The Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation welcomed a U.S. Court of Appeals decision in a challenge to the U.S. Department of Treasury’s method for distributing CARES Act assistance and the tribal chairman said the outcome could have ramifications for allocation of future federal funding. A series of lawsuits, including one by the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation headquartered in Mayetta, led to the Court of Appeals’ declaration the Treasury Department engaged in an arbitrary and capricious process for calculating emergency aid. The Court of Appeals ordered the U.S. treasury secretary to provide further explanation of decisions regarding Prairie Band’s aid. Prairie Band Chairman Joseph Rupnick said the Washington, D.C., appellate court’s ruling was “clear vindication” of the Prairie Band’s legal effort to compel accurate determinations of relief under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. He said the Treasury Department’s disregard of tribal enrollment data as a barometer for directing aid ignored fundamental principles of federal law and policy. “This case is yet another example of tribes having to fight for what they’re rightly eligible for and only being recognized by the government after a lengthy legal struggle, which in this case required two separate trips to the Court of Appeals,” Rupnick said.
Source: The Lawrence Times