COVID-19: Brief Update on Initial Federal Response to the Pandemic. GAO-20-708: Published: Aug 31, 2020. Publicly Released: Aug 31, 2020. “This report updates our oversight of some aspects of the federal response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Findings include: Spending. Federal obligations totaled $1.5 trillion and expenditures totaled $1.3 trillion, as of June 30. Public health. Between January 1 and June 30, about 125,000 more deaths occurred from all causes than would normally be expected—an indicator of the pandemic’s effect on health care outcomes. Actions. Agencies have taken action on some of our June 2020 recommendations. For example, Treasury officials stated that nearly 70 percent of $1.6 billion in economic impact payments sent to the deceased has been recovered [note – no documentation was provided to GAO by Treasury respective to this statement]