A federal court has upheld the Treasury Department’s methodology for reallocating funds designated for tribal governments under pandemic relief legislation.
In a decision Friday, the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia rejected the argument of two tribes—the Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida and the Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation—that a 2021 methodology for re-allocating funds was arbitrary and capricious under the Administrative Procedure Act. The methodology was created after the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that a 2020 approach likely failed the “arbitrary and capricious” test.
The district court concluded that ...