{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-sullivan-secure-extension-on-covid-relief-dollars-for-alaska-natives", "Murkowski, Sullivan Secure Extension on COVID Relief Dollars for Alaska Natives", "2021-10-21", "2021", "2021-10", "Republican", "Senate", "AK", "Lisa Murkowski", "M001153", "www.murkowski.senate.gov", "murkowski", "https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/press-releases?PageNum_rs=41", "scraper", "U.S. Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan (both R-Alaska) welcomed the Senate\u2019s passage last night of S.3011, the State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act, legislation that includes a provision the senators authored granting an extension until December 31, 2022 for tribes\u2014including Alaska Native Corporations (ANCs)\u2014to spend Coronavirus Relief Fund (CRF) resources from the March 2020 Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.\n\nThe eligibility of ANCs for this COVID-19 relief has undergone months of litigation, culminating in a June decision by the U.S. Supreme Court upholding their access to the tribal set-aside within Title V of the CARES Act. ANCs, having only recently received disbursements from the Treasury Department, have been requesting more time to spend the roughly $443.8 million allocated to them, which was set to expire at the end of 2021.\n\nThe legislation also makes several categories of infrastructure investments and disaster relief eligible for unspent COVID-19 relief dollars and extends the deadline to utilize relief funding if budgeted for eligible infrastructure projects.\n\n\u201cThis CARES Act extension is critically important for Tribal governments who received their CARES Act allocations late due to litigation over eligibility, more than a year after disbursements to other Tribal governments began. This bill allows more flexibility to state and local governments to determine how to best utilize COVID relief federal funding,\u201d said Senator Murkowski. \u201cAlaska has been leading the nation in positive cases per capita, and sadly our state also recently logged the nation\u2019s highest rates for COVID-19 fatalities on a per capita basis. Our entire state, including Alaska Native communities, continue to experience hardships from the pandemic due to COVID-19 variants and still need to make use of these relief funds. I urge the House to swiftly pass this legislation to provide certainty to Tribal governments affected by late disbursements as well as empower local leaders to make decisions on what\u2019s best for their communities.\u201d\n\n\u201cANCs have been left in limbo since the spring of 2020, hopeful but uncertain that they would have fair access to CARES Act tribal resources,\u201d said Senator Sullivan. \u201cWith the Supreme Court\u2019s just decision upholding Alaska\u2019s unique tribal system for delivery of services and ANCs\u2019 access to these federal resources, ANCs are facing a time crunch to get COVID-19 relief dollars out the door. This unnecessary rush is not in the interest of good governance or the people we serve. I thank my colleagues for joining us in this effort, which isn\u2019t about spending new federal dollars, but rather granting reasonable flexibility to deploy CARES Act relief in the best interests of our constituents, whose lives, businesses and communities have been upended by the pandemic.\u201d\n\nThe larger bill, led by Senators John Cornyn (R-Texas) and Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), grants greater flexibility for states, tribes, and units of local government to spend their allocations under the CARES Act. The bill sets a cap\u2014the greater of either $10 million or 30 percent of the funds\u2014on how much of the relief money can be spent on new purposes, like infrastructure investments.\n\nTimeline:\n\nOn March 27, 2020, the CARES Act was signed into law, including an $8 billion set-aside for tribal governments.\n\nOn April 14, 2020, the Alaska congressional delegation wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin and Interior Secretary David Bernhardt detailing the unique legal framework and circumstances for tribal entities in Alaska. The letter provided a historical background on Alaska regional corporations, which are made eligible for CARES Act assistance because of the definition of \u201cIndian tribe\u201d used in the bill.\n\nIn April of 2020 several tribes filed lawsuits to prevent CARES Act funds from being distributed to ANCs.\n\nOn April 23, 2020, the delegation penned an op-ed in the Anchorage Daily News to correct the mischaracterizations about ANCs and explain why the entities are eligible for CARES Act funds.\n\nOn June 26, 2020, U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta ruled ANCs are eligible for the aid. Judge Mehta based his decision on the definition of \u201cIndian tribe\u201d provided by the 1975 Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act and used in the CARES Act, which included ANCs.\n\nOn September 25, 2020, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit overturned the June 26 ruling and determined ANCs are ineligible for tribal assistance appropriated by the CARES Act.\n\nIn November of 2020, the Alaska congressional delegation filed an amicus curiae brief urging the Supreme Court to grant the petition for a writ of certiorari in support of ANC eligibility for tribal assistance appropriated by the CARES Act.\n\nOn February 26, 2021, the Alaska delegation filed an amicus brief in support of the ANCs on the merits of the case. The amicus brief warns that the indigenous peoples of Alaska will suffer significant negative consequences as a result of the D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals\u2019 September 25, 2020 decision, which held that ANCs are ineligible for the CARES Act CRF tribal set-aside. The D.C. Circuit Court\u2019s decision, the delegation argued, destabilizes agency and legislative practice in place for over 40 years as well as systems in place that deliver programs and services to Alaska Natives across the state.\n\nOn June 25, 2021, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in Yellen v. Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation, upholding the decades-long inclusion of ANCs as \u201cIndian tribes\u201d under the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDA), also known as ISDEAA, confirming ANC eligibility for the CRF tribal set-aside within Title V of the CARES Act.\n\nOn September 14, 2021, Sen. Sullivan introduced and Sen. Murkowski cosponsored S.2728, a bill to extend the deadline for tribal governments to utilize CARES Act resources. The bill language was incorporated into Senators Cornyn and Padilla\u2019s State, Local, Tribal, and Territorial Fiscal Recovery, Infrastructure, and Disaster Relief Flexibility Act, passed by the Senate on October 19.\n\nRelated Issues: Alaska Natives & Rural Alaska", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:24:51Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://www.murkowski.senate.gov/press/release/murkowski-sullivan-secure-extension-on-covid-relief-dollars-for-alaska-natives"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 3.7378929555416107, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}