Reports

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which provided the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) with $756 million to support the needs of DOI programs, bureaus, Indian Country, and the Insular Areas.As part of the $756 million, the Office of the Secretary received $157.4 million to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus across DOI operations, which includes wildland fire management. The DOI approved $11.3 million in funding for the DOI’s Wildland Fire Management (WFM) program through September 30, 2020...

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On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act). To date, the CARES Act has provided the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) with $909.7 million, which includes direct apportionments of $756 million to support the needs of DOI programs, bureaus, Indian Country, and the Insular Areas and a $153.7 million transfer from the U.S. Department of Education to the Bureau of Indian Education in June.This report presents the DOI’s progress as of June 30, 2020, in spending CARES Act appropriations. Specifically, the DOI’s expenditures...

On March 27, 2020, the President signed into law the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES Act), which provided the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) with $756 million to support the needs of DOI programs, bureaus, Indian Country, and the Insular Areas.As part of the CARES Act, the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) received $69 million from the DOI to prevent, prepare for, and respond to the coronavirus pandemic. In addition to the CARES Act funding appropriated directly to the DOI, the CARES Act’s Education Stabilization Fund required the U.S. Department of Education to...

CARES Act Section 3610 allows Federal agencies to reimburse their contractors and subcontractors for any paid leave, including sick leave, that the contractors provide to keep their employees or subcontractors in what the section refers to as a “ready state.” Because these reimbursements present a number of risks and the U.S. Department of the Interior (DOI) is already receiving Section 3610 claims from contractors, the DOI urgently needs to put policies in place to ensure consistent oversight of reimbursed leave costs.In this management advisory memorandum, we offer three recommendations that...

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In response to the outbreak of the Coronavirus (COVID-19), the National Park Service (NPS) closed most park buildings, facilities, and restrooms, and in some cases, entire parks. With States now easing stay-at-home restrictions, and in response to the White House’s emphasis to open the national parks, some parks have already increased access by implementing a phased reopening. To facilitate a safe reopening, the NPS issued the National Park Service COVID-19 Adaptive Operations Recovery Plan to the parks on May 28, 2020. We contacted each of the 62 national park superintendents to report on...

The DOI will award most of its CARES Act funding to Indian Country through grants to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE). Of the $756 million, $522 million (69.0 percent) will be funded to Indian Country. As of June 13, 2020, $419,462,721, or 80.4 percent, had been obligated.These emergency response awards from the DOI–together with more than $8.7 billion in awards to Indian Country from other Federal departments—present a higher risk because they must be spent in a short period of time. In addition, we have identified Indian Country as a high-risk area...