Political | Process

Education, health care and disaster relief are among the areas where the government has underspent the funds, according to a reports.

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• It can often take time for the total pot of funds to make its way to the American people, budget experts say.

• That’s because government agencies such as the Small Business Administration and the Department of Labor go through a process of legally committing to a portion of allotted funding, which is known as “obligating.” They then start to actually spend it. 

• The $500 billion or so in available relief resources that have not been obligated may not end up being spent by agencies.

• There are deadlines for making these commitments and they could span years. The details also vary by program.

• Funds that are not eventually obligated are returned for other government uses.

• What agencies can commit to spending may differ from the initial estimates put forth in bills, or they may just plan to use the funds over a long-term period, said Kristen Kociolek, a director with the U.S. Government Accountability Office’s financial management and assurance team.

• A Congressional Budget Office estimate of outlays from March 2021′s nearly $2 trillion American Rescue Plan, for example, shows 40% of total spending is set to take place between 2022 and 2030. 

• Education, health care, and disaster relief are among the areas where the government has underspent its obligated funds, according to a CNBC analysis of Treasury data compiled by the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee, or PRAC.

• The agency was created as part of the March 2020 CARES Act to support oversight of pandemic relief spending.

SOURCE: CNBC