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On Demand

COVID-Relief Legislation Update


Total Credits: 1.25 CLE

Average Rating:
   1
Categories:
Indian Law
Faculty:
Nicole Elliott |  Philip Baker-Shenk |  Ken Parsons
Original Program Date:
Mar 30, 2022


Description

An overview of the current Treasury guidance on Fiscal Recovery Funds as provided by the American Rescue Plan and other opportunities available for tribes related to funding through COVID-19 relief legislation and the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act. 
 
Faculty:
Nicole Elliott, Partner, Holland & Knight
Ken Parsons, Partner, Holland & Knight
Phil Baker-Shenk,  Partner, Holland & Knight 

Moderator:
Kristen Lowell, Navajo Nation Department of Justice
 
Chairpersons:
Doreen McPaul, Attorney General, Navajo Nation; President, Tribal In-House Counsel Association
Virjinya Torrez, Assistant Attorney General, Pascua Yaqui Tribe; Secretary, Tribal In-House Counsel Association

Handouts

Faculty

Nicole Elliott Related Seminars and Products

Partner


Nicole Elliott is a tax attorney in Holland & Knight's Public Policy & Regulation Group in Washington, D.C. Prior to joining Holland & Knight, Ms. Elliott was a U.S. Department of Treasury Executive and member of the senior executive team with the Internal Revenue Service acting as Senior Advisor to the Commissioner. As a registered lobbyist, Ms. Elliott is involved in a variety of policy issues before Congress and various federal agencies, including the U.S. Department of Treasury. Ms. Elliott helps clients impact and understand the various laws passed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. Ms. Elliott currently represents several tribes, and has been very active in working with tribes to understand the Fiscal Recovery Funds as included in the American Rescue Plan as well as tribal opportunities in the Inflation Reduction Act.


Philip Baker-Shenk Related Seminars and Products

Partner

Holland & Knight LLP


Philip "Phil" Baker-Shenk is a law partner in Holland & Knight's Washington, D.C., office. For the past 33 years Phil has provided legal and policy representation to scores of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments and organizations as well as companies doing business with Native communities. Mr. Baker-Shenk regularly appears before courts, federal agencies and tribal governing bodies. He has extensive experience drafting regulations, legislation, constitutions and ordinances as well as negotiating agreements, developing strategic positions and litigating cases on behalf of clients. 

Phil was a mere teenager when he first began his work on behalf of Indian Country in Washington, D.C., serving as a college intern at the Friends Committee on National Legislation in 1976, and then as a professional staff member on the U.S. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Years later, he returned to the Committee to serve for two years as majority general counsel to Sen. John McCain, its chairman. During several tours of duty on the Committee staff, totaling a half decade, Phil drafted legislation and committee reports dealing with Indian gaming, housing, economic development, tribal status, land and resource management, environmental protection, taxation, child welfare, education, housing, self-governance and many other issues. Phil was a core member of the legislative drafting teams for the 1988, 1994, 2000, and 2020 amendments to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act of 1975, and has played an active role on each of the associated regulation writing teams. He has negotiated more than a hundred contracts, compacts, and funding agreements under that Act, has litigated dozens of cases to secure rights due clients on Tribal Self-Governance and Indian Self-Determination issues, and in recent years negotiated the first major Section 105(l) lease agreements with the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

Tribal clients call on Phil for advice on policy issues, federal relations, economic development strategies, Indian Self-Determination, and Tribal Self-Governance matters. He has substantial experience in a variety of aspects of the development of federal Indian law, including litigating in federal, state and tribal courts, crafting federal and state legislation, providing legal advice and counsel to tribal governments and their enterprises, negotiating with federal and state administrative agencies, and resolving problems as general counsel for tribal clients. Nothing satisfies him more than when he has secured a goal that helps returns land and sovereignty to his tribal clients and documents his personal reputation for effective advocacy that is worthy of their trust.


Ken Parsons Related Seminars and Products

Partner


Kenneth W. Parsons is a tax attorney in Holland & Knight’s Washington, D.C. office. Mr. Parsons represents Native American governments across the country on tax and business structuring issues. His experience includes IRS audits and tax planning under the Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act of 2014. He also provides counsel on numerous other aspects of law with tax implications for Native American governments and their members, including the tribal expenditure opportunities and compliance requirements under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act's (CARES Act) Coronavirus Relief Fund, the American Rescue Plan's Fiscal Recovery Fund, and the Inflation Reduction Act. Mr. Parsons is a member of the Treasury Tribal Advisory Committee's Subcommittee on the General Welfare Exclusion and the National Intertribal Tax Alliance Board of Directors.


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Total Reviews: 1