The Virgin Islands government is preparing to release $10 million in tax refunds to Virgin Islanders who filed their income tax returns by March 2024, Gov. Albert Bryan Jr. announced during a Government House press briefing Monday.

“I want to speak directly to the households that are feeling the strain of this federal shutdown,” Bryan said. “Many of you are stretching every dollar you have. You’re trying to keep up with the light bill, groceries, gas, and the start of the holiday season. Getting these refunds out the door now provides just a little help with the essentials for so many of our families. It gives them a little bit more breathing room for Thanksgiving and Christmas — which we are all looking forward to.”

Bryan said the refunds will cover 3,328 households and acknowledged that there’s more work to be done in making Virgin Islanders whole.

“We are not all the way yet, but we are moving to meet the commitment that we made in our first year,” he said. “This refund issuance is just another step forward. It reflects the steady work by the Bureau of Internal Revenue and Department of Finance, and I want to thank those teams for being focused and staying diligent, because this has been … a challenging couple weeks.”

Federal food assistance for the roughly 42 million Americans — including tens of thousands of Virgin Islanders — was halted amid a shutdown of the federal government, which began last month. That shutdown appeared to be nearing its end Monday after a handful of U.S. Senate Democrats broke ranks Sunday night and voted in favor of a stopgap funding measure, which did not include an extension to Affordable Care Act subsidies. Locally, the government paid out $2.77 million to Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries to cover the lapse in federal assistance.

During a press briefing last week, Bryan said the territory was one of only six jurisdictions to cover the shortfall using local funds. At least 25 other states sued the Trump administration over the funding freeze. A federal judge in Rhode Island ordered the administration last week to fully release this month’s benefits. U.S. Supreme Court Justice Ketanji Brown Jackson stayed the order last Friday to give the U.S. Court of Appeals for the First Circuit time to consider the matter.

“Our fingers are definitely crossed about us getting something through the Senate and the House this week,” Bryan said Monday. “But if not, I’ll call a state of emergency and issue the SNAP payment — the second SNAP payment — by next week.”

Bryan said the 36th Legislature only authorized funds to cover the first half of households’ November benefits and that they might not meet in time to authorize a second payout. Beyond SNAP, Bryan said the shutdown has caused “all kinds of other havoc” for the territory as it seeks approvals for its myriad federally funded disaster recovery projects.

Monday’s briefing also included updates on the second phase of the Veterans Drive revitalization effort and the V.I. Port Authority’s second attempt at soliciting a contractor to dredge Charlotte Amalie Harbor. The first time around, Bryan said, “a lot of the bidders were confused about what they would do with the waste” and the dredging depth.

“But last week, the Legislature approved $2 million for the demolition of the old Addelita Cancryn school — which the PFA put up the money for, once again,” he said. “So what that does now is it creates a space for all the dredge spoilage. Hopefully, because we do have the waterfront project going on just about the same time, we could use some of that spoilage as well, in that project, but now we don’t have to figure out how to dump it out at sea, or we don’t have to truck it over to St. Croix.”