Rankings & leaderboards
Pandemic Programs by Dollars Obligated
The 25 assistance listings that obligated the most COVID-19 supplemental money, out of 529 in the Pandemic Response Accountability Committee's funding table.
How this list is built
The PRAC's agency funding table carries an assistance listing (the CFDA program number and title) on every row. The archive downloaded the file on 18 September 2026. This list groups its 1,482 rows by the assistance-listing number in the file's cfdanumber column, sums the obligated and outlayed columns, and ranks by obligations. The file prints 1,478 different title strings for those 529 numbers, and 975 of the rows carry a title that runs several listings together, so the title is not the unit. Where a listing's titles are all combined ones, the title shown here is the segment of the combined label that carries that listing's number. The awarding-agency column names the agency where one agency accounts for the whole listing, and counts agencies where more than one does.
Unit ranked: the assistance listing, identified by its number. Metric: obligated dollars funded by COVID-19 supplementals. Universe: 529 assistance listings, $2422.74B obligated in total; the 25 below are $2247.31B of it, 92.8 percent. Vintage: PRAC file as downloaded 18 September 2026.
The 25 largest programs
| # | Assistance listing | Awarding agency | Obligated | Outlayed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Paycheck Protection Loan Program (PPP) | Small Business Administration | $811.58B | $811.57B |
| 2 | Education Stabilization Fund | Department of Education | $277.09B | $272.08B |
| 3 | Coronavirus State and Local Fiscal Recovery Funds | Department of the Treasury | $242.72B | $349.76B |
| 4 | HRSA COVID-19 Claims Reimbursement for the Uninsured Program and the COVID-19 Coverage Assistance Fund | Department of Health and Human Services | $167.58B | $167.58B |
| 5 | Coronavirus Relief Fund | Department of the Treasury | $149.84B | $149.86B |
| 6 | Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program | Department of Agriculture | $105.70B | $98.06B |
| 7 | Disaster Grants - Public Assistance (Presidentially Declared Disasters) | Department of Homeland Security | $63.00B | $11.04B |
| 8 | Coronavirus Relief - Pandemic Relief for Aviation Workers | Department of the Treasury | $58.88B | $58.92B |
| 9 | Federal Transit Formula Grants | Department of Transportation | $51.94B | $58.26B |
| 10 | Child Care and Development Block Grant | 2 agencies | $51.88B | $51.24B |
| 11 | Disaster Assistance Loans | Small Business Administration | $44.65B | $44.63B |
| 12 | Pension Plan Termination Insurance | Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation | $35.00B | $34.70B |
| 13 | Restaurant Revitalization Fund | Small Business Administration | $28.53B | $28.53B |
| 14 | Economic Injury Disaster Loan Emergency Advance | Small Business Administration | $27.60B | $27.16B |
| 15 | Airport Improvement Program | Department of Transportation | $19.88B | $19.73B |
| 16 | Centers for Disease Control and Prevention Investigations and Technical Assistance | Department of Health and Human Services | $18.42B | $10.89B |
| 17 | Shuttered Venue Operators Grant Program | Small Business Administration | $14.54B | $14.59B |
| 18 | Presidential Declared Disaster Assistance to Individuals and Households - Other Needs | Department of Homeland Security | $13.94B | $0.10B |
| 19 | Disabilities Prevention | Department of Health and Human Services | $11.56B | $9.37B |
| 20 | Coronavirus Capital Projects Fund | Department of the Treasury | $10.00B | $1.66B |
| 21 | Highway Planning and Construction | 2 agencies | $9.75B | $8.51B |
| 22 | Immunization Research, Demonstration, Public Information and Education Training and Clinical Skills Improvement Projects | Department of Health and Human Services | $9.07B | $6.46B |
| 23 | Emergency Capital Investment Program | Department of the Treasury | $8.57B | $8.57B |
| 24 | Health Center Program (Community Health Centers, Migrant Health Centers, Health Care for the Homeless, and Public Housing Primary Care) | Department of Health and Human Services | $8.05B | $8.13B |
| 25 | National School Lunch Program | Department of Agriculture | $7.52B | $7.52B |
What this measures, and what it does not
An assistance listing is an accounting label, not a program as the public knows it. Umbrella listings hide their own internals: the Paycheck Protection Program is a single row for a program of more than eleven million loans, while relief delivered inside a block grant is invisible under the block grant's name. Titles are reproduced from the file, with only their capitalisation normalised.
Obligations are commitments, not cash paid. Loan guarantees and grants both enter at the amount obligated, so a dollar of guaranteed lending and a dollar of grant rank alike.
Anything USAspending does not carry is absent, including tax-side relief such as the Employee Retention Credit.
Sources
- PRAC, Track the money: data
- File as held:
agency-funding-data.xlsx, the PRAC agency funding table as downloaded 18 September 2026 (sha256 4ae70be9ff6bbfdc…)