Navajo Council to Consider $4M Loan Bill

The Navajo Nation Council is scheduled to consider a bill next week that proposes borrowing up to $4 million from the tribe’s insurance commission to supplement the emergency management budget.

A similar version of the bill was considered by the council’s budget and finance committee on Feb. 2 and included short-term borrowing of up to $5 million, but it was denied passage by a 5-2 vote.

The latest bill is sponsored by council delegate Young Jeff Tom of Mariano Lake/Smith Lake in Arizona. It will be heard during the council’s scheduled Feb. 16 meeting.

If the bill passes, it will provide funding for costs associated with the recent state of emergency after the most powerful in a series of winter storms hit the 27,000 square-mile reservation on Jan. 21.