We're on a mission to find out who got
what in pandemic relief money and how it impacted them.
So we dropped six pins across the country and
took a closer look.
In our latest report, we set out to learn how much money six randomly selected communities received in pandemic relief funds. This is the first phase of a larger project - the second phase will be looking at how those communities actually used the money and what their experience was like using those federal funds.
 What we know:
The PRAC Oversight Team (made up of 10 federal watchdogs) identified that their federal agencies provided $2.65 billion in pandemic relief funds through 89 programs to six communities between March 2020 and September 2021. These communities are each unique, consisting of mid-sized cities, rural counties, and Native American reservations in different parts of the country. Here are some snapshots of what some of them received:
-
823 individuals and businesses in White Earth Nation Reservation in Minnesota received more than $12.5 million in PPP loans. 💰
- Rural health clinics in Sheridan County, Nebraska, received nearly $300,000 to support COVID-19 testing and mitigation efforts. 🩺
- 14 restaurants in Coeur d’Alene, Idaho, received $827,000 in Restaurant Revitalization Fund grants. 🍔
What challenges did we face?
Data was sometimes difficult to find or unavailable. We had to use data sources that the public can’t access. One of our partners had to access five internal databases to determine the recipients in a single program.
There were some programs where we don't know how much money was either obligated or spent. For example, one partner couldn’t determine how much money had been spent by recipients in Springfield, MA for three programs run by the Department of Housing & Urban Development.
We call these types of issues data gaps. They’re not a new problem and they can make it hard for you to track federal spending, not just pandemic relief. And you’ll likely find them across the country in any community.
Why it matters:
If we don't know where the money went, how do we know if the programs
it funded had an impact? And how can we hold decision makers accountable?
We're the experts, and we had difficulty tracking the funds. This means the public and Congress may also struggle to understand the full amount of aid provided to their communities.
Read the full report to learn more about the six locations.
P.S. It also has a handy primer to get you caught up to speed on the challenges we faced following pandemic funds.
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