Minnesota budget officials detail $76 billion in COVID relief, warn of canceled federal grants and ongoing audits

For the record: Erin Campbell, commissioner of Minnesota Management and Budget, told the House fraud prevention and state oversight committee on April 7 that Minnesota received an estimated $76,000,000,000 in federal COVID-related funds and about $13,000,000,000 of that “went through our state government.”

The presentation to the House committee outlined how flexible federal resources — chiefly the Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) from the CARES Act and the State Fiscal Recovery Fund from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) — were spent, the audits that covered those programs, and recent federal actions that have interrupted some ongoing work. The session included several follow-up questions from members about unobligated balances, potential clawbacks, and how agencies managed one-time funds that created multi‑year obligations.

Minnesota Management and Budget (MMB) staff, led by Commissioner Campbell and Anna Minghe, assistant commissioner and state budget director, identified the five major federal bills that provided pandemic relief and summarized the flows into the state. “FFIS estimates that Minnesota will receive about $76,000,000,000 in federal COVID relief funding,” Minghe said, referring to Federal Funds Information for States. Of that total, she said, roughly $13,000,000,000 came to…