Alaskan Tribes Seek to Void ReConnect Funding Grants to 2 Broadband Providers

services for individuals and businesses in Alaska’s Nome census area, alleged two native villages in a preliminary injunction motion Friday (docket 3:24-cv-00100) in U.S. District Court for Alaska. Unalakleet and Elim are federally recognized tribes that contend that Interior and Mukluk didn’t obtain resolutions of tribal consent from them or any other tribes within the Nome census area, as RUS’ “clear and unambiguous” ReConnect program regulations require, said their complaint. ReConnect furnishes loans and grants to cover the costs of construction, improvement or acquisition of facilities and equipment needed to provide broadband service in eligible rural areas. In disregarding its own regulations, RUS “acted arbitrarily and capriciously in violation of the Administrative Procedure Act,” alleged the complaint. As a direct result of RUS’ violation of the APA, tribes such as Unalakleet and Elim have been irreparably harmed, it said. The issuance of awards in “contravention” of RUS regulations mandating tribal consent itself irreparably harms tribal “sovereignty,” because the right to approve or reject proposals over tribal lands can’t be restored by the payment of money, it said. Despite obtaining nearly $70 million in ReConnect funding, Interior and Mukluk haven’t begun construction and aren’t serving the Nome census area, it said. Because ReConnect regulations say that RUS won’t fund more than one project that serves any one given geographic area, the issuance of any award, even improper, has the effect of precluding tribal lands “from obtaining the benefit of any future awards from RUS,” it said. Tribes such as Unalakleet and Elim “have been forced to accept non-existent services from providers to which they did not consent and have been prevented from receiving services from providers to which they do consent,” said the complaint. RUS’ improper funding awards also compromise the rights of tribes “to benefit from alternative federal funding administered by agencies other than USDA,” such as NTIA’s broadband equity, access and deployment program, “causing additional irreparable harm,” it said. Unalakleet and Elim “have established that a preliminary injunction should issue,” it said They seek an order compelling RUS to “deobligate” Interior and Mukluk’s ReConnect program awards “until such time as they can be declared void and unenforceable through this action,” it said. They separately seek an order compelling RUS to designate the plaintiffs as unserved, “thus removing the cloud on eligibility for concurrent and future federal funding during the pendency of this action,” it said.