The U.S. Treasury Department recently gave tribes more time to download data that will be used to disburse the remaining $3.2 billion due them from the CARES Act. They were given an extension to May 29.
The funds have been delayed by tribes’ challenges to submitting the data to Treasury’s portal used to disburse the funds.
Among the delays the tribes have encountered are widespread power outages in Alaska, the closing of offices due to the pandemic, which made it difficult for tribes to get access to financial statements and tax forms.
The funds will be disbursed based on employment numbers and expenditures which the department has requested for tribal governments and tribal enterprises for 2019.
Treasury had originally said it would distribute the funds by June 5, but the delay given to the tribes has pushed that back further.
