FEMA Awards Nearly $7.9 Million to the University of Iowa for COVID-19 Response

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

The University of Iowa has been awarded two grants totaling nearly $7.9 million from the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to help reimburse some of the University's expenses associated with its COVID-19 response efforts.

The grants, awarded on behalf of the University of Iowa Hospitals and Clinics, are from FEMA's Public Assistance Grant Program (PA) and help pay for eligible emergency protective measures undertaken in March and April 2020. The funding is authorized under a major disaster declaration approved March 24 for the state of Iowa by President Trump.

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.

The first grant provides $6,429,132 in federal funding to help pay for purchases of Personal Protective Equipment (PPE), medical materials and supplies, and cleaning materials to help prevent COVID-19 spread and treat the disease. The purchases include such items as isolation gowns, masks, face shields, goggles, hand sanitizer, disinfection equipment, COVID-19 testing materials, ventilators, thermometers, and respirators. The eligible expenses for this project total $8,572,176 of which FEMA is paying 75 percent.

The second grant provides $1,463,983 in federal funding, also to help pay for purchases of PPE, medical materials and supplies. Total eligible funding for this grant is $1,951,978, of which FEMA is paying 75 percent.

These grants, paid on behalf of two different departments within the UI Hospitals and Clinics system, mark the first awards of more than $1 million each for the University of Iowa that are associated with the coronavirus pandemic. The University 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 $393.8 million in FEMA funding has been awarded to the state of Iowa 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.