{"id":5198,"date":"2020-05-18T11:13:45","date_gmt":"2020-05-18T15:13:45","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.indianz.com\/covid19\/?p=5198"},"modified":"2020-05-18T11:19:44","modified_gmt":"2020-05-18T15:19:44","slug":"harvard-project-on-american-indian-economic-development-harvard-university","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/covid19\/2020\/05\/18\/harvard-project-on-american-indian-economic-development-harvard-university\/","title":{"rendered":"Harvard Project on American Indian Economic Development (Harvard University)"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Research Critiques Allocations of Federal CARES Act COVID-19 Response Funds to Indian Country<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE<\/div>\n
May 18, 2020<\/span><\/div>\n<\/div>\n
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Cambridge,  MA  \u2013 A team of researchers from Harvard, the University of Arizona and UCLA today released the results of its study<\/a> dissecting the US Department of the Treasury\u2019s formula for distributing first-round CARES Act funds to Indian Country. The Department has indicated that its formula is intended to allocate relief funds based on tribes\u2019 populations, but the research team finds that Treasury has employed a population data series that produces arbitrary and capricious \u201cover-\u201d and \u201cunder-representations\u201d of tribes\u2019 enrolled citizens.<\/p>\n

On May 5, 2020, Treasury Secretary Mnuchin and Interior Secretary Bernhardt jointly announced that the first $4.8 billion of $8 billion of CARES Act funding for tribal governments would be allocated across the nation\u2019s 574 federally recognized tribes in proportion to tribal populations. To implement this, Treasury chose to use a data series that has been used by the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) in the distribution of Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) monies.<\/p>\n

No comprehensive list of the resulting funding totals for tribes exists publicly. The researchers, however, have used the publicly available population information from HUD\u2019s IHBG website to replicate Treasury\u2019s stated approach. The results are calculations of CARES Act allocations for every tribe in the country that is covered by the HUD data. Key takeaways from the team\u2019s analysis include:<\/p>\n