CARES Act, Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF)

Under the CARES Act, the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) is to be used to make payments for specified uses to states and local governments.

CRF Qualifying Costs

In order to qualify for CRF, the expense request must satisfy these three items:

1) Necessary expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 public health emergency;

2) Costs not accounted for in the most recently approved budget as of March 27, 2020; and

3) Costs were incurred between March 1, 2020 and December 30, 2020.

Eligible Spend Examples

FEMA eligible expenditures may include:

• personal protective equipment,
• COVID testing,
• overtime for staff working in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, or
• sanitization supplies or cleanings in excess of routine purchases.

CRF eligible expenditures may include:

• regular pay and benefits costs for employees who are substantially dedicated to COVID-19 mitigation,
• costs associated with purchasing or deploying equipment to enable telework or online instruction as part of social distancing, or
• increased risk pool or health care costs associated with pandemic response.