Today, Michael E. Horowitz, Chair of the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee (PRAC) announced the public release of an updated dataset of Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) spending by states, eligible local governments, Tribal governments, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories. This CRF dataset is only available on PandemicOversight.gov and includes CRF funds spent March 1 through December 31, 2020.
About the CRF Data
PandemicOversight.gov includes the following data and features related to the CRF:
- Cumulative data from 659 prime recipients for the period March 1, 2020 – December 31, 2020.
- These 659 prime recipients received a total of $149 billion and awarded $124.1 billion to 69,532 sub-recipients.
Data Limitations
This dataset lends more transparency to CRF spending but there are some limitations, including:
- 101 prime recipients have either not reported, or have submitted data that was not in accordance with Treasury Office of Inspector General (OIG) guidelines.
- Our data visualizations display prime recipient data for Tribal governments but the funds the Tribal governments distributed to sub-recipients is not yet publicly available.
Background
The CRF was established in March 2020 as part of the CARES Act. The U.S. Department of the Treasury made $150 billion in Coronavirus Relief Funds available to states, eligible local governments, Tribal governments, the District of Columbia, and the U.S. Territories (“prime recipients”). Under the CARES Act, 785 prime recipients received Coronavirus Relief Funds, however, only the 760 recipients that received over $150,000 in CRF are required to report on their spending.
Prime recipients distributed payment to sub-recipients through contracts, grants, loans, transfers to other governments, and direct payments. Sub-recipients may include educational institutions, non-profits, businesses, or health care providers, among others.
Reporting
The CARES Act gave the Treasury OIG the responsibility to monitor CRF funds and request the return of any funds that are not spent for allowable purposes. To carry out its oversight responsibilities, the Treasury OIG requires prime recipients to submit quarterly reports detailing how the prime recipients and their sub-recipients are spending the money. Those reports power the visualizations that are now posted on the PRAC’s website, PandemicOversight.gov. The pandemic relief legislation enacted on December 27, 2020 extended the deadline for CRF expenditures to be incurred to December 31, 2021.
The next dataset to be added to Pandemicoversight.gov will be for the period January 1-March 31, 2021 for all prime recipients required to report.
For details on the CRF data on pandemicoversight.gov, visit our Frequently Asked Questions. For more information about CRF and prime recipient reporting visit the U.S. Department of the Treasury.
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The PRAC was established by the CARES Act to promote transparency and support independent oversight of the funds provided by the CARES Act and other related emergency spending bills. In addition to its coordination and oversight responsibilities, the PRAC is tasked with supporting efforts to “prevent and detect fraud, waste, abuse, and mismanagement [and] mitigate major risks that cut across program and agency boundaries.”
If you have additional questions, please contact Lisa Reijula at lisa.reijula@cigie.gov