Navajo Nation has $7.8 million left for hardship payments, McCabe says

Sean McCabe told the 25th Navajo Nation Council that about $7.8 million remains available for hardship payments, with disbursements expected to begin within the next month. For families in Apache County and across the Navajo Nation, the money is one of the few direct relief measures still moving through the system as household costs remain high.

The hardship program was formally launched Jan. 13, when President Buu Nygren signed Executive Order No. 01-2026. The order set a public go-live date of no later than June 1, 2026 for the application portal and said the program is meant to help Diné families still dealing with the lingering effects of COVID-19, inflation and rising living costs. In late January, the Office of the Controller said it had identified more than $5.6 million in remaining American Rescue Plan Act fiscal recovery funds for the expanded program, while the controller’s office was tasked with confirming available funding and helping develop eligibility criteria and the overall structure.

McCabe’s update came as the Nation’s broader financial picture grew more complicated. He told delegates that $347.544 million in ARPA funds remained unspent at the end of 2025, and that the Nation would need to spend about $30 million to $35 million each month to avoid sending federal money back to Washington. The Nation still had roughly $1.86 billion in federal pandemic recovery funding at stake, and all of it must be fully spent by Dec. 31, 2026 or revert to the federal government.

That deadline is colliding with several unresolved obligations. McCabe cited a $5.6 million rent dispute tied to the Washington, D.C., office, a $24 million ZenniHome contract that he said likely will have to be reverted to the federal government, and $45.8 million in housing manufacturing funds that the Community Housing and Infrastructure Department has declined to discuss. Delegates also pressed him on the ARPA spend-down, the Enterprise Resource Planning rollout, chapter accounting systems and the fiscal 2027 budget, underscoring how closely the hardship payments are tied to the Nation’s overall ability to manage money.

The accounting modules for the controller’s office and the Office of Management and Budget are scheduled to go live April 26, after payroll problems forced a temporary return to a legacy system. The Nation’s earlier CARES Act hardship program shows the scale of the demand ahead: lawmakers appropriated $557 million for about 250,000 Diné citizens, and by spring 2022 officials said 304,137 enrolled Navajos had been paid $507.5 million. The remaining $7.8 million may reach households soon, but it will do so inside a budget picture that is still under heavy strain.