WASHINGTON A federal judge on Monday ordered Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to distribute $679 million in emergency COVID-19 relief funds to Native American tribes that should have gotten it months ago, and he chided the agency for causing irreparable harm with its delays.

Continued delay in the face of an exceptional public health crisis is no longer acceptable, said U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta, who gave Mnuchin until Wednesday to disburse the funds.

Heres a copy of Mehtas opinion:

The judges order comes after the Treasury Department has blown past deadlines, for months, for distributing coronavirus aid to tribal governments, who have been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. Congress set aside $8 billion for tribes when it passed the CARES Act stimulus package in late March, and directed the Treasury Department to get the money out the door by April 26. That didnt happen. The agency distributed about $4.8 billion in late May, and most of the remaining $3.2 billion wasnt distributed until last Friday.

The delays have stemmed largely from the Treasury Departments incompetence in working with tribes, but a lawsuit over Alaska Native Corporations eligibility for funds also complicated matters. The latest problem is that Mnuchin has been withholding $679 million of tribes money while a separate court challenge plays out over the agencys methodology for calculating how much money tribes get.

Mnuchin had argued that he needs to hold on to the $679 million in the event the Treasury Department loses the case and needs to pay out more money to the tribe claiming it was underpaid. But Mehta said Monday that $679 million is grossly disproportionate to the amount of money that Treasury could have to pay out the tribe in the case claims it was underpaid by $7.65 million and there is no court order preventing the agency from releasing that money to tribes.

So, Mehta concluded, Mnuchin needs to release the funds to tribes now.

That amount is being withheld of the Secretarys own accord, Mehta said. The Secretarys withholding of $679 million to resolve any potentially adverse decision in litigation simply cannot be justified.

A Treasury Department spokesperson did not respond to a request for comment.