Trump Interior official helped clear way for payments to ex-employer

Source: Politico

A high-ranking Interior Department official is under fire over her role in securing access to billions of dollars in coronavirus aid for a handful of wealthy Alaska corporations, including one that previously employed her as a lobbyist and top executive.

Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney is among a small group of Interior officials advising the Treasury Department on how to distribute $8 billion in rescue funding Congress earmarked for Native American tribes — an allocation that some lawmakers now say they intended solely for the 574 federally recognized tribes hit hard by the economic shutdown.

But the Trump administration indicated this week that it also plans to include more than 200 for-profit Alaska Native corporations among the eligible recipients based on a strict reading of language Congress included in its $2.2 trillion coronavirus rescue package — including corporations that rank among the largest businesses in the state. That’s outraged many tribal leaders who say the decision could divert nearly half the funding away from tribes and into the coffers of the corporations.

Sweeney’s role has since come under intense scrutiny, with Democrats and several tribal organizations seizing on the financial interest she retains as a shareholder of her former employer, Arctic Slope Regional Corporation, according to financial disclosure forms.

Read more: https://www.politico.com/amp/news/2020/04/16/trump-indian-affiars-funds-191622