The US Customs and Border Protection (CBP), which is managing the tariff refund process, has already withdrawn about $14 billion more in May than in all of April, a clear indication that the quantity of checks going out to importers is heating up rapidly.

Tracking data from the US Treasury Department shows that, as of May 20, the CPB has withdrawn about $17 billion in operating cash, a major jump over the $3 billion for all of April.

At this pace, tariff refunds could exceed tariff revenue by the time the month is out. The US collected $22.12 billion in duties in all of April.

May’s data so far doesn’t give a detailed breakdown, but the vast majority of these additional withdrawals are earmarked for refunds for duties collected under the International Emergency Economic Powers Act of 1977. Those tariffs were declared illegal in February by the Supreme Court, and the refunds are now being disbursed to businesses.

The apparent surge of IEEPA refunds has also catapulted CPB into one of the government’s biggest spenders for May — on par with traditionally much larger areas like payments for the Medicare prescription drug program.

Checks headed out to businesses

A heavy truck manufacturer and a toymaker were the first to receive refunds earlier this month.

Jay Foreman, CEO of toymaker Basic Fun, first said the refunds were “trickling out” but followed up with a May 15 appearance on Yahoo Finance, where he said the refund process was working and expressed optimism that he’d receive his full refunds within 90 days.

“I feel pretty good about it,” he said.

The refunds have then been broadening out, with more companies receiving checks and others, like Walmart (WMT), making plans for how to spend them. The retail giant said it planned to prioritize price cuts.

Businesses have been navigating a four-step refund process since an online portal opened last month.

The checks are going to the businesses for now, but some funds may eventually be passed along to consumers. At least 17 lawsuits have been filed against companies, including FedEx (FDX), Costco (COST), and UPS (UPS), by consumers.

A new class action lawsuit filed just this past week against Amazon (AMZN) said the company owes its customers “hundreds of millions of dollars in unlawful tariff costs.”

President Trump, meanwhile, isn’t happy that refunds are being paid out but appears resigned to it.

During a recent event at the White House, the president again called the Supreme Court’s decision terrible but said, “We’re going to most likely have to pay back $149 billion.”

An official at the CPB pegged the total tariffs that will eventually be eligible for refunds even higher, saying in a recent court filing that an estimated $166 billion in tariffs, plus interest, could eventually be paid out.