WASHINGTON, D.C. – At the start of each new Congress, the United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds a regular oversight hearing to review and examine priorities for Native Communities. The committee, headed by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) and Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii), heard from representatives of the National Congress of American Indians, the National Indian Health Board, the Native American Financial Officers Association, National Indian Education Association, and the Council for Native Hawaiian Advancement.
With comments and testimony from Native leaders, the 2025 Oversight Hearing, held Wednesday, Feb. 12, opened with a focus on past Congressional bipartisan support in several legislative gains for Indian Country. It also opened with a firm focus on treaty rights and obligations amidst approaching funding chaos fueled by the Jan. 27 Office of Budget and Management memo freezing all federal grants and programs.
Testimony from Native leaders addressed the needs to secure and strengthen treaty rights and Congressional responsibilities in many areas involving health, education, business development, federal treaty rights, jurisdictional issues, agriculture, criminal justice, housing and infrastructure, EPA protections, and tribal sovereignty.
In her opening statements to the Committee, Chairwoman Senator Murkowski recognized the Jan. 27 freeze and rescission, the rollback of funding for grants and programs in DEI, and the implications for treaty rights in Indian Country.
“I immediately raised your concerns to the new administration at every chance I got, including in my meetings with the president’s nominees,” she said. “We sent a letter to OMB urging them to acknowledge that tribes have a unique political status and to clarify across the federal government that as the administration carries out its initiatives it does so in a way that respects this unique political status and the federal government’s responsibility to native people.”
Murkowski further acknowledged the Jan. 30 Order from the Secretary of the Interior, SO 3416, which outlined the department’s intent to cease all equity related programs and activities. The order states that the cessation would not affect legally required activities with “statutory authorities, treaty, and/or trust obligations of the Department and its Bureaus/Offices to Tribal nations and the Native Hawaiian Community.”
Funding freeze, federal firing chaos, treaties and trust reminders
The priorities presented in testimony touched on the broad span of federal American Indian policy. Additionally, much of the testimonies made the case for necessary improvements and attention to existing programs and the legislation needed to fully serve Indian Country. Yet, a top priority for all groups at the hearing was the confusion between and the distinction of federal treaty obligations in light of the current cuts to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) programs and funding.
A common thread throughout the testimony hinged on the unique foundational relationship between the federal government and Tribal Nations.
Mark Marcarro (Pechanga Band of Indians), President of the National Congress of American Indians, began his testimony outlining this relationship.
“The promises made by the U.S. Government in treaties and agreements with Tribal Nations are today known as part of a trust responsibility that your forbears assumed,” Marcarro said. “It is a sacred responsibility to ensure that these promises are kept.”
“Last month, the U.S. Government threatened to stop payment on its promises, forgetting this responsibility and forgetting that millions of dollars are administered in Indian Country by Indian Country, because Tribal Nations are parties to self-governance compacts and contracts.
“We ask you not to take lightly actions that break your sacred trust, and to deliver on the promises of protections that have been guaranteed to us in these very halls,” Marcarro said.
Acknowledging the confusion left by the Jan. 27 OMB Memo, William Smith (Valdez Native Tribe), Alaska area representative and Chairman of the National Indian Health Board, said that the memo put a strain on critical resources within the Indian Health Service. He noted that the strain caused a delay in services immediately for patients and impacted staff.
“Our workforce is also being compromised by the Executive Order instituting a federal hiring freeze for civilian employee positions and instructing the creation of the plan to reduce the size of the federal workforce,” Smith said. “This has been accompanied by a deferred resignation solicitation which went out to federal employees in Tribal programs and the IHS.”
“Currently, IHS has a workforce gap of 30% and a 36% vacancy rate for physicians, which hinders our ability to provide timely care to American Indian and Alaska Native (AI/AN) beneficiaries.”
Smith then reminded the committee of the treaty and trust responsibilities held by Congress. He stated, “Congress has full constitutional authority to legislate with regard to Indian health care, and should continue to promote Tribal sovereignty and uphold the government-to-government relationship between the United States and Tribes in fulfillment of its trust and legal responsibilities in any health care reform proposal it considers.”
