WASHINGTON—The U.S. Treasury on Monday launched access to $350 billion in COVID-19 aid for state, local, tribal, and territorial governments, but 30 states with faster-recovering employment are likely to see their funds split into two payments a year apart.
Some 20 states and the District of Columbia will be able to receive all of their funds as soon as this month because their unemployment rates are now more than two percentage points above levels in February 2020 before the pandemic prompted widespread U.S. lockdowns, a Reuters review of Bureau of Labor Statistics state unemployment data showed. The rule was clarified in new guidance from Treasury released on Monday.
