Navajo Nation leaders approve use of federal COVID-19 finance aid
The Navajo Nation’s leaders over the weekend approved the tribe’s first expenditures of more than $60 million in federal COVID-19 aid, about two months after receiving most of the funds in May.
The tribe’s executive branch approved portions of two separate resolutions on July 4 related to the spending of more than $714 million given to the Navajo Nation through the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act.
The largest amount of about $20 million was allocated for “special duty pay” to front-line and essential employees.
“Signing portions of these resolutions into law is a big win for our first responders and the Navajo people,” Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a news release on Sunday. “Our focus has always been to put forth a comprehensive plan that helps those who need it the most and that includes our frontline warriors, and also to plan and prepare for any potential new waves of COVID-19 and other pandemics.”
The coronavirus relief bill was signed into law on March 27 to allocate money to state, local and tribal governments affected by the COVID-19 pandemic.
While $8 billion was promised to tribal governments, only 60% of the aid was initially released to tribes based on population data, including $600 million to the Navajo Nation in early May. The rest of the funding was released in midJune, including two more payments to the Navajo Nation, bringing its total to more than $714 million in COVID-19 aid, according to a news release from the tribe’s Office of the Speaker.
The Navajo Nation at one point was among the hardest-hit communities in the country by COVID-19 but in recent weeks experienced a downward trend in cases. As of Tuesday, the tribe had more than 7,900 cases and 379 confirmed deaths.
The Navajo Nation has until the end of the year to spend its federal COVID-19 aid within guidelines set by the federal government.
Initially, two separate resolutions approved by the 24th Navajo Nation Council authorized about $135 million in immediate expenditures from the funds.
However, Nez vetoed about $73 million of the expenditures over the weekend while he signed the remainder into law.
The largest amount — about $20 million — was allocated for “special duty pay” for front-line and essential employees “whose duties are substantially dedicated to mitigating or responding to the COVID-19 public health emergency,” said a news release from the tribe’s executive branch. Another $10 million was allocated for personal protective equipment for those same employees, according to the news release.
The remaining expenditures were:
$10 million to disinfect Navajo Nation-operated facilities
$10 million for food, water and care packages
$2 million for computer hardware and software to improve tele-work capabilities for Navajo Nation government offices
$3.5 million for bathroom additions and upgrades for Navajo residents
$3 million for tribal healthcare facilities
$2.5 million for expenses related to the procurement and facilitation of the tribe’s CARES Act expenditures
Nez during an online town hall on Tuesday excluded from calculations the $10 million allocation to disinfect government facilities for reasons that are unclear. Documents and officials referred to the “special duty pay” as getting both $20 million and $21 million. It was not clear which is accurate.
A spokesperson did not immediately respond to inquiries.
Nez vetoed several portions of the resolutions, including $55 million to the tribe’s more than 100 chapters spanning 27,000 square miles of land across three states.
“There was a lot of concerns from the Navajo citizens about how the government, not all the chapters, don’t get me wrong, but how some chapters were running their government without letting the citizens know what’s going on,” Nez said during the town hall. “It’s about accountability ... if they’re spent not according to the guidelines of the CARES Act, we’re gonna have to pay it back. Like I said earlier, who’s going to pay that back? Is it the chapters that may misappropriate, mismanage these dollars? No, it’s the Navajo Nation government. There’s got to be a different mechanism to get monies to the chapter.”
Nez also vetoed $10 million for the tribe’s Judicial Branch, $7 million for assistance to families whose homes have been affected by fire and $1 million for the Diné Hataalii Association.
“As council delegates, we love our communities greatly, and it pains us to know that we are trying our hardest to meet President Nez in the middle, only to be met with vetoes,” Speaker Seth Damon stated in a news release from his office. “But, it’s our job to fight for our local communities, and the Navajo Nation Council will continue putting forward funding that has been developed with the input of the Executive Branch and the Judicial Branch from the very beginning.”
In total, more than $652 million in federal COVID-19 aid has yet to be allocated. The executive branch in a news release proposed how the remaining funds should be used:
$300 million for water infrastructure and agriculture projects
$150 million for power lines and solar infrastructure
$50 million for broadband internet and telecommunication
$50 million for scholarships to Navajo students entering health care and public safety fields
$60 million to help Navajo businesses and promote economic development
$20 million to address housing needs
The remaining amount for chapter projects and direct aid for citizens
Nez during the town hall said the tribe’s housing needs could be addressed by creating housing manufacturing facilities in Tuba City and New Mexico. The facilities could “prefabricate” modern hogan-style homes to help reduce the number of family members living under one roof, he said. Multi-generational homes and a lack of running water in homes have often been pointed to as possible reasons for the spread of COVID-19.
“This money should be able to help empower our citizens, as well as do some long term changes to our nation’s infrastructure,” Nez said during the town hall.
The tribe’s three branches of government would work together to create an expenditure plan for the remainder of the CARES Act funds, according to Nez. Meanwhile, officials were requesting an extension to the federal government’s Dec. 31 deadline for use of the funds, he said.
Rep. Tom O’Halleran, D-Ariz., on Thursday introduced legislation to extend the deadline for use of coronavirus relief funds to tribal governments to Dec. 30, 2022, according to a news release from his office. The bill is cosponsored by Rep. Paul Cook, R-Calif.
“Bureaucratic red tape and lack of critical attention to the matter at federal agencies forced sovereign tribal nations across Arizona’s First Congressional District to wait over a month for the first tranche of CARES Act funding to arrive, and tribes still face significant hurdles to spending and distributing the funding they were promised,” O’Halleran stated in the news release.
“We need to extend the deadline by which tribal governments must spend Coronavirus Relief Fund payments so that each nation has adequate time to debate and discuss within their governing bodies, just as we did, and allocate the monies they are owed to most effectively address this pandemic head-on,” he continued.