Tribes must waive sovereign immunity to seek Alaska bulk fuel disaster grants

Tribes and villages seeking a new state grant to retire bulk fuel loan debt must submit a waiver of sovereign immunity with their applications. The Alaska Division of Community and Regional Affairs set out that condition Tuesday in its Utility Disaster Relief Grant notice. Applications open Thursday, Oct. 1, and close Dec. 5.

The program has $800,000 for communities of fewer than 2,000 people. It repays bulk fuel loan debt, state loans for fuel purchases, for fuel lost in a local, state or federally declared disaster within the last two calendar years, or replaces the lost fuel; requests must be for emergency community bulk fuel assistance. Communities must not be eligible for other state or federal emergency bulk fuel funding. Awards start at $5,000, may be prorated, need no match and must be spent by June 30, 2027. Every applicant attaches the same core documents: a disaster declaration, a notice of denied funding from other emergency relief sources and verification of the loan debt. The fourth depends on the applicant. Municipalities submit a resolution to participate. Nonprofits show authority to apply for the community. Tribes and villages submit the waiver.

Sovereign immunity generally protects a tribe from being sued without its consent. The grant notice does not include the waiver's text. The state's existing Waiver of Sovereign Immunity for Tribal Entities, a resolution form, cites AS 29.60.865(a) and 3 AAC 180.130 as requiring it. That form's waiver is limited. It covers only claims by the state related to that payment, which the state could bring in Alaska state courts or state administrative proceedings, including interest, costs and attorney fees. It does not open the tribe to suits by anyone other than the state, and the state cannot collect more than the amount of the payment. The waiver cannot be withdrawn, but it ends when the statute of limitations, the filing deadline for related claims, runs out.

That form is written for State Fiscal Year 2025 Community Assistance Program payments, and the laws it cites govern that program. The grant notice cites a different law, AS 44.33.020, and this year's budget bill as its authority, and it does not say which waiver form applicants should use.

The state's bulk fuel loan program requires a similar waiver from Native village councils for loan-related claims, its program page says.

Applicants must register in DCRAGrants, the state's grants system. DCRA scheduled seven Zoom assistance sessions; its program page lists the first on Oct. 14, its notice on Oct. 15. Questions go to Lindsay Reese at [email protected]. No tribal, village or DCRA official is quoted.