Shawnee Tribe v. Steven Mnuchin ( 2021 )


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  •  United States Court of Appeals
    FOR THE DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA CIRCUIT
    Argued December 4, 2020                Decided January 5, 2021
    No. 20-5286
    SHAWNEE TRIBE,
    APPELLANT
    v.
    STEVEN T. MNUCHIN, IN HIS OFFICIAL CAPACITY AS
    SECRETARY OF THE UNITED STATES DEPARTMENT OF THE
    TREASURY, ET AL.,
    APPELLEES
    Appeal from the United States District Court
    for the District of Columbia
    (No. 1:20-cv-01999)
    Pilar M. Thomas argued the cause for appellant. With her
    on the briefs were Luke Cass, Scott McIntosh, and Nicole L.
    Simmons.
    Michael G. Rossetti was on the brief for amicus curiae
    Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation in support of appellant.
    Daniel G. Jarcho was on the brief for amicus curiae the
    Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida in support of appellant.
    2
    Thomas Pulham, Attorney, U.S. Department of Justice,
    argued the cause for appellees. With him on the brief were
    Jeffrey Bossert Clark, Acting Assistant Attorney General, and
    Michael S. Raab and Daniel Tenny, Attorneys. Adam C. Jed,
    Attorney, entered an appearance.
    Before: TATEL, GARLAND*, and WILKINS, Circuit Judges.
    Opinion for the Court filed by Circuit Judge TATEL.
    TATEL, Circuit Judge: The Shawnee Tribe, located in
    Oklahoma, challenges the allocation of funds under the
    Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security Act (CARES
    Act), which Congress enacted in response to the current public
    health emergency. The district court, finding that the allocation
    of funds under the CARES Act was unreviewable, denied the
    Tribe’s motion for a preliminary injunction and then dismissed
    the case. For the reasons set forth below, we reverse and
    remand for the district court to consider the merits and to
    enter a preliminary injunction promptly.
    I.
    Title V of the CARES Act appropriated $150 billion “for
    making payments to States, Tribal governments, and units of
    local government,” 
    42 U.S.C. § 801
    (a)(1), for “necessary
    expenditures incurred due to the public health emergency with
    respect to [COVID-19],” 
    id.
     § 801(d)(1). Congress directed the
    Secretary of the Treasury to make the payments within thirty
    days of the Act’s March 27, 2020 enactment. Id. § 801(b)(1).
    * Judge Garland was a member of the panel at the time this case was
    argued but did not participate in the final disposition of the case.
    3
    Of the $150 billion, Congress reserved $8 billion for
    payments to “Tribal governments,” id. § 801(a)(2)(B), and
    specified that the amount to be paid
    to a Tribal government shall be the amount the
    Secretary [of the Treasury] shall determine, in
    consultation with the Secretary of the Interior and
    Indian Tribes, that is based on increased expenditures
    of each such Tribal government . . . relative to
    aggregate expenditures in fiscal year 2019 by the
    Tribal government . . . and determined in such manner
    as the Secretary determines appropriate to ensure that
    all amounts available . . . for fiscal year 2020 are
    distributed to Tribal governments.
    Id. § 801(c)(7).
    Following consultation with Tribal government
    representatives, the Secretary published on April 13 a form
    requesting enrollment data from all 574 federally recognized
    Tribal governments “to help apportion Title V funds.”
    Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation v. Mnuchin,
    
    976 F.3d 15
    , 20 (D.C. Cir. 2020). In response, the Shawnee
    Tribe certified that it had 3,021 enrolled members.
    The Secretary subsequently announced his chosen
    methodology for distributing funds. See U.S. Department of the
    Treasury, Coronavirus Relief Fund Allocations to Tribal
    Governments (May 5, 2020) (“May 5 Document”),
    https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/Coronavirus-
    Relief-Fund-Tribal-Allocation-Methodology.pdf.        Because
    data about increased expenditures for fiscal year 2020 were
    “unknown” and could only be “estimate[d]” at that point, the
    Secretary “determined that it [was] reasonable and appropriate
    to allocate payments based on a formula [that] takes into
    account population data, employment data, and expenditure
    4
    data.” 
