Ocasio-Cortez, Schumer announce federal COVID-19 fund to help families pay for funerals

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) announced Monday that funds will soon be available for families struggling to pay funeral costs after losing a loved one to COVID-19. 

The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) is operating the $2 billion dollar fund across the country, reimbursing families up to $7,000 for funeral expenses, the New York Democrats said. 

“In the December COVID bill that passed, there is $2 billion, I am happy to say, to help people who are victims of COVID and do not have the dollars on their own to pay for the funeral and burial of loved ones,” Schumer said Monday alongside Ocasio-Cortez in the New York City borough of Queens.

The program is retroactive and currently includes funerals that took place from Jan. 20, 2020 through Dec. 31, 2020. The lawmakers will seek to extend eligibility for the program through the end of the pandemic in the next COVID-19 relief bill.   

“When you suddenly lose a loved one, you’re talking about an expense of [up to] $10,000, and then during COVID, with overrun funeral facilities, et cetera, families also are having to deal with having to pay for the storage of the bodies of their own loved ones,” Ocasio-Cortez said. “This is wrong.” 

“I lost my dad when I was about 18 years old. And the funeral expenses haunted and followed my family, along with many other families in a similar position, for years,” she added.

It’s official. If you’ve lost a loved one due to COVID-19, you will soon be able to get reimbursed up to $7,000 for the expenses of laying a loved one to rest.

Proud and thankful to have gotten this done with @SenSchumer, @voceslatinasQNY, @Elmcor, & @HispanicFed. https://t.co/wiS03dp4W4

— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) February 8, 2021

Families will be required to apply for the funding and provide documentation of funeral expenses in addition to a death certificate showing that their family member died from COVID-19.

Ocasio-Cortez said Monday that the funds will be available for undocumented immigrant families.

An application for the program is not currently active, CBS New York reported, but should be within the next couple of months.

The FEMA program is similar to funds that were made available for families following Hurricane Sandy in 2012.