Fact Check: Is There Over $1 Trillion in Unspent COVID-19 Relief Funds?

Reports from the Government Accountability Office (GAO) and the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget's (CRFB) Covid Money Tracker say that over $1 trillion of federal COVID-19 pandemic relief funds have not yet been spent. Republican lawmakers, conservatives and some media outlets have closely tracked unspent funds over the course of the pandemic as the U.S. government has passed multiple trillion-dollar relief packages.

Limited coverage of the $1 trillion claim has differed significantly along partisan lines. In February, Politifact (Lean Left bias) described the notion as a "top Republican talking point" and as "oversimplifying the status of the funds," and pointed to a Jan. 27 CRFB blog post that said some of the relief money "is already allocated or scheduled to be spent, and a small portion will never be spent." A Fox Business (Lean Right) report published Monday framed the GAO report in the context of current Democratic-led efforts to advance $3.5 trillion budget reconciliation legislation, and mentioned that the government's 2021 deficit to date is roughly $2.2 trillion. Other outlets, such as the Wall Street Journal (Center), reported as early as last August on billions of unspent COVID-19 relief dollars.