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INSIGHTi

COVID-19: Resources for Tracking Federal
Spending
Updated June 8, 2020
Congress has responded to the Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic with various legislation
providing relief to individuals and families, state and local governments, businesses, health care
providers, and other entities.
This CRS Insight provides information on selected sources for tracking COVID-19 relief funding
provided through these bills.
For general information on resources for tracking federal funds, see CRS Report R44027, Tracking
Federal Awards: USAspending.gov and Other Data Sources, by Jennifer Teefy.

Consolidated Data on COVID-19 Federal Funding
USAspending.gov
According to an Office of Management and Budget memorandum (April 10, 2020), there are plans to
identify COVID-19-related federal awards linked to specific funding legislation in the Treasury database
USAspending.gov, beginning with the June 2020 reporting period. USAspending.gov tracks federal
contract and grant awards and other federal spending at the state, congressional district, and local levels.
For more information, see CRS In Focus IF10231, Tracking Federal Awards in States and Congressional
Districts Using USAspending.gov, by Jennifer Teefy.

Pandemic Response Accountability Committee
The Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC), a new federal entity created by the CARES
Act (P.L. 116-136)—one of the funding bills referenced above—is to publish COVID-19 federal
assistance, grant, and contract awards data at state and congressional district levels as it becomes
available. The PRAC website is integrated with the Council of Inspectors General on Integrity and
Efficiency’s (CIGIE’s) website, the oversight and coordination body for the federal inspector general
community. For more information, see CRS Insight IN11343, The Pandemic Response Accountability
Committee: Organization and Duties, by Ben Wilhelm.
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The following sources may also assist congressional offices with tracking COVID-19 relief funding by
type of recipient.

State and Local Governments
Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF)
The CRF provides $150 billion in direct assistance to state, territorial, local, and tribal governments based
on population. For more information, see CRS Report R46298, The Coronavirus Relief Fund (CARES
Act, Title V): Background and State and Local Allocations, by Grant A. Driessen. For specific allocations
to states, see Table 1.

State and Local Government Offices
State and local budget offices may also be resources for information related to COVID-19 spending;
publicly available information may vary widely from one jurisdiction to another.

Small Businesses
The Small Business Administration (SBA) periodically publishes reports and data on its programs,
including data on approved loans for programs supporting disaster assistance and recovery:
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Economic Injury Disaster Loans (EIDL). SBA provides data on the number and
amounts of approved EIDL loans by state and publishes separate data on EIDL Advances
by state (known as Emergency EIDL grants).
Paycheck Protection Program (PPP). SBA provides the total number and amounts of
approved PPP loans by state.

For information on programs supporting small businesses that are administered from other federal
agencies, see CRS Insight IN11301, Small Businesses and COVID-19: Relief and Assistance Resources,
by Maria Kreiser.

Medium and Large Businesses
Treasury Department
Treasury’s Payroll Support Program provides payroll support to passenger air carriers, cargo air carriers,
and certain contractors for continuing payment of employee wages, salaries, and benefits. Treasury
provides data tables on payments to recipients by city and state. The location provided is the address
participants include in their applications and may not include all locations in which a recipient operates.
Another Treasury program provides loans to passenger air carriers, cargo air carriers, and businesses
critical to national security. As of this report’s date, data on these loans have not been made publicly
available.

Federal Reserve (Fed)
The CARES Act makes funds available to the Fed to provide emergency funding, credit, liquidity, and
loans to businesses. The Fed announced on April 23, 2020, that it will be disclosing, on a monthly basis,
“substantial amounts of information” on borrowers, loan amounts, and interest rates.

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For information on these Treasury- and Fed-facilitated business assistance programs, see CRS Report
R46329, Treasury and Federal Reserve Financial Assistance in Title IV of the CARES Act (P.L. 116-136),
coordinated by Andrew P. Scott; and CRS Insight IN11368, Larger Businesses and COVID-19: Financial
Relief and Assistance Resources, by Julie Jennings and Justin Murray.

Individuals
Economic Impact Payments
The CARES Act includes economic impact payments for individuals and families. Treasury and the
Internal Revenue Service provide data on these payments by state through periodic news releases; as of
this report’s date, the latest release was on May 22, 2020. For more information, see CRS Insight
IN11282, COVID-19 and Direct Payments to Individuals: Summary of the 2020 Recovery
Rebates/Economic Impact Payments in the CARES Act (P.L. 116-136), by Margot L. Crandall-Hollick.

Grant Awards on Selected Federal Agency Websites
Several agencies provide information on COVID-19-related grant awards:

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS)
HHS provides details on COVID-19-related grant awards on its website and allows for filtering by state
and city. Each award in the table under the heading “COVID-19 Award Details For Emergency
Supplemental Appropriation Funding” is linked to one of the funding bills referenced above.

Department of Homeland Security, Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)
FEMA announced information in mid-May about obligations to each state, including data on FEMAcoordinated delivery of medical and personal protective equipment.

Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD)
HUD provides information on CARES Act funding at the state, county, and city levels for the Community
Development Block Program, the Emergency Solutions Grants program, and the Housing Opportunities
for Persons with AIDS Program.

Department of Justice (DOJ)
DOJ’s Office of Justice Programs provides information on awards by state/territory, county, and
congressional district. Many of the recent awards have either “COVID-19” or “coronavirus” in the title.

Department of Labor (DOL)
DOL provides information on approved funding from Disaster Recovery Dislocated Worker Grants, by
recipient state agency. DOL’s Employment and Training Administration announces workforce-related
grant awards via press releases.

National Science Foundation (NSF)
Search NSF’s awards database for the keywords “covid” or “coronavirus” to identify COVID-19-related
awards. Filtering by state is also available.

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Other Resources
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The Committee for a Responsible Budget’s COVID Money Tracker will reportedly
feature papers, blogs, spreadsheets, data visualizations, and an interactive database for
tracking funds.
The Project on Government Oversight (POGO) has announced plans to launch a COVID19 relief spending tracker.
The Rockefeller Institute of Government’s COVID-19 State Relief Dashboard is an
interactive tool for viewing state allocation data for programs such as CRF and PPP.
Federal Funds Information for States (FFIS) is a subscription-only service that attempts
to track federal funding to states—including funding from the COVID-19 relief bills.
Many state governments subscribe to this resource. Information is limited for
nonsubscribers.

Author Information
Jennifer Teefy
Senior Research Librarian

Maria Kreiser
Senior Research Librarian

Disclaimer
This document was prepared by the Congressional Research Service (CRS). CRS serves as nonpartisan shared staff
to congressional committees and Members of Congress. It operates solely at the behest of and under the direction of
Congress. Information in a CRS Report should not be relied upon for purposes other than public understanding of
information that has been provided by CRS to Members of Congress in connection with CRS’s institutional role.
CRS Reports, as a work of the United States Government, are not subject to copyright protection in the United
States. Any CRS Report may be reproduced and distributed in its entirety without permission from CRS. However,
as a CRS Report may include copyrighted images or material from a third party, you may need to obtain the
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IN11407 · VERSION 3 · UPDATED