FEMA Awards Nearly $20.3 Million in COVID-19 Funding for Missouri

KANSAS CITY, Missouri, Oct. 3 -- The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Federal Emergency Management Agency issued the following news release:

Two Missouri entities have been awarded nearly $20.3 million in grant funding from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help reimburse eligible expenses associated with their respective COVID-19 response efforts.

The Missouri Department of Health and Senior Services (DHSS) is receiving more than $19.1 million and Washington University in St. Louis is receiving more than $1.1 million to help pay for eligible emergency protective measures taken over the last several months because of the coronavirus pandemic.

The grants are from FEMA's Public Assistance Grant Program (PA) and are available because of a major disaster declaration approved for the state of Missouri by President Trump on March 26, 2020.

The Public Assistance Program provides grants at a 75/25-percent cost share to eligible state and local governments, tribal nations and certain non-profit entities to assist with approved costs associated with responding to and recovering from disasters. The federal government pays 75 percent of the approved costs; the remaining 25 percent is paid by the grant recipient.

DHSS' federal grant provides $19,136,982 to help reimburse the costs of providing Personal Protective Equipment (PPE) such as masks, gloves, goggles and gowns for essential workers statewide, and ventilators for patients statewide. The eligible expenses for this project were incurred from January 20 through August 12 and total $25,515,975, of which FEMA is paying 75 percent.

Washington University's grant provides $1,142,425 in federal funding to help reimburse the costs of providing PPE such as gloves, masks, gowns, and hand sanitizer for front-line staff; purchasing medical supplies such as thermometers, cannulas, tape and test kits; paying for disinfection services and supplies, and buying components and supplies to manufacture ventilators and face shields. The eligible expenses for this project were incurred from January 20 through June 6 and total $1,523,234, of which FEMA is paying 75 percent.

Both entities may receive additional FEMA funding under the COVID-19 disaster declaration as more eligible expenses are submitted for review and reimbursement.

In total, more than $471.4 million in FEMA funding has been awarded to the state of Missouri from March 1 through September 30 to help support response efforts associated with COVID-19. This funding includes reimbursement of certain emergency protective measures such as PPE, supplies and testing; money for crisis counseling programs; lost wages payments that extend unemployment benefits for eligible individuals, and costs for the deployment of National Guard members who have been supporting the state's COVID-19 efforts in a variety of ways since April.

Throughout FEMA Region VII, which encompasses the states of Iowa, Kansas, Missouri and Nebraska, more than $1.2 billion in FEMA funding has been obligated since mid-March for the pandemic response.