{"id":3484,"date":"2020-04-24T13:53:25","date_gmt":"2020-04-24T17:53:25","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/covid19\/?p=3484"},"modified":"2020-04-24T13:53:53","modified_gmt":"2020-04-24T17:53:53","slug":"sen-kyrsten-sinema-d-arizona-2","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/2020\/04\/24\/sen-kyrsten-sinema-d-arizona-2\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Kyrsten Sinema (D-Arizona)"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"\"

Photo by Keerthi Vedantam \/ Cronkite News<\/p><\/div>\n

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/strong><\/p>\n

April 24, 2020<\/p>\n

Following Sinema\u2019s Urging, Agencies Reverse Course and Allow Tribal Communities Access to the Paycheck Protection Program<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

PHOENIX \u2013 <\/strong>Following calls<\/a> from Arizona senior Senator Kyrsten Sinema, the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration (SBA) reversed course and made administrative changes to allow Tribal gaming operations to apply for and receive Paycheck Protection Program funding. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019ve heard directly from Tribal leaders in Arizona about the economic struggles facing their communities during the coronavirus outbreak. The federal government\u2019s exclusion of gaming operations from critical coronavirus-relief funds was unacceptable. I\u2019m glad the Treasury Department and Small Business Administration did the right thing and are now allowing Tribal communities full access to the Paycheck Protection Program,\u201d said Sinema.<\/strong><\/p>\n

 <\/strong><\/p>\n

Previously, the U.S. Department of the Treasury prohibited Tribal communities with Tribal gaming operations from accessing Paycheck Protection Program funding, despite that not being Congress\u2019s intent when drafting the CARES Act<\/em>. Unlike state and local governments, Tribes do not have a tax base to generate revenue. Funding for programs comes from Tribally owned enterprises or the federal government. As a result of the coronavirus pandemic, Tribal funds are stretched by expenditures critical to protect public health and safety. Excluding Tribal gaming operations from applying for PPP funding oftentimes amounts to excluding the primary employer on Tribal reservations. Sinema urged<\/a> the Treasury Department and SBA to reverse course and allow Tribal gaming operations access to PPP funding. Following Sinema\u2019s letter<\/a>, the federal agencies reversed course. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sinema holds regular calls with Tribal leaders on the coronavirus outbreak in their communities and needed coronavirus relief. Sinema, along with a bipartisan and bicameral group of lawmakers, urged<\/a> the administration to swiftly implement the bipartisan CARES Act <\/em>law and ensure resources are deployed quickly to support Tribal communities in Arizona. Sinema also asked <\/a>the administration to make a stronger effort in consulting with Tribal Nations in order to truly reduce the spread of coronavirus throughout Arizona. Following Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez\u2019s request that the non-federal cost-share portion of the FEMA-Tribal Agreement be waived, Sinema urged<\/a> the Director of FEMA to waive tribal governments\u2019 portion of costs of FEMA\u2019s coronavirus response efforts to protect the health and safety of tribal communities. <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

The U.S. Senate unanimously approved the Sinema-shaped legislative package that included robust support of $10 billion in Tribal government services and programs, including $2 billion for the Indian Health Services, to ensure Native communities across Arizona get the health care and resources they need.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Sinema has a resources page on her website, www.sinema.senate.gov\/corona<\/a>, for Arizonans looking for updated information in English and Spanish on the coronavirus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Following\u00a0calls\u00a0from Senator Kyrsten Sinema,\u00a0the Treasury Department and the Small Business Administration reversed course and made administrative changes to allow Tribal gaming operations to apply for and receive Paycheck Protection Program funding.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[18,390,207,205,410,407,304,17,235],"class_list":["post-3484","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-institutions","tag-116th","tag-cares-act","tag-gaming","tag-h-r-748","tag-krysten-sinema","tag-ppp","tag-sba","tag-senate","tag-treasury"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3484"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3486,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3484\/revisions\/3486"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3484"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3484"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3484"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}