Facing workforce reductions and threats Indian Country grows advocacy
These concerns would play out two days later on Feb. 14 with thousands of layoffs across the federal workforce. The government wide reductions are part of a 10% decrease in the federal workforce mandated in President Trump’s Feb. 11 Executive Order “Implementing the President’s ‘Department of Government Efficiency’ Workforce Optimization Initiative.”
The reductions targeted probationary employees with reports of firings in the Education Department, the Consumer Protection Financial Bureau, the Department of Veterans Affairs, the National Park Services and many others. They also revealed, contrary to the urgings of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, that Indian Country will not be immune to the federal government downsizing plans. The layoffs included employees in the Indian Health Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the Bureau of Indian Education.
Reports of nearly 1,000 employees were let go within the IHS. The two BIE run colleges lost staff in nearly every department. Haskell Indian Nations University announced one third of its staff had been fired and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute lost 20 employees out of a staff of 100.
Senator Ben Lujan, a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and eight other colleagues released a letter to the President on Feb. 14 after early reports of the IHS layoffs, urging him to halt the forced reductions in the IHS.
“The federal government is already failing to meet its trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations, and further reductions in IHS’ workforce will severely impact the health and wellbeing of Tribal communities across the country,” Lujan wrote. “Therefore, we strongly urge you to stop these firings and retain IHS probationary staff.”
Newly confirmed Health and Human Services Director Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. rescinded the IHS layoffs that evening and in a statement said, “The Indian Health Service has always been treated as the redheaded stepchild at HHS. My father often complained that IHS was chronically understaffed and underfunded.”
The statement went on to say,“President Trump wants me to rectify this sad history. Indians suffer the highest level of chronic disease of any demographic. IHS will be a priority over the next four years. President Trump wants me to end the chronic disease epidemic beginning in Indian country.”
In reaction to the BIE reductions, a number of organizations have advocated for Tribal exemptions. The American Indian Higher Education Consortium and the National Indian Education Associations released a joint statement calling for an exemption to the layoffs at Haskell and Southwestern Polytechnic. The statement reads in part, “AIHEC and NIEA affirm that those employed at the two colleges and throughout the BIE K-12 system are fulfilling the federal government’s trust and treaty obligations to Tribal Nations and should be exempt from this broad directive.”
This letter echoes the earlier advocacy in a Feb. 2 letter from The Coalition Group, a collective of 18 Tribal Organizations, to federal leadership, including President Trump, House Speaker Mike Johnson, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Shumer, and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgam. The coalition includes the Native American Rights Fund, the Indian Gaming Association, Native Forward, and the National Council on Urban Indian Health. It reminded federal leadership that Tribal Nations are political entities and are exempt from the DEI policy changed in the President’s Executive Orders.
They wrote, “All the Tribal organizations represented here are also resolute on a touchstone: Indian Country is a vital non-discretionary part of the federal government budget. So, we urge this Administration to work towards historic achievements by fully embracing the sovereign status of Tribal Nations to drive unprecedented economic development and prosperity across Indian Country.”
The group would later release a slew of letters in response to the Feb. 14 layoffs to a number of agencies including the EPA, DOI, HHS, Department of Education, OMB, and OPM. The statements reminded the recipients of federal trust and treaty obligations and the status of Tribal sovereignty. While the IHS retracted the Feb. 14 layoffs, as of press time it is still unclear if other agencies retracted or rescinded the firings of Tribal positions.
Currently, no funding to the Muscogee (Creek) Nation has been affected by the federal funding orders. According to Muscogee Nation Press Secretary Jason Salsman, the MCN isn’t currently having issues drawing down funds and is not considering layoffs at this time.
“To this point, no funding to MCN has been affected by any of the Executive Orders. The MCN currently has no issues drawing funds, aside from the initial freeze that only lasted a day or two,” Salsman said in his email response to Mvskoke Media. “We are hopeful that the work has been done to convey the importance of trust and treaty responsibilities being protected and separate from any other classification of funding.”
Salsman said, “The MCN has offered support to various national organizations and our own Oklahoma Congressional delegation in letters to the Office of Management & Budget to convey that funding or programs that provide for tribal nations are not “preference” or “race-based” but rather deliver certain obligations to tribal communities and that the federal government has a legally binding trust responsibility to tribal nations.” As of press time, those letters were unavailable.
Mvskoke Media will continue to monitor the situation and provide updates.
