Tribal leaders tell House subcommittee ITARA stalled by narrow BIA interpretation and staffing shortfalls

Witnesses told the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs on 2025-02-26 that the Indian Trust Asset Reform Act of 2016, known as ITARA, has not delivered its intended expansion of tribal self-governance because the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) have applied a narrow interpretation of which trust assets qualify and because agency staffing shortfalls are causing lengthy delays.

The hearing, titled “Federal Indian Trust Asset Management: Progress Made, but Improvement Needed,” opened with the chair saying the session would examine why only two tribes have completed demonstration projects nearly nine years after ITARA became law. The subcommittee heard tribal leaders describe stalled applications, inconsistent agency guidance, and requests for statutory clarifications or a permanent extension of the demonstration authority.

ITARA created a 10-year demonstration program allowing tribes to submit Indian trust asset management plans (ITAMPs) to assume management of specified trust resources. Several witnesses said the Department has effectively limited allowable assets to forestry and surface leases despite the statute’s broader language. Glenn Gobin, a member of the Tulalip Tribal Council, said, “we were told in unambiguous terms that a demonstration project was limited to forestry resource and…