emergency brake

Tribal governments were supposed to get $8 billion in direct emergency relief from the CARES Act, the $2 trillion COVID-19 stimulus bill that became law on March 27.

More than a month later, they haven’t gotten any of it.

Part of the reason is that the Treasury Department, which is charged with distributing that money, has been flailing in its dealings with tribes.

Another reason stems from a lawsuit over whether Alaska Native Corporations are entitled to the money. A federal court on Monday agreed to stop funds from going to those corporations for now, which means Treasury has no reason to not funnel money immediately to the 574 federally recognized tribal governments struggling with the public health and economic fallout from the coronavirus pandemic.

In a Wednesday letter, House Democrats pressed Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt to distribute the money now because lives are at stake.

“As you are aware, the detrimental impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic have had a disproportionate health care and economic impact on federally recognized tribes due a chronic lack of essential resources,” reads the letter signed by Democratic lawmakers including Deb Haaland of New Mexico, co-chair of the Congressional Native American Caucus; Ruben Gallego of Arizona, chair of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the U.S.; Raul Grijalva of Arizona, chair of the House Natural Resources Committee; and Assistant House Speaker Ben Ray Lujan of New Mexico.

“We respectfully request the Treasury Department immediately begin to disburse the $8 billion of Coronavirus Relief Funds to eligible federally recognized tribal governments … in recognition of the negative impact that every day of delay has on Tribes.”

A request for comment from the Treasury Department was not returned on why it’s taken so long to get this money to tribes and when it expects to distribute it.

Tribal communities are among the most vulnerable to a rapid and devastating spread of the coronavirus. They face some of the highest rates of health conditions like diabetes, heart disease and asthma, all of which leave them more susceptible to the virus. They are often in remote parts of the country, where it’s tough to quickly disseminate resources and where families live in small homes shared with elderly family members who are particularly at risk. And the Indian Health Service, which provides health care to nearly 3 million Native Americans, is already notoriously and chronically underfunded.

Put those pieces together and add to the situation that tribal governments still haven’t gotten their fair share of federal relief, and it’s not hard to imagine how quickly this could become a disaster.

“Rent Freeze”

1) Size(s) (child, adult small, or adult large)

2) Number of masks needed

3) Address to mail them to

4) Whether you can afford to contribute towards shipping so that I can send you my Venmo/Cash.app/PayPal if relevant. (I will send lipreading masks to anyone who needs them, and if you can’t afford to pay the cost of shipping I will reach out to the generous people who have offered to donate.)

I will let you know what fabric I currently have available so you can pick the color.

Following steps 1-4 will help me get the masks out more quickly. Thank you!

Historically, pandemics have forced humans to break with the past and imagine their world anew. This one is no different. It is a portal, a gateway between one world and the next. 

We can choose to walk through it, dragging the carcasses of our prejudice and hatred, our avarice, our data banks and dead ideas, our dead rivers and smoky skies behind us. Or we can walk through lightly, with little luggage, ready to imagine another world. And ready to fight for it.

The child naively believes that everything should be fair and everyone should be honest, that only good should prevail, that everybody should have what they want and there should be no pain or sadness. The child believes the world should be perfect and is outraged to discover it is not.

And the child is right.”

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