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Tribal leaders urge House appropriations subcommittee to protect health, safety and relocation funds as grant freezes stall projects
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Summary
Leaders from more than a dozen tribes told members of the House appropriations subcommittee that chronic underfunding of Indian programs — and a recent federal freeze on grant disbursements — are delaying health care, law enforcement, school construction, fisheries work and climate-driven relocation projects across Indian country.
WASHINGTON — Leaders from tribes across the country told the House Appropriations Subcommittee at a public witness hearing that long‑standing shortfalls for Indian programs, a recent executive‑branch freeze on certain federal grants and reductions in the federal workforce are hobbling services for tribal members.
At the hearing, tribal officials pressed the panel to protect and increase funding for the Indian Health Service (IHS), Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) programs and law enforcement; to speed school construction and land‑into‑trust decisions; to restore disbursed but frozen grants; and to provide dedicated funds for climate‑driven relocation.
Why it matters: Tribal witnesses repeatedly described the issues as matters of trust and legal obligation. They said underfunding and administrative actions that pause or redirect money threatened everyday services — emergency response, health care, education and fisheries management — and, in some cases, public safety.
Grant Johnson, president of the Prairie Island Indian Community, told the subcommittee that his reservation has been repeatedly flooded by a federal lock and dam and sits “less than 700 yards” from a nuclear power plant and on‑site spent fuel storage, a proximity he said exposes tribal members to ongoing risks. Johnson urged the subcommittee to prioritize federal financing for roads, water and sewer infrastructure, housing and emergency planning, saying the tribe has used its own funds to buy safer land (known in testimony as “Elkhorn”) and is awaiting Department of the Interior action to take additional land into trust.
Anna Miller, secretary for the Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians, told the panel that education and health funding are immediate shortfalls. She said the Department of Education’s Impact Aid and the Interior’s Johnson‑O’Malley program help but “fall short,” and cited a written FY2025 request for $22,600,000 for Johnson‑O’Malley. On health, Miller said IHS is “chronically underfunded,” reciting figures from testimony that the amount needed to fully fund IHS health services is “close to $47,000,000,000” while “only $8,500,000,000 has been provided” in recent FY25 appropriations measures.
Public safety was a central concern. Steven Slam (executive secretary for the Yakama Nation) said the nation has jurisdiction over about 12,000,000 acres yet only 20 officers — “1 quarter of what is needed,” he told the committee — and cautioned that staffing bottlenecks and recruitment shortfalls make it impossible to meet public safety demands. Similar testimony came from the Tulalip, Mashpee Wampanoag, Navajo Nation and other tribes, which described understaffed police departments, lack of detention and evidence facilities, and the difficulty of retaining recruits when local governments can offer higher pay.
Several witnesses described immediate harms from a January 20, 2025, executive order titled “Unleashing American Energy” that paused disbursements for programs funded under the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and the Inflation Reduction Act. Tribal witnesses said that pause stalled habitat and infrastructure projects already awarded — for example, a Stillaguamish wildlife crossing pilot project and Snoqualmie and Quinault grants for forest and resilience work — and urged the subcommittee to press the administration to unfreeze the funds already appropriated by Congress.
Climate‑driven relocation and resilience also featured prominently. Quentin Swanson, chairman of Shoalwater Bay, said his tribe is losing up to 30 feet of shoreline a year and has purchased roughly 5,000 acres for relocation but still needs more than $400,000,000 to complete a move; he urged reintroduction and passage of the Terra Act (testimony referenced it as HR 78 59 from the last Congress) to create a Department of the Interior “one‑stop shop” for coordinating relocation and resilience funding. Quinault Nation testified it needs expanded BIA climate resilience funding and asked for a $50,000,000 appropriation in FY26 to accelerate village relocations from threatened coastal sites.
Fisheries, hatcheries and the effect of federal dams also drew extensive testimony. Yakama, Jamestown S’Klallam, Skokomish and other Pacific Northwest tribes described decades‑long declines in salmon runs tied to hydroelectric dams and asked for increased funding for salmon recovery, rights‑protection implementation (RPI) grants, tribal hatchery maintenance and the Pacific Salmon Treaty work.
Several witnesses also proposed legislative and administrative fixes: language to let tribes contract BIA and IHS functions at staffing levels that existed on 10/01/2024 so tribal operations are not lost while the federal workforce changes; expansion of tribal self‑governance authorities; advanced appropriations and exemptions from future sequestration for IHS; and clearer executive‑branch guidance to prevent paused disbursements from interrupting tribal projects.
Committee members acknowledged the range of needs and said they would review testimony. Chairman Simpson and several members expressed particular concern about public safety gaps, salmon recovery and the grant freezes; Ranking Member Betty McCollum repeatedly urged protections for IHS funding and consultation with tribes on efficiency reforms.
The hearing continued with additional panels and the subcommittee said it will consider the testimony while work on FY2026 appropriations continues.
Sources and evidence: This summary is based on public witness testimony recorded at the House Appropriations Subcommittee hearing on American Indian and Alaska Native programs (public session), including testimony from Grant Johnson (Prairie Island), Anna Miller (Grand Traverse Band), Steven Slam (Yakama Nation), Quentin Swanson (Shoalwater Bay), Ron Allen (Jamestown S'Klallam), Jeremiah Clarkson (Colville Tribes), Bill Veil (Kalasinyu), Eric White (Stillaguamish), Glenn Gobin (Tulalip), Winnie Johnson Graham (Mashpee Wampanoag), Robert Blanchard (Bad River Band), Boone Nygren (Navajo Nation), Oneida Nation leadership, Guy Capoman (Quinault), and others. Direct quotes are taken from the hearing transcript.
