BOSTON – The Federal Emergency Management Agency will be sending nearly $5.7 million to the Commonwealth of Massachusetts to reimburse Amherst College for the cost of testing students, faculty and staff during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The $5,682,750 Public Assistance grant will reimburse the private liberal arts college in Amherst for the cost of administering 285,870 tests between July 2020 and February 2022.
“FEMA is pleased to be able to assist Amherst College with these costs,” said FEMA Region 1 Regional Administrator Lori Ehrlich. “Providing resources for our institutions of higher education to combat the COVID-19 pandemic is critical to their success, and to our success as a nation.”
FEMA’s Public Assistance program is an essential source of funding for states and communities recovering from a federally declared disaster or emergency.
So far, FEMA has provided more than $1.2 billion in Public Assistance grants to Massachusetts to reimburse the commonwealth for pandemic-related expenses.