- Details
- By Brian Edwards
- Policy and Law
WASHINGTON — Congress released bill text Monday for a bipartisan, bicameral package of three fiscal year 2026 appropriations bills that would reject nearly $1 billion in proposed cuts to tribal programs sought by the Trump administration, according to congressional negotiators. The package would preserve funding for health care, public safety, education, infrastructure and treaty obligations across Indian Country.
The three-bill package combines the Commerce, Justice, Science, Energy and Water Development, and Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies appropriations bills — a so-called “minibus” funding package covering most federal programs that fund tribal governments, tribal enterprises and treaty-based obligations. The agreement reflects negotiations between House and Senate appropriators from both parties and now moves toward floor votes in both chambers, as congressional leaders work to pass full-year funding ahead of a looming government shutdown deadline.
For tribes, the agreement represents a significant reversal of the administration’s budget request, which would have sharply reduced funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Indian Health Service, tribal public safety programs and environmental initiatives. Appropriators instead largely maintained existing funding levels, rejected proposed reductions and fully funded legally required tribal payments that support the day-to-day operation of tribal governments.
In a summary released by Democratic appropriators, the package is described as delivering essential funding to support tribes and treaty obligations, rejecting what they characterized as President Trump’s “push to slash funding” for tribal programs by nearly $1 billion.
Patty Murray (D-Wash.), the vice chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, said the legislation would “help ensure Congress, not President Trump and Russ Vought, decides how taxpayer dollars are spent.”
The Interior bill provides continued support for core tribal government services through the Bureau of Indian Affairs, including roads, housing improvement, natural resource management and tribal courts. It also preserves funding for tribal public safety and justice programs, including initiatives addressing Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons.
One of the important outcomes for tribes is full funding for Tribal Sovereignty Payments, including contract support costs and Section 105(l) lease payments tied to self-determination and self-governance agreements. Those payments, which are required under federal law, have become increasingly important to tribal budgets following recent court rulings.
Indian Health Service funding is also preserved, including advance appropriations that provide tribes and tribal health systems greater budget certainty for staffing, hiring and service delivery, a mechanism first adopted in fiscal 2023. Construction and sanitation funding for tribal health facilities is maintained, along with operational funding for existing and newly opened clinics.
Energy and water provisions continue funding for tribal water rights settlements and infrastructure projects, while the Environmental Protection Agency accounts include support for tribal assistance grants and Alaska Native contaminated lands cleanup programs.
House Republican leaders emphasized the bipartisan nature of the agreement and the return to regular appropriations after reliance on continuing resolutions.
Senate Republicans also emphasized the bipartisan scope of the agreement. Susan Collins (R-Maine), chair of the Senate Appropriations Committee, described the package as fiscally restrained while maintaining core federal investments. “It provides investments in our public lands and upholds our commitments to tribal communities,” Collins said in a statement.
House Republican leaders emphasized the bipartisan nature of the agreement and the return to regular appropriations after reliance on continuing resolutions.
“This bipartisan, bicameral package reflects steady progress toward completing FY26 funding responsibly,” House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) said in a statement Monday addressing the FY26 appropriations process and the next set of bills expected to reach the House floor this week. House Appropriations Committee Chairman Tom Cole (R-Okla.), an enrolled member of the Chickasaw Nation of Oklahoma, said the bills demonstrate how regular order can deliver “critical community projects nationwide.”
If enacted, the package would restore congressional control over tribal funding by reinstating detailed spending directives and preserving advance appropriations and legally required payments the administration had proposed cutting.
This is a developing story.
