House subcommittee: BIE schools suffer dangerous deferred maintenance, data errors and potential misuse of funds; tribes press for guaranteed funding

WASHINGTON — Lawmakers on the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations heard testimony Wednesday that Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) schools suffer widespread deferred maintenance, unreliable facility data and instances of possible misuse of federal COVID relief funds — problems that tribal leaders said require both more funding and structural fixes.

The subcommittee heard detailed findings from Kathleen Sedney, Assistant Inspector General for Audits, Inspections, and Evaluations at the Department of the Interior’s Office of Inspector General (OIG), and from Melissa Emery Aris, director of the Education, Workforce, and Income Security team at the Government Accountability Office (GAO). Both witnesses described long‑running management weaknesses at BIE and Agency for Indian Affairs systems that track maintenance and spending.

Why it matters: testimony and reports presented at the hearing say unreliable facility records and improperly closed work orders have distorted the Bureau’s Facilities Condition Index (FCI), undermining decisions about which buildings to repair or replace. Separately, GAO flagged several million dollars in COVID‑era purchases and other transactions as high risk for fraud or misuse and said schools were not always monitored or investigated after those flags appeared.

Most important findings - OIG said BIE’s facility management system, Maximo, contains many inaccurate records: in a sampled set of work orders roughly 54% should have been closed but remained open; conversely, the contractor that BIE hired to clean up the data closed thousands of work orders that should not have been closed. OIG reported that contractor closed 89% of about 85,000 work orders it reviewed between September 2022 and July 2024 and that BIE later modified the contract and paid the contractor an additional $535,420. “Erroneously closed work orders could change the facility condition index,” Sedney told the subcommittee. - GAO said BIE serves about 46,000 students at 183 schools and remains on GAO’s “high risk” list because of systemic management weaknesses. GAO reported that BIE has implemented some recommendations but still needs to build staff capacity, strengthen monitoring, and demonstrate sustained progress. - GAO also told members that in an audit of special education service logs 38% of the required special education time was either not provided or could not be accounted for. - On pandemic relief spending, GAO said $7.1 million in credit‑card transactions were flagged as risky and not investigated further; GAO earlier identified $13.8 million in unallowable spending at 24 schools and a previously reported $1.2 million transfer of federal funds to an offshore account.

Committee testimony and tribal responses Chairman Paul Gosar opened the hearing by calling the conditions “deplorable” in many districts and said the subcommittee would press for accountability. “This waste, fraud, and abuse must not be allowed to continue. Students at BIE schools nationwide deserve better,” he said.

Sedney described site inspections that found fire‑safety gaps, roof failures, asbestos issues and work orders open for decades. She said BIE agreed with recent OIG recommendations but that inaccurate Maximo records have already affected FCI calculations used to prioritize funding. “We found about 54% of the work orders we sampled should have been closed,” Sedney testified.

GAO’s Emery Aris told members the bureau has made progress on planning and leadership but still faces “management weaknesses” that keep the agency on the high‑risk list. GAO has issued dozens of recommendations over the last decade; about half remain unimplemented, she said.

Tribal leaders and educators pressed Congress to move beyond oversight and to provide funding and process changes. Chairman Velasquez of the White Mountain Apache Tribe described repeated power outages, spoiled food, the use of kerosene for heat during winter outages and housing shortages that make it hard to retain staff. “Our students need and deserve better,” Velasquez said.

Cecilia Fire Thunder, president of the Oglala Kooten Nation Education Coalition, framed the problem as a legal obligation. “These treaties promise protection, recognition of tribal sovereignty and essential services, including education for Indian children,” she said, urging Congress to meet its trust responsibility.

Shauna Allison Basenti, head of Navajo Preparatory School in Farmington, New Mexico, described a stalled HVAC replacement project that began as a work order in 2014, was budgeted, but still awaits release of construction funds; she urged a streamlined approval process and better communication between BIE/DFMC and tribally controlled schools.

Funding shortfalls and policy proposals Members and witnesses cited multi‑billion‑dollar estimates for repair and replacement: GAO and BIE figures were cited in testimony repeatedly (examples presented to the committee included estimated needs of about $6.2 billion and $6.7 billion for replacement and construction, and an often‑repeated figure of a roughly $800 million deferred maintenance backlog). GAO and others contrasted those needs with annual discretionary appropriations that attendees called far smaller: testimony included a cited annual appropriation figure of about $260 million for certain construction funds.

Several witnesses and tribal leaders urged Congress to make section 105(l) lease payments mandatory under the Indian Self‑Determination and Education Assistance Act so tribes could leverage long‑term financing and take control of school repairs and construction. The National Indian Education Association’s executive director recommended directing a study of the Division of Facilities Management and Construction (DFMC) and making DFMC processes more transparent and efficient.

No formal actions The hearing did not produce formal votes or legislative actions. Members asked OIG and GAO for follow‑up information and said they would submit written questions for the record. The committee left the record open for written follow‑ups.

Context and next steps BIE schools have been the subject of repeated oversight going back decades; witnesses cited multiple OIG and GAO reviews and long lists of recommendations. Both OIG and GAO told the subcommittee they will continue monitoring implementation of recommendations and that some progress is visible at individual schools but insufficient overall.

Members asked for additional documents and answers; the committee instructed witnesses to respond to written questions and said it would hold the record open for follow‑up responses.

Ending Tribal leaders asked Congress to pair oversight with funding and to prioritize mandatory budget authority or statutory fixes that would let tribes remove procedural bottlenecks and act more quickly. The subcommittee gave witnesses and agencies opportunities to answer written follow‑up questions; committee members said they will press for accountability and clarity on whether past recommendations are being implemented.