The U.S. Department of Labor on Friday announced it has awarded $49 million in grants to support 28 states and territories to assist with fighting fraud in two federal pandemic relief programs. The agency made the awards, including $1,785,000 to Iowa, from $100 million in funding announced on Jan. 15 for states to combat fraud in the Pandemic Unemployment Assistance and Pandemic Emergency Unemployment Compensation programs. Iowa is among 28 states and territories that were first to apply. The funding will assist them with administrative expenses incurred from implementing the federal identity verification requirement for the PUA program and assist with enhancing existing identity verification tools and procedures. Iowa also received $1,785,000 of funding in September 2020 as part of $100 million in grants made to states and territories for this purpose.