    Id. at 1
    . Sixty percent of the $8 billion would be
    distributed “immediately based on population,” while the
    remaining forty percent would be distributed later “based on
    employment and expenditures data.” 
    Id. at 2
    .
    For the sixty percent based on population, the Secretary
    explained that “Tribal population [wa]s expected to correlate
    reasonably well with the amount of increased expenditures of
    Tribal governments related directly to the public health
    emergency, such as increased costs to address medical and
    public health needs.” 
    Id.
     Rather than using the enrollment
    numbers submitted by the tribes, however, the Secretary relied
    on “Tribal population data used by the Department of Housing
    and Urban Development (HUD) in connection with the Indian
    Housing Block Grant (IHBG) program.” 
    Id.
     According to the
    Secretary, the data were “reliable and consistently-prepared,”
    and the Tribal governments were “familiar” with the data and
    had been able to previously “scrutinize and challenge its
    accuracy.” 
    Id.
    The IHBG data does not reflect actual tribal enrollment.
    Instead, it estimates a tribe’s “population” in a geographical
    “formula area” based on population numbers drawn from
    census projections of the number of individuals who consider
    themselves “American Indian or Alaska Native” on census
    forms. See 
    24 C.F.R. §§ 1000.302
    , 1000.330; see also May 5
    Document at 2. A Tribal government’s formula area is defined
    to be its formula area as it existed in 2003, any of its land that
    falls into nine categories (including “reservations for federally
    recognized Indian tribes”), and any other areas added by
    application of the Tribe and at HUD’s discretion. See 
    24 C.F.R. § 1000.302
    . A formula area, the Secretary explained,
    “corresponds broadly with the area of a Tribal government’s
    jurisdiction and other areas to which the Tribal government’s
    provision of services and economic influence extend.” May 5
    5
    Document at 2–3. Because the IHBG data does not reflect
    actual enrollment, a tribe’s IHBG “population” sometimes
    exceeds its actual enrollment numbers. 
    24 C.F.R. § 1000.302
    .
    A tribe’s IHBG formula area population is thus capped at twice
    its “enrolled population.” 
    Id.
     § 1000.302(5).
    The Secretary’s decision to use IHBG data had an
    unfortunate impact on the Shawnee Tribe. Even though the
    table displaying the IHBG data included HUD enrollment
    figures indicating that the Tribe had 2,113 enrolled members,
    the IHBG data reported that the Tribe had a formula area
    population of zero. So although the Tribe had over $6.6 million
    in expenditures in 2019, Compl. Ex. A, and although it
    “incurred significant medical and public health expenses in
    responding to the devastation resulting from the COVID-19
    pandemic,” id. ¶ 62, it received just $100,000—the minimum
    payment for tribes with a population of fewer than thirty-seven,
    id. ¶ 26. See Barker v. Conroy, 
    921 F.3d 1118
    , 1121 (D.C. Cir.
    2019) (explaining that on “appeal from the district court’s grant
    of a motion to dismiss, ‘we must accept as true all material
    allegations of the complaint’” (quoting LaRoque v. Holder,
    
    650 F.3d 777
    , 785 (D.C. Cir. 2011))). Twenty-four other tribes
    also had formula area populations of zero, including amicus
    curiae Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida, which has 605
    enrolled members. Miccosukee Tribe’s Br. 2.
