...renegotiating Dept. of the Interior contracts. Competitive grants geared toward business, such as broadband-technology funding, initially disfavored non-profit organizations.

“建设,这是真正的时机of the funding itself, negotiating and just having agencies make sure tribes were included,” Desiderio says. Expediency was a prime consideration. “The term ‘shovel-ready’ took on an important meaning in tribal communities,” he says.

ARRA强调建筑准备就绪，为部落带来了竞争优势，该部落具有主计划和董事会的项目。新利18备用网址

“You shouldn’t just pull a project out of a hat, so you need to have some footing and understanding of what your needs are,” says Shelley Zavlek, president of Justice Solutions, a New Jersey-based criminal-justice planning consultant with more than 45 tribal clients.

Tribes fund planning through various avenues, such as the Dept. of Justice’s Correctional Facilities on Tribal Lands program. Tribes poised to take advantage of ARRA funding already had developed plans through alternative funding, Zavlek says. Most tribal projects funded by ARRA were shelved due to lack of funds, not insufficient planning.

In Rosebud, S.D., an airport planned since 1999 is more than 50% complete. Independent-living homes for Choctaw elders in Oklahoma were 12 years coming. On the Colville Indian Reservation in Washington, ARRA funds are improving roads neglected for 30 years.

Norton Sound Regional Hospital, a 150,000-sq-ft, $91-million project located in Nome, Alaska, replaces a 61-year-old facility. It’s one of two ARRA construction projects through Indian Health Service (IHS); the other is a $111-million Cheyenne River Health Center in Eagle Butte, S.D., that will triple the size of the existing hospital, which was built in 1960.

“我不知道我们是否可以通过我们拥有的资金完成这两个项目，”环境卫生与工程办公室的代理副主任以及IHS ARRA协新利18备用网址调员Randall Gardner说。

The projects were selected from an agency priority list based on readiness, including operations funding, he says.

NOME项目将创造150个职位，并旨在将40％的工作捐赠给当地部落成员。白令海峡本地公司的子公司。

Facility staffing will provide work long after construction, Gardner adds, as will ARRA-funded IHS projects in maintenance and sanitation.

Data on ARRA economic impacts is accumulating as projects progress.

NCAI is measuring effectiveness and already analyzing lessons learned, Desiderio says.