PROVIDENCE FORGE, VA – Today, Deputy Secretary of the Treasury Wally Adeyemo and U.S. Treasurer Chief Lynn Malerba visited the Chickahominy Indian Tribe in Virginia to meet with Tribal leadership and discuss the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic investments in Indian Country. During their visit, Treasury Department leadership toured the Tribal Health Clinic, met with a family that has received support from the American Rescue Plan’s (ARP) Homeowner Assistance Fund (HAF), and toured the Tribe’s re-acquired ancestral territory. Deputy Secretary Adeyemo and Treasurer Chief Malerba then convened a roundtable of Tribal leaders from across Virginia to hear about each Tribe’s economic goals and challenges, and how federal funding is supporting Tribal economic development in the region.
Since Secretary of the Treasury Janet L. Yellen became the first Treasury Secretary to visit a Tribal nation in June 2022, the Treasury Department has significantly increased its engagement with Indian Country in order to strengthen relationships with Tribes and better understand and respond to the needs of Tribal governments. Under the Biden-Harris Administration, the Department has made key investments in Tribal communities, including implementing the largest-ever single infusion of federal funding into Indian Country through the State and Local Fiscal Recovery Fund’s $20 billion set-aside for Tribes, investing an historic $234 million in Native-owned and Native-majority shareholder depository institutions through the Emergency Capital Investment Program (ECIP), and making the two largest infusions of federal capital to Native-serving community development financial institutions (CDFIs) in the history of the Department’s Community Development Financial Institutions Fund (CDFI Fund).
In addition, today the Financial Literacy and Education Commission (FLEC) – chaired by Secretary Yellen – published a new Tribally-focused webpage on MyMoney.gov to serve as a central source for the posting of financial literacy and educational resources available to Tribal communities by federal agencies. This webpage is in response to Tribal leader feedback about the need to streamline access to Tribally-specific financial literacy resources, and serves as another example of the Department’s commitment to integrating Tribal feedback into improved federal policy and support for Tribal economic advancement.
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