    On June 18, the Shawnee Tribe sued the Department of the
    Treasury, the Secretary of the Treasury, the Department of the
    Interior, and the Secretary of the Interior (collectively, the
    Secretary) in the Northern District of Oklahoma. See Shawnee
    Tribe v. Mnuchin (Shawnee Tribe I), No. 20-CV-290,
    
    2020 WL 4334908
     (N.D. Okla. July 28, 2020). Seeking
    declaratory and injunctive relief, the Tribe contended that the
    Secretary acted arbitrarily, capriciously, and unlawfully by
    using population as a proxy for increased expenditures,
    6
    selecting the IHBG population data rather than other available
    data, and refusing to adjust what the Tribe deemed errors in the
    IHBG data. See 
    id.
     at *1–2; Compl. ¶¶ 45–52. The Tribe also
    filed a motion for a temporary restraining order. The Oklahoma
    district court converted the motion to a motion for a
    preliminary injunction and transferred the case to the district
    court here. Shawnee Tribe I, 
    2020 WL 4334908
    , at *1, 3–4.
    The district court denied the Tribe’s motion for a
    preliminary injunction. See Shawnee Tribe v. Mnuchin
    (Shawnee Tribe II), No. 20-CV-1999 (APM), 
    2020 WL 4816461
     (D.D.C. Aug. 19, 2020). Although “accept[ing]” that
    the Tribe would suffer irreparable harm, 
    id.
     at *4 n.3, the court
    concluded that the Tribe had failed to satisfy the other
    requirements for preliminary relief, 
    id.
     at *2–4. According to
    the district court, the Tribe failed to show a likelihood of
    success on the merits because the Secretary’s allocation of
    funds under Title V was “committed to agency discretion” and
    thus unreviewable under the Administrative Procedure Act
    (APA). 
    Id.
     The district court also found that the balance of
    equities weighed against granting preliminary relief. 
    Id.
     at
    *4–5.
    The Secretary subsequently moved to dismiss, again
    arguing that the allocation of Title V funds was unreviewable.
    Relying on and incorporating its reasoning in its opinion on the
    preliminary injunction, as well as in an earlier decision it had
    issued in a similar case brought by the Prairie Band Potawatomi
    Nation, see Prairie Band Potawatomi Nation v. Mnuchin, No.
    20-cv-1491 (APM), 
    2020 WL 3402298
     (D.D.C. June 11,
    2020), the district court agreed and dismissed the case.
    Shawnee Tribe v. Mnuchin (Shawnee Tribe III), No. 20-CV-
    1999 (APM), 
    2020 WL 5440552
    , at *1–2 (D.D.C. Sept. 10,
    2020). The Tribe appealed both decisions and a motions panel
    7
    of this court granted expedition. Order, Shawnee Tribe v.
    Mnuchin, No. 20-5286 (D.C. Cir. Sept. 25, 2020).
    II.
    The same motions panel that expedited the case also
    directed the parties to “address whether this Court can provide
    relief to appellant after the CARES Act appropriation lapses or
    the remaining CARES Act funds are obligated.” 
    Id.
     The
    Secretary and the Tribe agree that there are no immediate
    mootness concerns, as do we.
    “[A] case becomes moot only when it is impossible for a
    court to grant any effectual relief whatever to the prevailing
    party. As long as the parties have a concrete interest, however
    small, in the outcome of the litigation, the case is not moot.”
    Sanchez v. Office of the State Superintendent of Education,
    
    959 F.3d 1121
    , 1125 (D.C. Cir. 2020) (alteration in original)
    (internal quotation marks omitted). In the appropriations
    context, our court has recognized “an equitable doctrine . . .
    that permits a court to award funds based on an appropriation
    even after the date when the appropriation lapses, so long as
    the lawsuit was instituted on or before that date.” City of
    Houston v. Department of Housing & Urban Development,
    
    24 F.3d 1421
    , 1426 (D.C. Cir. 1994) (internal quotation marks
    omitted); see 1 U.S. Government Accountability Office,
    Principles of Federal Appropriations Law, 5-85 (3d ed. 2004)
    (“As long as the suit is filed prior to the expiration date, the
    court acquires the necessary jurisdiction and has the equitable
    power to ‘revive’ expired budget authority, even where
    preservation is first directed at the appellate level.”). But “even
    if a plaintiff brings suit before an appropriation lapses, this
    circuit’s case law unequivocally provides that once the relevant
    funds have been obligated” to a particular purpose or entity, “a
    court cannot reach them in order to award relief.” City of
    Houston, 
    24 F.3d at 1426
    .
