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States, eligible local governments, Tribal governments, the District of Columbia and U.S. Territories who received funding from the $150 billion Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) must report on how they are spending the money.

In order to get pandemic relief funding out the door quickly, federal agencies are primarily using new and existing federal contracts and financial assistance awards to distribute the money. Do you know the difference? Here are the details.

Motorcoach, school bus, passenger vessel, and pilotage companies impacted by the pandemic are eligible to receive up to $2 billion in grants under the Coronavirus Economic Relief for Transportation Services (CERTS).

The Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) was a new Small Business Administration (SBA) loan program created by the CARES Act to help small businesses keep their workers on payroll. The program provided a total of $798.7 billion to 11.7 million businesses, keeping around 90 million jobs on payroll.

When the pandemic hit, broadband access became crucial for keeping Americans safe and connected. Households relied heavily on home internet for online school, work, and medical appointments. The sudden shift highlighted the glaring inequality in home internet availability to underserved communities.

More than 11.5 million Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) loans were issued as of October 2, 2022, with 649 borrowers receiving the maximum loan amount of $10 million.

With high unemployment, shortages of goods and services, and unprecedented funding in government programs, the global pandemic caused by COVID-19 created an environment ripe for fraud. The rapid rate of distributing funding for pandemic-related programs weakened or completely stopped many controls designed to prevent fraud.

The $350 billion Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund (SLFRF) included in the American Rescue Plan provides direct payments to eligible state, local, territory, and Tribal governments for local pandemic response efforts. These payments are in addition to the $150 billion distributed in March 2020 from the CARES Act.

Each state manages and funds its own unemployment benefits program according to federal guidelines.

In short, prime recipients receive money directly from the federal government. The prime recipients may then pay some of the money they received to other entities for goods or services. These entities are sub-recipients.