The DOI received 

$909.7 million 

under the CARES Act to 

respond to impacts from 

COVID-19: 

 $453 million for the Bureau

of Indian Affairs (BIA)

 $157.4 million for DOI

operations (Office of the

Secretary (OS))*

 $69 million for the Bureau of

Indian Education (BIE)

o $153.7 million for the BIE

transferred from the

U.S. Department of Education

 $55 million for the Office of

Insular Affairs (OIA)

 $12 million for the Bureau of

Reclamation (BOR)–water

resources

 $8.1 million for the BOR–

policy and administration

 $1 million for the Office of

Inspector General (OIG)

 $500,000 for the BOR –

Central Utah Project

Completion Act (CUPCA)

* The OS transferred funds to the U.S.

Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS), National

Park Service (NPS), Bureau of Land

Management (BLM), and Office of

Wildland Fire (OWF). Figure 1 includes a

breakdown of the transferred funds.

OFFICE OF 

INSPECTOR GENERAL 

U.S.DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR 

CARES Act Flash Report 

September 2020: Where’s the Money? 

DOI CARES Act Funds as of September 30, 2020 

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, 

Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). To date, the CARES Act 

has provided the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) with $909.7 million, 

which includes direct apportionments of $756 million to support the needs 

of DOI programs, bureaus, Indian Country, and the Insular Areas, and a 

$153.7 million transfer from the U.S. Department of Education (ED) to the 

BIE. This report includes the DOI’s progress as of September 30, 2020 

(see Figure 1), a new highlighted vendor, and updated information on the 

DOI’s accomplishment of CARES Act milestones (see page 3). 

Figure 1: Funding Status as of September 30, 2020 

Business Appropriation/ Expenditures Obligations 

Area Transfer ($) To Date ($) To Date ($) 

BIA 453,000,000 380,193,483 420,174,126 

(83.9%) (92.8%) 

OS* 144,480,000 902,572 2,066,896 

(0.6%) (1.4%) 

FWS 3,585,000 961,638 1,332,135 

(26.8%) (37.2%) 

NPS 5,317,000 1,469,212 1,858,108 

(27.6%) (34.9%) 

BLM 3,753,000 884,560 1,388,362 

(23.6%) (37.0%) 

OWF 265,000 0 241,460 

(0%) (91.1%) 

BIE 69,000,000 55,085,348 60,063,118 

(79.8%) (87.0%) 

BIE (ED) 153,750,000 97,328,890 121,320,851 

(63.3%) (78.9%) 

OIA 55,000,000 2,783,932 42,627,375 

(5.1%) (77.5%) 

BOR (Water) 12,000,000 4,986,461 5,078,463 

(41.6%) (42.3%) 

BOR (Policy) 8,100,000 1,688,993 1,688,993 

(20.9%) (20.9%) 

OIG 1,000,000 623,002 623,002 

(62.3%) (62.3%) 

BOR 500,000 0 27,507 

(CUPCA) (0%) (5.5%) 

Totals $909,750,000 $546,908,092 

(60.1%) 

$658,490,397 

(72.4%) 

CARES Act Flash Report • No. 2020-FIN-072 • Issued October 27, 2020 1 
 

 

 

 

-

Top 5 Recipients 

 Navajo Nation Tribal

Government ($12,577,400)

 Government of Guam

($12,039,565)

 Mississippi Band of Choctaw

Indians ($9,553,410)

 Cherokee Nation

($9,131,601)

 Government of the U.S. Virgin

Islands ($7,863,776)

Example CARES Act Program 

The Commonwealth of the Northern 

Mariana Islands (CNMI) developed an 

expenditure plan that outlines how it 

will use its $36 million in CARES Act 

relief funds for healthcare and 

community response to the pandemic. 

The overall expenditure plan includes 

procuring supplies (such as COVID 19 

tests and personal protective 

equipment) and capital assets (such as 

ventilators and portable x rays). The 

plan also estimates using $1.5 million 

for the construction of the Medical Care 

and Treatment Site, $10 million to 

support first responders, and about 

$1.2 million for assorted related 

expenses, such as communication and 

travel costs associated with procuring 

supplies. The OIA provided $4 million 

of the $36 million in CARES Act funds. 

As of July 2020, it approved the 

CNMI’s use of $2.5 million for various 

projects, which are largely for hospital 

renovations. 

Details on Award Types 

DOI programs and bureaus have made funds available via contracts and 

grants/financial assistance awards (see Figure 2). 

Figure 2: Award Types Used as of September 30, 2020 

Total Percentage of 

Award Type Value ($) Total Value 

Grant/financial assistance 

award 608,480,028 92.4

Contracts and supplies 26,242,410 4.0 

Other (e.g., equipment, 

personnel) 23,767,959 3.6

Totals $658,490,397 100%

COVID-19 vs. CARES Act Expenditures 

As of September 30, 2020, CARES Act charge card expenditures totaled 

$4.2 million, and COVID-19-related purchases (not charged to CARES Act 

funds) totaled $11.4 million (see Figure 3). The DOI may make future 

adjustments to some of these COVID-19 expenditures to reflect the use of 

CARES Act funds as more transactions are reviewed for proper 

classification. 

Figure 3: Charge Card Purchase Amounts as of September 30, 2020 

Bureau CARES Act ($) COVID-19 ($) Total ($) 

BIA 1,583,968 3,633,851 5,217,819

BLM 556,357 1,682,009 2,238,365

BOR 852,380 8,316 860,696

FWS 235,333 1,165,816 1,401,149

NPS 932,359 4,146,292 5,078,651

Other* 0 781,944 781,944

Totals $4,160,398 $11,418,227 $15,578,625

* This includes departmental offices, the Bureau of Ocean Energy

Management, the Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement, the Office

of Surface Mining Reclamation and Enforcement, and the U.S. Geological

Survey.