    8
    In this case, the Tribe filed suit on June 18, over three
    months before the appropriation lapsed on September 30. See
    
    42 U.S.C. § 801
    (a)(1). Moreover, there is no risk that the
    “relevant funds” will be “obligated” before the courts can act,
    City of Houston, 
    24 F.3d at 1426
    , given that in a related case,
    Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of Florida v. United States
    Department of the Treasury, the district court ordered the
    government to provide it “with notice of at least three business
    days before disbursing Title V funds below the level necessary
    to pay the amounts claimed by Plaintiffs in th[at] case” and in
    this case. Minute Order, Miccosukee Tribe of Indians of
    Florida v. United States Department of the Treasury, No. 20-
    cv-2792 (D.D.C. Dec. 14, 2020).
    III.
    We start with the district court’s conclusion, defended by
    the Secretary, that the allocation of Title V funds is
    unreviewable. Although “[t]here is a strong presumption of
    reviewability under the” APA, section 701(a) “expressly
    precludes judicial review of agency action ‘committed to
    agency discretion by law.’” Steenholdt v. FAA, 
    314 F.3d 633
    ,
    638 (D.C. Cir. 2003) (quoting 
    5 U.S.C. § 701
    (a)(2)). “That
    provision imposes two related, but distinct, barriers to judicial
    review.” Physicians for Social Responsibility v. Wheeler,
    
    956 F.3d 634
    , 642 (D.C. Cir. 2020).
    First, the Supreme Court has “read § 701(a)(2) to preclude
    judicial review of certain categories of administrative decisions
    that courts traditionally have regarded as ‘committed to agency
    discretion.’” Lincoln v. Vigil, 
    508 U.S. 182
    , 191 (1993)
    (quoting 
    5 U.S.C. § 701
    (a)(2)). Certain agency decisions are
    thus “presumed immune from judicial review.” Heckler v.
    Chaney, 
    470 U.S. 821
    , 832 (1985). Second, “even if agency
    action is presumptively reviewable, section 701(a)(2) also
    applies ‘in those rare instances where statutes are drawn in such
    9
    broad terms that in a given case there is no law to apply.’”
    Physicians for Social Responsibility, 956 F.3d at 642 (quoting
    Citizens to Preserve Overton Park, Inc. v. Volpe, 
    401 U.S. 402
    ,
    410 (1971)). “That is, ‘if the statute is drawn so that a court
    would have no meaningful standard against which to judge the
    agency’s exercise of discretion,’ then there can be no judicial
    review.” 
    Id.
     (quoting Heckler, 
    470 U.S. at 830
    ). The Secretary
    argues that the Tribe cannot overcome either barrier.
    Relying on the Supreme Court’s decision in Lincoln v.
    Vigil, 
    508 U.S. 182
    , the Secretary first argues that Title V is a
    lump sum appropriation and that his allocation of Title V funds
    is therefore unreviewable. In Lincoln, the Court held that
    “where Congress merely appropriates lump-sum amounts
    without statutorily restricting what can be done with those
    funds, a clear inference arises that it does not intend to impose
    legally binding restrictions.” 
    Id. at 192
     (internal quotation
    marks omitted). “[A] lump-sum appropriation,” the Court
    explained, “reflects a congressional recognition that an agency
    must be allowed flexibility to shift funds within a particular
    appropriation account so that the agency can make necessary
    adjustments for unforeseen developments and changing
    requirements.” 
    Id. at 193
     (alterations omitted) (internal
    quotation marks omitted). In Lincoln, plaintiffs challenged the
    Indian Health Service’s decision to discontinue a program
    providing services to “handicapped Indian children in the
    Southwest.” 
