USET/USET SPF COVID-19 Response and Relief Effort

March 19, 2021

2:00 pm – 3:00 pm

FEMA Tribal Consultation on Public Assistance COVID-19 Safe Opening and Operating Costs Interim Policy

Under the March 13, 2020, Coronavirus (COVID-19) nationwide emergency declaration and subsequent major disaster declarations for COVID-19, tribal, state, local, and territorial government entities and certain private nonprofit organizations are eligible to apply for assistance under the FEMA Public Assistance Program.

On January 21, 2021, the President issued the “Memorandum to Extend Federal Support to Governors’ Use of the National Guard to Respond to COVID-19 and to Increase Reimbursement and Other Assistance Provided to States,” which authorized FEMA to provide funding to Public Assistance applicants, including tribes, for the safe opening and operation of eligible facilities (e.g., eligible schools, child-care facilities, non-congregate shelters, domestic violence shelters, transit systems, and other eligible applicants). Such assistance “may include funding for the provision of personal protective equipment and disinfecting services and supplies.”

FEMA is developing an interim policy, COVID-19 Pandemic: Safe Opening and Operation Work Eligible for Public Assistance, which defines the framework, policy details, and requirements for determining the eligibility of work and costs incurred to facilitate the safe opening and operation of eligible facilities. FEMA funding under this interim policy will be provided for costs incurred between January 21, 2021, to September 30, 2021 and will be provided at 100% Federal funding.

FEMA is seeking tribal input on the COVID-19 Pandemic: Safe Opening and Operation Work Eligible for Public Assistance (Interim), FEMA FP Policy 104-21-0003. Therefore, FEMA is hosting a teleconference tribal consultation session to receive input from tribal nations on this interim policy. This consultation session will take place on Friday, March 19, 2021, 3:00 to 4:00 ET.

During the event, FEMA staff will provide an overview of key provisions of the proposed interim policy, and the delivery process and procedures that will be utilized for implementation.

Teleconference Information:
To join the teleconference tribal consultation session, please dial (800) 458-4121; confirmation code: 766-0603. To ensure the conference begins in a timely manner, please dial in 5 to 10 minutes prior to the start time of the session, which is at 3:00 ET.

Written Comments:
Questions and written comments may be directed to the Public Assistance Division at fema-recovery-pa-policy@fema.dhs.gov or through FEMA Regional Tribal Liaisons until Monday, March 24, 2021. Contact information for FEMA Tribal Liaisons may be found at www.fema.gov/about/contact.

If you have any questions, please contact FEMA Office of External Affairs:
Tribal Affairs at (202) 646-3444 or at FEMA-Tribal@fema.dhs.gov.

2:00 pm – 3:30 pm

NIHB All Tribes Call: Vaccine Rollout in Indian Country

At this point in the COVID 19 pandemic, many Indian health system providers have fully vaccinated their first cohort of patients and now have a better idea of both the challenges and best practices of the vaccine rollout. NIHB invites those stakeholders, along with Tribal leaders, Tribal health administrators, Tribal public health staff, Tribal advocates, and citizens to join us for an NIHB hosted discussion session where we can share what we have learned so far.

How will NIHB use this information? NIHB will use the feedback to inform our ongoing advocacy efforts and Tribes will have a chance to learn from their peers and share what has worked in their communities.

The Virtual Tribal Vaccine All Tribes Call will take place on Friday, March 19 at 3:00 PM eastern. We hope you will join us!

Agenda
3:00 pm - Welcome - NIHB Board of Directors Chair
3:05 pm - COVID 19 vaccine rollout by the numbers – NIHB staff
A short presentation of the available data to help set the stage for further discussion.
3:15 pm – Facilitated discussion session

Moderators: Carolyn A. Hornbuckle, Esq. & Tyler M. Dougherty, MPH, CPH

Framing topics and related questions:

Vaccine distribution and allocations: Have you been getting enough vaccines to cover your priority (vulnerable) populations? Did you experience any issues in getting the vaccine does or in storing the vaccines? What best practices can you share? If you are experiencing issues with allocations or shipments. What solutions would you recommend?
Vaccine Administration: How are your vaccine efforts going? Do you have enough staff to schedule appointments or host events? Do you have enough PPE for vaccination efforts? What other barriers are you experiencing? What would you recommend to address the barriers?
Vaccine Hesitancy & Uptake: Are you seeing vaccine hesitancy? What solutions would you recommend to overcome hesitancy? What additional resources do you need?
Vaccine Reporting: A number of reporting systems are required as part of the vaccine rollout. Are you able to access all of those systems? Are there ways the system can be improved?
Other Topics: Do you have other feedback to share on COVID generally or the vaccine rollout?

There is no registration fee to attend the listening session, but pre-registration is required for participation.

If you have any questions, please contact Tyler M. Dougherty at TDougherty@nihb.org or Carolyn A. Hornbuckle, Esq. at CHornbuckle@nihb.org.