COVID Money Tracker Launches to Enhance Transparency

For Immediate Release

Congress has already approved more than $2 trillion in fiscal measures to deal with the unprecedented economic and public health crisis caused by the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic, the Federal Reserve has announced trillions of dollars of loans and other extraordinary measures, and it is extremely likely further action will be taken. To promote transparency and accountability, the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget has launched the COVID Money Tracker, which will trace all significant financial actions taken by Congress, the Federal Reserve, and executive agencies and entities. Below is a statement from Maya MacGuineas, president of the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget:

Policymakers are spending and lending an extraordinary amount of money fighting the global pandemic and economic downturn. This money needs to make its way into the economy fast, but that doesn’t mean it should be spent in secret or without adequate oversight.

The COVID Money Tracker will track and make public data and information about the new and expanded benefit programs, cash payments, grants, loans, tax cuts, equity purchases, and other measures to provide the kind of transparency that helps create accountability. The project will feature a state-of-the-art interactive database, as well as a series of papers, blogs, infographics, data visualizations, and other resources. Today we published our first piece in this effort, itemizing the major policies enacted to date along with preliminary figures on how much has been disbursed for each initiative.

During the last recession, we tracked fiscal and monetary actions through Stimulus.org. COVID Money Tracker will provide a similar service, offering policymakers, journalists, researchers, and others a one-stop shop to monitor each dollar as it is disbursed or paid back.

In a crisis like this, actions to rescue the economy must not only be timely, targeted, and temporary, but also implemented in a responsible and transparent manner. We hope this project will help to promote these goals.

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For more information, please contact John Buhl, director of media relations, at buhl@crfb.org. 

See our latest analysis at https://www.COVIDMoneyTracker.org