    Id. at 184
    . The Court pointed out, however, that
    “the appropriations Acts for the relevant period d[id] not so
    much as mention the Program,” and the other two relevant
    statutes “likewise sp[oke] about Indian health only in general
    terms.” 
    Id.
     at 193–94. Accordingly, the Court concluded, the
    Service’s decision to end the program was unreviewable.
    Title V is nothing like the statutes at issue in Lincoln.
    Congress has not left the Secretary any “flexibility to shift
    10
    funds within a particular appropriation account so that [he] can
    make necessary adjustments for unforeseen developments and
    changing requirements.” 
    Id. at 193
     (alterations omitted)
    (internal quotation marks omitted). Quite to the contrary, Title
    V appropriates funds for only “necessary expenditures incurred
    due to the public health emergency with respect to” COVID-
    19. 
    42 U.S.C. § 801
    (d)(1). The statute, moreover, directs the
    Secretary to (1) “ensure that all amounts available” be
    “distributed to Tribal governments,” 
    id.
     § 801(c)(7); (2)
    “base[]” the allocation of funds “on increased expenditures . . .
    relative to aggregate expenditures in fiscal year 2019,” id.; and
    (3) “pay each . . . Tribal government” no “later than 30 days”
    after the Act’s enactment, id. § 801(b)(1). In other words,
    Congress has “circumscribe[d] agency discretion to allocate
    resources by putting restrictions in the operative statute[].”
    Lincoln, 
    508 U.S. at 193
    . Title V thus carries no presumption
    of non-reviewability.
    Invoking section 701(a)(2)’s second barrier to judicial
    review, the Secretary argues that, even if his allocation
    decisions are presumptively reviewable, there is still no law for
    us to apply because Title V provides that the Secretary must
    allocate funds “in such manner as [he] determines appropriate.”
    See 
    42 U.S.C. § 801
    (c)(7). If that were all Title V said, the
    Secretary would have a point. But the statute says much more:
    that the “amount paid to a Tribal government” shall be “based
    on increased expenditures . . . relative to aggregate
    expenditures . . . and determined in such manner as the
    Secretary determines appropriate to ensure that all amounts
    available . . . are distributed to Tribal governments.” 
    Id.
    (emphasis added). To be sure, the provision gives the Secretary
    some discretion, but that discretion is limited to
    “determin[ing]” a method for allocating funds that is “based on
    increased expenditures” and that is “appropriate to ensure that
    all amounts available . . . are distributed.” 
    Id.
     In other words,
    11
    however the Secretary chooses to exercise his discretion, he
    must ensure that (1) the “amount paid to . . . a Tribal
    government” is “based on increased expenditures” and (2) “all
    amounts available . . . are distributed to Tribal governments.”
    
    Id.
     This is more than enough to provide us with a “judicially
    manageable standard” against “which to judge the
    [Secretary’s] action.” Steenholdt, 
    314 F.3d at 638
     (internal
    quotation marks omitted).
    This case, then, is very much like Department of
    Commerce v. New York, 
    139 S. Ct. 2551
     (2019). There,
    emphasizing that APA section 701(a)(2) is read “quite
    narrowly,” the Supreme Court held that despite the Census Act
    “confer[ring] broad authority on the Secretary” of Commerce
    by instructing him to “take a decennial census of population in
    such form and content as he may determine,” the Act did “not
    leave his discretion unbounded” because various provisions
    constrained his authority. 
    Id.
     at 2568–69 (internal quotation
    marks omitted). Here, as there, by requiring that the allocations
    be “based on increased expenditures,” Congress has not left the
    Secretary with “unbounded” discretion. See 
    id.
     Indeed, our
    court has found agency action to be judicially reviewable when
    taken pursuant to statutes containing far more permissive
    language. Examples include a statute mandating that the
    Armed Forces Retirement Home’s Chief Operating Officer
    “shall” provide “high quality and cost-effective” healthcare,
    Cody v. Cox, 
    509 F.3d 606
    , 611 (D.C. Cir. 2007); an
    appropriations act providing that the “moneys” were for
    “economic losses incurred during 1999,” Milk Train, Inc. v.
