July 30, 2020
The Muscogee (Creek) Nation scored a landmark victory with the U.S. Supreme Court's decision that the tribe's Oklahoma reservation endures, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and others earned an order to shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline, and a Washington tribe beat BNSF in a Ninth Circuit oil shipping dispute.
June 16, 2020
A D.C. federal judge has ordered the U.S. Department of the Treasury to pay out virtually all that's left of $8 billion in COVID-19 relief funds to tribal governments, saying the department's intention to hold back $679 million as a hedge against losing a suit over the funds "simply cannot be justified."
June 15, 2020
A D.C. federal judge on Monday appeared skeptical that the Treasury Department can delay allocating the remaining $679 million in COVID-19-related funding to tribal governments while separate litigation challenging the government's allocation formula is pending.
June 08, 2020
Several tribes have urged a D.C. federal judge to order the Treasury Department to send out $3.2 billion in COVID-19 relief to tribal governments by Friday, saying the department has tried to shift the blame to tribes for the department's own "incompetence" and "abysmal" process to get the money.
June 03, 2020
The Treasury Department expects to take an additional week past its planned date to begin sending $3.2 billion in COVID-19-related funding to tribal governments, telling a D.C. federal judge Wednesday it needs the extra time because hundreds of tribes have not submitted the right data to receive the much-delayed money.
May 22, 2020
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin told a D.C. federal judge Friday that the department is following through on its plan to send out $3.2 billion in COVID-19-related funding to tribal governments, as tribes spent the week furnishing more data requested by the department.
May 18, 2020
Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin has told a D.C. federal judge that his department plans to send out the $3.2 billion it still owes tribal governments under the CARES Act by June 5, nearly six weeks after the law's deadline to distribute the money.
May 11, 2020
A D.C. federal judge on Monday rejected a bid to force the Treasury Department to deliver $3.2 billion it still owes tribal governments to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, but said a further delay of two months "will not be acceptable" and one month past a lapsed deadline might be pushing it.
May 08, 2020
As the Treasury Department said Friday it will take weeks longer to deliver the full $8 billion it owes tribes to fight the COVID-19 pandemic, a D.C. federal judge quizzed the government's attorney on how much longer the department can take before the court might be justified in forcing it to distribute the funds.
May 04, 2020
U.S. Treasury Department Secretary Steven Mnuchin must immediately disperse $8 billion in coronavirus relief funding promised to tribes or risk imposing irreparable harm, eight tribes said in papers submitted in D.C. federal court.