In March the Legislature passed EHB 2965, which appropriated $175 million from the disaster response account (originally from the rainy day fund) and $25 million from the general fund–federal (GFF) for COVID-19 response. The federal funds have been exhausted, and $2.5 million remains of the disaster response account (DRA) funds.

Most recently, the state distributed $1.7 million to the Secretary of State as matching funds for a federal grant the state received “to prevent, prepare for, and respond to coronavirus, domestically or internationally, for the 2020 federal election cycle.” (A list of all the distributions is here.)

The chart shows where the funds (from both the DRA and GFF) have gone.

Additionally, under the federal CARES Act, the state of Washington received $2.167 billion in relief funds. The state had already announced that it would allocate $297 million of that to local governments. According to the Office of Financial Management, three other distributions of these federal funds have now been made:

• $25.0 million for the University of Washington “to pay for the costs incurred by the University of Washington Medicine for testing equipment, staff and supplies associated with the state’s response to the coronavirus outbreak in Washington.” (UW Medicine also received $31.9 million from the EHB 2965 funds for similar purposes.)
• $15.3 million for the Department of Social and Health Services (DSHS) “to pay for nursing home beds to isolate residents who have tested positive for COVID-19.”
• $51.0 million for the Department of Agriculture “to purchase food and food distribution supplies for food banks and other non-profit organizations.” (The Dept. of Agriculture also received $10 million for this purpose from EHB 2965 funds.)

This leaves $1.779 billion of the federal funds to be allocated. The Senate Republican Caucus has argued that the Legislature should convene a special session in June in part so that the Legislature can be more involved in directing these allocations. In the meantime, the Senate Ways & Means Committee will have a work session on June 9 to hear from OFM about “federal financial stimulus funds.”