    Veneman, 
    310 F.3d 747
    , 752 (D.C. Cir. 2002) (internal
    quotation marks omitted); a statute that allowed a board to
    excuse a failure to file a request to correct an error in a military
    record within a certain time period only if “it f[ound] it to be in
    the interest of justice,” Dickson v. Secretary of Defense,
    
    68 F.3d 1396
    , 1402 (D.C. Cir. 1995); and regulations providing
    12
    that the General Services Administration “must . . . assure”
    compliance with federal ethics rules, Physicians for Social
    Responsibility, 956 F.3d at 643–44.
    We thus have jurisdiction to review the Tribe’s challenge
    to the Secretary’s allocation of Title V funds. The Tribe urges
    us to proceed to the merits and find that the Secretary’s
    “methodology based on population and use of IHBG data was
    arbitrary and capricious, and violated the APA as a matter of
    law.” Appellant’s Br. 42. But as the Secretary points out, “the
    Tribe never moved for summary judgment in [the] district
    court,” that court did “not address[] the merits of the Tribe’s
    APA claim,” and “the administrative record has not been filed
    in this case.” Appellee’s Br. 34. Under these circumstances, we
    think it best for the district court to consider the merits in the
    first instance. See Perot v. FEC, 
    97 F.3d 553
    , 561 (D.C. Cir.
    1996) (declining to reach the merits of an APA claim when “no
    party ha[d] produced the administrative record,” “th[e] issue
    was not fully briefed,” and “the district court did not have the
    opportunity to consider the [challenged] regulations’ legality in
    terms of that record or the APA and the case law under it”); CC
    Distributors, Inc. v. United States, 
    883 F.2d 146
    , 156 (D.C.
    Cir. 1989) (remanding a case to the district court because
    remand “would give the district court the benefit of the parties’
    arguments concerning” the relevant regulations “and thereby
    facilitate the proper disposition of plaintiffs’ claim”).
    IV.
    This brings us finally to the Tribe’s challenge to the district
    court’s order denying its motion for a preliminary injunction.
    To obtain a preliminary injunction, “the moving party must
    make a clear showing that four factors, taken together, warrant
    relief: likely success on the merits, likely irreparable harm in
    the absence of preliminary relief, a balance of the equities in its
    favor, and accord with the public interest.” Archdiocese of
    13
    Washington v. Washington Metropolitan Area Transit
    Authority, 
    897 F.3d 314
    , 321 (D.C. Cir. 2018) (internal
    quotation marks omitted). Although “[w]e review the district
    court’s ultimate decision to deny injunctive relief, as well as its
    weighing of the preliminary injunction factors, for abuse of
    discretion,” we “review the district court’s legal conclusions de
    novo.” In re Navy Chaplaincy, 
    697 F.3d 1171
    , 1178 (D.C. Cir.
    2012). Here, the district court’s conclusion that the Tribe had
    failed to demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits
    rested, as did the court’s dismissal of the case, on a legal error:
    that the Secretary’s allocation of Title V funds is unreviewable.
    Accordingly, we shall reverse the district court’s denial of the
    Tribe’s motion for a preliminary injunction.
    The Secretary urges us to remand the question of
    preliminary relief for the district court to consider. But unlike
    the merits, the parties have fully briefed this issue, and counsel
    for the Secretary acknowledged at oral argument that the record
    is adequate to consider the Tribe’s motion for a preliminary
    injunction. Oral Arg. Rec. 22:29–23:45. Given this, and given
    the urgency of the matter, we shall resolve the preliminary
    injunction question here and now. Because the Secretary does
    not challenge the Tribe’s claim that it will suffer irreparable
    harm, see Oral Arg. Rec. 24:01–31, our analysis focuses on the
    three remaining factors, beginning with likelihood of success
    on the merits.