Highlighted Vendor – Regency Consulting, Inc. 

Using CARES Act appropriations and transferred ED funds, the BIA and 

BIE have issued more than 85 contracts and modifications totaling $8 million 

to Regency Consulting, Inc., an Indian small business economic enterprise. 

The contracts are for Regency to provide more than 9,000 Chromebook and 

Dell Latitude 5410/5511 Touch laptops, as well as monitors and docking 

stations, to tribal schools. The two schools receiving the most laptops are 

Tuba City Boarding School (a BIE-operated school receiving 1,000 laptops) 

and Cheyenne Eagle-Butte School (a Cheyenne River Sioux tribally operated 

school receiving 810 laptops). All laptops will be delivered to the schools by 

October 30, 2020. 

CARES Act Flash Report • No. 2020-FIN-072 • Issued October 27, 2020 2 
 

Significant Milestones 

The CARES Act requires agencies 

to submit reports by certain 

deadlines, and the U.S. Office of 

Management and Budget (OMB) 

provided further clarification on 

the reporting requirements in its 

Memorandum M-20-21, 

Implementation Guidance for 

Supplemental Funding Provided 

in Response to the Coronavirus 

Disease 2019 (COVID-19), 

issued April 10, 2020. We are 

monitoring these DOI 

milestones. 

Completed Milestones 

 

Due and completed on June 9: 

The DOI assessed and adjusted 

existing reporting and audit 

deadlines and considered how to 

balance existing statutory and 

regulatory compliance 

requirements with the new 

workload associated with the 

COVID-19 crisis. 

Due June 25, completed July 16: 

Not later than 90 days after 

enactment of the CARES Act, the 

DOI was to submit to the 

Pandemic Response 

Accountability Committee 

(PRAC) a plan describing how 

the covered funds will be spent. 

Ongoing Milestones 

April 10† Effective the date of OMB Memorandum M-20-21, the DOI must 

identify, track, and anticipate reporting charge card spending related to 

COVID-19. These charge card transactions must use “COVID” as an 

identifier. As of September 30, we have identified $11,418,227 in 

charge card transactions with the COVID identifier. 

April 26 By this date, the Secretary of the Treasury must consult with the Secretary 

of the Interior and Indian tribes about payments totaling $8 billion to 

tribes. Several tribes, including three in Alaska, argued that the allotment 

is not meant for for-profit corporations and should exclusively support 

tribal governments. On April 2 and April 9, Treasury and the DOI 

consulted with more than 3,000 representatives from Indian Country and 

Alaska Native villages. On May 5, the Secretary of the Treasury and 

Secretary of the Interior issued a statement on the path forward for funds 

to tribes, making $4.8 billion available to tribal governments in all States. 

A U.S. District Court ruled that Alaska Native corporations (ANCs) are 

eligible to receive CARES Act funds, but a July 7 injunction prevented the 

ANCs from receiving the funds while tribal nations appealed the ruling. 

On September 25, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit held 

that ANCs are not eligible for funding under Title V of the CARES 

Act. 

June 30 Starting with the June 2020 reporting period through September 30, 2021, 

the Deputy Secretary or the Chief Operating Officer must review quarterly 

the progress made on program performance under the CARES Act. The 

Deputy Secretary will conduct quarterly reviews on performance goals 

and is also informed in near real time on various performance 

developments. On August 11, the Acting Assistant Secretary for Policy, 

Management and Budget issued a memo to heads of bureaus and offices 

regarding CARES Act Quarterly Output/Outcome Reporting Guidance. 

Assistant Secretaries were to turn in bureau reports by August 24. The 

last bureau report was received on September 2, and the quarterly 

status review was held on September 3. The fourth quarter bureau 

reports are due on October 16. 

Reporting Milestones Accomplished by Submitting Data 

to USASpending.gov and Pandemic.oversight.gov 

June 30 The DOI must report monthly to the OMB, the U.S. Department of the 

Treasury, the PRAC, and the appropriate congressional committees on any 

obligation or expenditure of large covered funds, starting with the June 

2020 reporting period through September 30, 2021. Large covered funds 

are any funds made available in any form (e.g., via grant, cooperative 

agreement, contract, loan, loan guarantee, award or other mechanism) that 

exceed $150,000. The DOI continues to meet this monthly 

requirement. 

July 10 Not later than 10 days after the end of each calendar quarter, each 

recipient of large covered funds shall submit a report on use of the funds 

to the DOI and the PRAC. The DOI has met this requirement for the 

first quarter. 

July 21 The DOI must submit Digital Accountability and Transparency Act 

(DATA Act) files A, B, and C monthly instead of quarterly, starting with 

the June reporting period. These submissions must be certified by the 

DATA Act Senior Accountable Official or Financial Representative 

Designee for COVID-19-related funding. The DOI certifying official for 

the monthly DATA Act file submissions is the Financial Business 

Management System Business Integration Office Director. The DOI 

continues to meet this monthly requirement. 

July 30 Not later than 30 days after the end of each calendar quarter, the PRAC in 

consultation with the DOI must make the reports by covered recipients 

† All dates publicly available. The DOI has met the requirement for the first 

2020 quarter. 

CARES Act Flash Report • No. 2020-FIN-072 • Issued October 27, 2020 3