Money from the first Covid relief fund established by Congress may be on its way to American taxpayers.
One government department says there's more than $1 billion that was earmarked to be spent from March 2020 appropriations of the federal budget, called the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act, but some states have not met the standards for spending that are specified in the Act, according to U.S. Department of Labor Secretary Lori Chavez-DeRemer on Monday.
"About $4.3 billion was intended for states to use for temporary unemployment insurance during the pandemic, but instead, several states continued spending millions of dollars despite no longer meeting necessary requirements, which was uncovered in a 2023 audit conducted by the department’s Office of Inspector General."
Chavez-DrRemer said $1.4 billion in unspent COVID funds are going to be "returned to taxpayers through the U.S. Department of Treasury’s General Fund" saying that action is "being taken to recover the remaining $2.9 billion."
The money was originally intended to help unemployed Americans get through the pandemic, but distribution of the money was stopped in 2021; however, an audit two years later "found four states were allowed to access the funding ‘despite not meeting program requirements,’ totaling over $100 million in spending," according to a news release.
In a statement from Deputy Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling, he said it's "unacceptable that billions of dollars went unchecked in a program that ended several years ago. In a huge win for the American taxpayer, we’ve clawed back these unused funds and will keep working to eliminate waste, fraud, and abuse."