    The Secretary chose the IHBG formula area population
    data as a proxy for “increased expenditures.” See May 5
    Document at 1–3. But as the Tribe points out, and as the record
    demonstrates, the IHBG formula area population data is, at
    least with respect to some tribes, an unsuitable proxy. Even
    though the Shawnee Tribe alleges (unchallenged by the
    Secretary) that it has 3,021 enrolled members and that it had
    expenditures of some $6.65 million in 2019, the IHBG formula
    14
    area population data indicates that the Tribe had a population
    of zero. See Compl. Ex. A. As a result, the Tribe received the
    minimum payment of $100,000, even though it “has incurred
    significant medical and public health expenses in responding
    to the devastation resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic” by,
    for instance, “provid[ing] essential services to its citizens
    residing on-reservation and off-reservation.” See 
    id. ¶ 62
    . The
    same is likely true for amicus the Miccosukee Tribe—
    according to its brief, it has 605 enrolled members yet the
    IHBG data indicates it had zero population—as well as for the
    Eastern Delaware Band of Indians, which, according to the
    IHBG data table, had a HUD enrollment figure of 11,014 but a
    population of zero. See Miccosukee Tribe’s Br. 2; Compl. Ex.
    B at 10. Moreover, the Secretary himself acknowledged that
    the IHBG data was inadequate as a proxy for increased
    expenditures in some cases when he requested population data
    from HUD for three tribes that did not participate in the IHBG
    program, see May 5 Document at 3; U.S. Department of the
    Treasury, Coronavirus Relief Fund Frequently Asked
    Questions on Tribal Population at 1 (June 4, 2020),
    https://home.treasury.gov/system/files/136/FAQ-on-Tribal-
    Population-Data.pdf, yet he failed to do the same for the
    Shawnee Tribe, which also does not participate in the program,
    Compl. ¶ 47. Nor did the Secretary explain why he failed to
    seek alternative information for the Shawnee Tribe or the
    twenty-four other tribes with no IHBG population. On this
    record, then, the Shawnee Tribe is likely to succeed in its claim
    that the IHBG data is not a suitable proxy for “increased
    expenditures.” See 
    42 U.S.C. § 801
    (c)(7).
    The last two factors—harm to the opposing party and the
    public interest—also favor the Tribe. Where, as here, “the
    Government is the opposing party,” the last two factors
    “merge”: “the government’s interest is the public interest.”
    Nken v. Holder, 
    556 U.S. 418
    , 435 (2009); Pursuing America’s
    15
    Greatness v. FEC, 
    831 F.3d 500
    , 511 (D.C. Cir. 2016). A
    party’s likelihood of success on the merits “is a strong indicator
    that a preliminary injunction would serve the public interest”
    because “[t]here is generally no public interest in the
    perpetuation of unlawful agency action.” League of Women
    Voters of United States v. Newby, 
    838 F.3d 1
    , 12 (D.C. Cir.
    2016). Here, the Tribe is likely to succeed in showing that the
    Secretary is distributing congressionally appropriated funds in
    violation of the authorizing statute, and the public interest
    therefore favors the Tribe.
    The Secretary insists that granting a preliminary injunction
    will “forc[e] [him] to create a whole new methodology based
    on a different data set with other flaws, or to make
    individualized determinations for each tribe, risking further
    delay of the distribution of funds.” Appellee’s Br. 44. The
    Tribe, however, seeks an injunction prohibiting the Secretary
    from distributing only $12 million of the remaining Title V
    funds. Whether the Secretary will have to devise a new
    methodology depends on the merits, which the district court
    will address in the first instance.
    V.
    For the foregoing reasons, we reverse the district court’s
    order dismissing the case and remand for further proceedings
    consistent with this opinion. We also reverse the district court’s
    order denying the Tribe’s motion for a preliminary injunction
    and remand for it to enter a preliminary injunction promptly.
    So ordered.