Speaking before a House committee on Tuesday, acting Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Robert Fenton said that the agency is beginning the process of reimbursing funeral costs for families of COVID-19 victims.
According to FEMA, the Coronavirus Response and Relief Supplemental Appropriations Act of 2021, which was signed into law by then-President Donald Trump in December 2020, set aside $2 billion to reimburse individuals and households for “COVID-19-related funeral expenses incurred between Jan. 20 and Dec. 31, 2020.”
Acting administrator Fenton announced that the agency will launch a toll-free 1-800 number in April 2021 which people can use to apply for benefits. FEMA says more information on that phone line will be available soon.
The program has been slow to roll out as FEMA has been working with incomplete data and striving to avoid fraud.
“We have enough to operate for now,” Fenton said regarding funding, though more funding will come from the American Rescue Plan, which President Joe Biden recently signed into law. “We project those costs to be sufficient through the end of the year, but we will communicate based on needs throughout the United States if that changes.”
“We are working with stakeholder groups to get their input on ways we can best provide this assistance, and to enlist their help with outreach to families and communities,” the agency wrote on its website. “In April, FEMA will implement a funeral assistance program for this assistance.”
Additional guidance is being finalized and will be released to potential applicants and community partners as soon as possible,” FEMA added, before advising Americans to keep and gather documentation on funeral expenses in expectation of the program’s launch.
