U.S. District Judge orders Trump Administration distribute COVID-19 Relief Funds

On Monday, June 15, 2020, a U.S. District federal judge ordered Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to finally distribute $679 million in emergency COVID-19 relief funds to Native American tribes. The judge noted these tribes should have received the funds months ago and scolded the Treasury agency for causing “irreparable harm” with its delays.

“Continued delay in the face of an exceptional public health crisis is no longer acceptable,” said U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who gave Secretary Steven Mnuchin until Wednesday, June 17, 2020 to disburse the funds.

According to a Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe press release, they have already received their CARES ACT stimulus package funds.

The judge’s order comes after the Treasury Department ignored deadlines for months, for distributing coronavirus aid to tribal governments when many western Tribes have been hit especially hard by the pandemic. The United States Congress had set aside $8 billion for Tribes when it passed the CARES Act stimulus package in late March and directed the Treasury Department to distribute the funds by April 26. For many tribes, that didn’t happen. The Treasury Department distributed about $4.8 billion in late May, and most of the remaining $3.2 billion wasn’t distributed until last Friday.

The delays have stemmed largely from the Treasury Department’s incompetence in working with tribes as well as a lawsuit by Alaska Native Corporations’ over eligibility and a separate challenge over the agency’s system for calculating how much money each tribe would receive.

Mnuchin had argued that he needed to hold on to the $679 million in the event the Treasury Department loses the case and needs to pay out more money to the tribe claiming it was underpaid. Judge Mehta disagreed saying that $679 million is “grossly disproportionate” to the amount of money that Treasury could have to pay out and the tribe in the case claims it was underpaid by $7.65 million and there is no court order preventing the agency from releasing that money to tribes.

Mehta concluded, Mnuchin needs to release the funds to tribes immediately.

Judge Mehta said, “That amount is being withheld of the Secretary’s own accord. The Secretary’s withholding of $679 million ‘to resolve any potentially adverse decision in litigation’ … simply cannot be justified.”

“The Court is absolutely correct: this administration has and continues to do ‘irreparable harm’ to Indian Country as it inexplicably holds back funds that Congress intended to get to Tribal governments urgently,” Sen. Tom Udall (D-N.M.), vice chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, according to HuffPost in a statement. “It continues to be a shameful scandal that the Trump administration has dawdled with this funding while people in Native communities are getting sick and dying, and while businesses and essential services are shuttering.”

“Sovereign Nations shouldn’t have to fight for money that Congress approves, ever,” Rep. Deb Haaland tweeted. “It’s shameful that a judge has to force the Treasury to do their job.”

According to Huffpost, Judge Mehta did allow Mnuchin to withhold a bit of the tribal funding: $7.65 million, in the event the tribe claiming it was underpaid wins its case, and an undisclosed amount that is reserved for the case involving Alaska Native Corporations.