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Law360 (May 8, 2020, 7:57 PM EDT) -- The Navajo Nation on Friday celebrated its receipt of more than $600 million in novel coronavirus relief funding, even as government officials conceded that deploying the funds ahead of a Dec. 31 deadline will be a challenge.
The tribal government processes less than $40 million in a typical month and now must gear up for a quadrupled workload through the end of the year, Controller Pearline Kirk said during a Friday press conference and town hall on the funding, which arrived Wednesday. Her team is also rushing to get up to speed on compliance.
"As you can imagine, all eyes are on us as a nation in terms of coming together to deploy those funds as fast as we can, and with that comes expediting our internal processes," Kirk said. "So internally at the office of the controller, we have a huge job ahead of us."
"That's on top of a late start," she added.
The $600 million is part of $8 billion in direct tribal funding under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security, or CARES, Act. The Treasury Department missed an April 27 deadline to disperse the funds to tribes, announcing this week the release of the first $4.8 billion.
The Treasury Department did not immediately comment on the amounts dispersed to other tribes this week, but the Navajo Nation received well above the minimum. The department has previously said that allocation is based on tribal population information, with at least $100,000 going to each tribe.
During his remarks Friday, Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez described various priorities for spending.
In the short term, he hopes to acquire adequate personal protective equipment for health care workers. In the longer term, he envisions water lines for households without running water, as well as investments in broadband, agriculture, housing and scholarships for Navajos to enter law enforcement and the health care field.
"We're learning a lot from this current pandemic," Nez said. "We know we need to become more self-reliant in terms of growing our own food, producing more health care and medical workers, empowering our Navajo entrepreneurs, making sure our first responders are better-equipped — and that includes telecommunication — and developing more facilities to treat and care for our elders."
Nez also alluded Friday to tension with the Navajo Nation's legislative branch. The 24th Navajo Nation Council on Thursday introduced legislation to set a legal framework for deploying the CARES Act funds, according to council spokesperson Byron Shorty.
The proposed legislation is "unworkable" and gives too much authority to the council, Nez said.
Responding to this assessment, Shorty told Law360 that "no one is ignoring" Nez, and "this is draft legislation and the [five-day] comment period is open to everyone."
The Navajo Nation will work carefully to make sure that spending aligns with Treasury Department requirements, Navajo Nation District Attorney Doreen McPaul stressed in her remarks during Friday's town hall. The funds "can only be used to cover costs that are necessary expenditures incurred due to the COVID-19 emergency," she said.
Navajo Nation Vice President Myron Lizer said Friday that he plans to fight for Nez's priorities, including infrastructure and broadband.
"These are things that help you combat the next pandemic," he said. "If we [already] had them in place for every citizen, the [COVID-19 case] numbers wouldn't be what they are today."
Lizer also told Law360 Friday that the nation would welcome additional time to disperse its funds, which he said are not enough, to meet the nation's needs.
"The Bible says, 'You have not because you ask not,'" Lizer said. "We're in a new, unique place. We're the only tribe out here with this [amount of] money. We need to ask [for an extension] and then find out if they will consider that. If they say no, then man, we better get busy."
The Navajo Nation is also currently a co-plaintiff in a lawsuit to block Alaska Native Corporations from receiving any of the $8 billion in relief funds. While that case proceeds, experts say delayed dispersement of the remaining funds and confusion about what they will cover is likely.
The Navajo Nation, one of the country's largest tribes, reported a total of 2,757 positive COVID-19 cases and 88 related deaths as of Thursday. The reservation, roughly the size of West Virginia, spans parts of New Mexico, Arizona and Utah.
--Additional reporting by Andrew Westney. Editing by Philip Shea.
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