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 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 March 29, 2021.

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 provided data for the program through February 16, 2021. Legislation that was enacted in response to the coronavirus included appropriations of $50 billion for EIDLs, which the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget estimates will be enough to support an estimated $475 billion in loans.

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. This category also includes the targeted EIDL advances, which provides $35 billion worth of grants to businesses in low-income communities. The EIDL grants have been fully dispersed; the SBA has yet to release any data on the targeted EIDL grants.

Economic Impact Payments

The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) has issued direct payments, often referred to as stimulus checks, to help Americans mitigate the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic. The first round of such payments totaled $1,200 per person ($2,400 for married couples) plus $500 per qualified child. As of December 31, the IRS has disbursed about $271 billion in those first-round Economic Impact Payments; the Congressional Budget Office estimates those payments will cost a total of $292 billion through 2021. Stimulus payments sent to Americans living abroad are included in the U.S. Territories category.

The year-end COVID relief bill included a second round of stimulus payments, totaling $600 per person plus $600 per qualified child. The American Rescue Plan included a third round of such payments, totaling $1,400 per person plus $1,400 per eligible child. While the IRS has disbursed $446 billion of those two rounds of payments, the state-level disbursement data is not yet available. Overall, CBO expects the second round of payments will cost $164 billion and the third round will cost $411 billion.

Unemployment Compensation

Federal legislation enacted in response to the COVID-19 pandemic extended unemployment benefits through various programs, all of which are included in this analysis. The total expected cost of each program comes from the Congressional Budget Office. The state-level distribution of spending under each program comes from the U.S. Department of Labor and is updated through March 27, 2021. Below is the methodology for collecting data on each program.

• Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation
  The Federal Pandemic Unemployment Compensation program initially increased unemployment benefits by $600 per week through July 31, 2020. The program has since been reauthorized, although at a lower rate, and will increase such benefits by $300 per week through September 6, 2021. The state-level distribution of spending under that program comes from the U.S. Department of Labor.
  Executive action, issued by President Trump on August 8, 2020, briefly continued some of those benefits but at a lower rate. Those funds, referred to as the lost wages assistance program, were provided through the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) Disaster Relief Fund and are included in the corresponding section below.

• Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation
  TThe 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 apply for such benefits until September 6, 2021.

• 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 50 weeks of unemployment; qualified individuals can apply for such benefits through September 6, 2021.

• Other Emergency Unemployment Funding
  The federal government has provided support for other programs such as emergency relief for governments and non-profits, funding for the first week of regular unemployment compensation, and grants to state unemployment programs.

• Unemployment Provisions under the Response & Relief Act
  The year-end stimulus bill extended the unemployment programs mentioned above through March, 2021. However, an updated cost estimate of each program is not yet available. Therefore, we assume that spending under each program will reach the amount authorized under the CARES Act and the remaining funding will fall under this category. This exception only applies to the ‘Percentage of Funds Disbursed from Major COVID-19 Programs’ table.

Provider Relief Fund

The $178 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 March 31, HHS has committed $148 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 $112 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.

Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund

This fund provides $362 billion of direct federal aid to state, local, tribal, and territorial governments to cover expenditures incurred and revenues lost due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It includes the $10 billion allocated for the Capital Projects Fund for such governments to cover the costs of capital projects like broadband infrastructure. Such funding has not been disbursed yet.

Medicare Accelerated and Advance Payments

Through this program, the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) accelerated Medicare payments to hospitals and advanced payments to physicians and other healthcare providers to mitigate cash flow disruptions during the public health emergency. Those payments are loans that must be paid back and are financed from the Hospital Insurance (Part A) and Supplementary Medical Insurance (Part B) trust funds. To date, a total of $100 billion in such loans have been disbursed. As of October 8, CMS is no longer accepting applications for accelerated or advanced payments as they relate to the COVID-19 pandemic.

HHS COVID-19 Appropriations

These appropriations consist of the awards made by HHS using emergency supplemental funding provided in the COVID-19 relief bills that have been enacted to date. The appropriations are primarily to develop, purchase, administer, process, and analyze tests for COVID-19. The estimate for the total amount authorized was derived by adding all discretionary appropriations for Health and Human Services and subtracting any such funds allocated to the Provider Relief Fund. Data from the American Rescue Plan has not been added to this category.

The state-level distribution estimate for U.S. Territories includes $170 million in awards made to foreign addresses and $6 million marked as ‘Other’. Data reflects spending disbursed as of March 31, 2021.

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 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 and the American Rescue Plan authorized an additional $91 billion to the program to cover costs that were incurred to reduce or eliminate the threat of COVID-19.

Eductional Support

The Education Stabilization Fund was created 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 from the Department of Education Education Stabilization Fund Discretionary Grants are not included since the total amount of such grants is less than $1 billion.

The state-level distribution includes the $122 billion authorized for the ESSER Fund under the American Rescue Plan even though that full amount has not been disbursed (state-level data on how much has been disbursed is not available).

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.

Rental Assistance

The Emergency Rental Assistance program makes available $25 billion to assist households that are unable to pay rent and utilities due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The funds are provided directly to States, U.S. Territories, local governments, and Indian tribes. Grantees use the funds to assist eligible households through existing or newly created rental assistance programs. Eligible households may receive up to 12 months of assistance, plus an additional 3 months if the grantee determines the extra months are needed to ensure housing stability and grantee funds are available.

Funding for the program has been fully disbursed and is available through the U.S. Department of the Treasury.

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.