that program comes from the U.S. Department of Labor and reflects spending since the program expired on July 31.
  Executive action, issued by the President on August 8, has continued some of those benefits but at a lower rate. Those funds, referred to as the lost wages assistance program, are provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund and are included in the corresponding section below.

• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation
  The Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation program provides up to 13 additional weeks of unemployment benefits to people who have exhausted their regular unemployment benefits. Qualified individuals can receive such benefits until the end of December 2020.
  The state-level distribution of spending under that program comes from the U.S. Department of Labor and reflect spending as of September 5.

• Pandemic Unemployment Assistance
  The Pandemic Unemployment Assistance program expands eligibility for unemployment benefits to people who are not usually eligible for regular unemployment compensation — such as self-employed workers, independent contractors, and individuals without sufficient work history. The program provides benefits for up to 39 weeks of unemployment beginning on or after January 27, 2020 and ending on or before December 31, 2020.
  The state-level distribution of spending under that program comes from the U.S. Department of Labor and reflect spending as of October 17.

Provider Relief Fund

The $175 billion Provider Relief Fund, administered by the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), distributes direct payments to hospitals and other healthcare providers on the front lines of the coronavirus response. As of October 19, HHS has committed $144 billion of that funding. However, state-level disbursements for the program are only made public once healthcare providers have attested to receiving one or more payments and have agreed to the program’s terms and conditions, of which they have 90 days to do so. Such disbursements reflect about $91 billion of program spending.

Coronavirus Relief Fund

The Coronavirus Relief Fund consists of $150 billion in direct federal aid to governments in states, territories, and tribal areas to cover expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Data for states and territories is from the Department of the Treasury; those funds sum to $142 billion and have been fully disbursed. That state-level data does not match the total amount disbursed to date, which includes $8 billion to tribal governments, the majority of which has also been disbursed.

HHS COVID-19 Appropriations

These appropriations consist of the awards made by HHS using emergency supplemental funding provided in the Coronavirus Preparedness and Response Supplemental Appropriations Act, 2020, the Families First Coronavirus Response Act, the CARES Act, and the Paycheck Protection Program and Health Care Enhancement Act. The appropriations are primarily to develop, purchase, administer, process, and analyze tests for COVID-19.

The $60 billion estimate for total authorized spending was derived in the following way:
• Adding all discretionary appropriations in the four major pieces of COVID-19 legislation noted above that were categorized under the “Labor, Health and Human Services, Education” appropriations subcommittee in the Congressional Budget Office’s cost estimate of each bill.
• Subtracting out the appropriations that were allocated for the Provider Relief Fund (which were also categorized under that subcommittee).

The state-level distribution estimate for U.S. Territories includes $118 million in awards made to foreign addresses and $5 million marked as ‘Other’. Data reflects spending disbursed as of October 7.

FEMA Disaster Relief Fund

Managed by the FEMA the Disaster Relief Fund is the primary source of funding for the federal government’s domestic general disaster relief programs. To supplement the amount appropriated to the fund before the onset of the pandemic, the CARES Act authorized an additional $45 billion to the program to cover costs that were incurred to reduce or eliminate the threat of COVID-19.

State-level distribution of such data comes from FEMA's monthly report to Congress on the activities and spending under the fund and reflects spending as of September 30. However, that data also includes funding disbursed for the lost wages assistance program as FEMA’s report combines the funding provided under each program.

Eductional Support

The CARES Act authorized the created of the Education Stabilization Fund, which was enacted to provide support to states, schools, and institutes of higher education in response to coronavirus. That fund consists of four grant programs: Education Stabilization Fund Discretionary Grants, Governor’s Emergency Education Relief (GEER) Fund, Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief (ESSER) Fund, and Higher Education Emergency Relief (HEER) Fund. This analysis uses data through June 16 from the Department of Education and only includes the GEER and ESSER funds. Education Stabilization Fund Discretionary Grants are not included since the total amount of such grants is less than $1 billion. The HEER Fund, which provides funding to institutions to provide emergency financial aid grants to students whose lives have been disrupted, was not included in this analysis due to a data limitation on the amount that has been disbursed (as opposed to allocated) to date.

The ESSER Fund provides funding to local educational agencies, including charter schools, to address the impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had, and continues to have, on elementary and secondary schools. The GEER Fund provides support to local educational agencies and institutions of higher education within each state that are most significantly impacted by COVID-19.

Infrastructure Grants

The CARES Act provided $25 billion in infrastructure grants to transit agencies to help them prevent, prepare for, and respond to the COVID-19 pandemic. The Federal Transit Administration, which is overseeing such grants, will support capital, operating, and other expenses. Those grants include nearly $22.7 billion for urbanized areas, $2.2 billion for rural areas, and $30 million for public transportation on Indian reservations.

State-level disbursement data for the infrastructure grants does not include $75 million allocated to the Federal Transit Administration for administration and oversight; state-level data therefore does not match the total amount disbursed to date.

U.S. Territories

U.S. Territories includes American Samoa, Guam, Puerto Rico, Northern Mariana Islands, and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Included in this category is any U.S. coronavirus funding that was allocated to sovereign nations that have free association with the United States such as the Republic of the Marshall Islands, the Republic of Palau, and the Federal States of Micronesia. The programs included in this analysis do not necessarily provide funding to all U.S. territories.