U.S. mass transit providers and airport sponsors collectively spent another $2.6 billion of their $35 billion in special COVID-19 aid in August, according to new reporting from the Office of Management and Budget at usaspending.gov. The $35 billion was appropriated by the CARES Act in March 2020. An additional $9.9 billion of the money had been spent prior to August, and this leaves $22.5 billion unspent as of August 31.

(Meanwhile, all major passenger airlines had spent the entirety of their CARES Act payroll support grants by July 31.)

Transit. As of August 31, mass transit providers had spent 41 percent ($10.2 billion) of the $25.0 billion CARES Act appropriation, but there is a world of difference between the spending rates of large providers versus smaller providers.

The 35 biggest providers (the transit agencies that got CARES grants of $100 million or more) collectively received $15.2 billion under CARES, and as of August 31 they had spent $8.4 billion of that total, or 55 percent.

All of the other mass transit providers in the U.S. (and there are thousands of them) are collectively entitled to $9.7 billion from the CARES Act, but as of August 31, only $7.7 billion of that had been claimed ($2.0 billion was still unobligated). Of that overall total, only $1.9 billion had been spent by August 31, meaning that only 19 percent of the funding for transit providers outside the top 35 had been spent by that point.

Even among the 35 largest providers, there are wide disparities in the spending rates. The New York City, Houston, and Santa Clara providers spent 100 percent of their CARES Act money by August 31. Los Angeles (L.A. Metro), Seattle (King County), Cleveland and Austin had each spent over 80 percent of their money by that date.

New York City is far and away the largest U.S. transit provider. But New Jersey Transit, just across the river, is second, and as of August 31, they had only spent 34 percent of their CARES grant, just like the third-largest provider (WMATA) had only spent 35 percent. Other providers (Maryland statewide, Minneapolis, San Diego, Phoenix, Florida statewide, Sacramento) had spent less than ten percent of their CARES funding by August 31.

Many providers may have plans to use their CARES grants at a steady pace throughout fiscal year 2021.

The overall spendout rate for the account as of August 31 was 41 percent.

Airports. The distinction between large airports and smaller airports is not as noticeable in the spending rate for the $10 billion in CARES Act airport grants, but it’s still there. The 20 largest airport sponsors collectively received 43 percent of the $10 billion ($4.3 billion), and as of August 31 they had spent $1.3 billion, or 30 percent of their total awards.

The rest of the nation’s airport sponsors are collectively entitled to $5.7 billion from the CARES Act, and as of August 31, they had only laid claim to $4.6 billion of that (obligations), and they had only actually spent $908 million, or 16 percent of their total grant awards.

After a slow start, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey (sponsor of the major NYC-area airports) spent half of their CARES award, which accounts for over one-third of the total CARES airport spending recorded in August. But it is important to remember that many large airports intend to spend their CARES money on debt service, so that spending has to wait until the scheduled due dates for interest and debt payments.

The overall spendout rate for the account as of August 31 was 22 percent.