A key Congressional committee has added another day to its lineup of Indian Country hearings as tribes continue to fight for federal funds already promised to them.

The House Committee on Appropriations will hear from American Indian and Alaska Native witnesses next week on February 25, February 26 and February 27. The third day was recently added to the schedule, following the original call for testimony a month ago.

The American Indian and Alaska Native public witness hearings are a tradition for the committee. Dozens of tribal leaders, executives and advocates come to Washington, D.C., every year to testify about their needs and priorities as Congress develops the appropriations bills that fund the federal government.

But the upcoming hearings have taken on fresh significance amid President Donald Trump’s efforts to freeze federal funds that were already appropriated by Congress. Tribes, Indian organizations and Native businesses across the nation have been negatively impacted by the action, which occurred without notice or consultation on January 27, barely a week into the new Republican administration.

The directive, issued by the White House Office of Management and Budget on a Monday, left tribes scrambling to account for money promised to them as part of the U.S. government’s trust and treaty responsibilities. Although the memo itself was rescinded a day later following widespread confusion and criticism, the harms have lingered.

“So those funds were requested on Tuesday,” Secretary/Treasurer Leonard Fineday of the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe said as the National Congress of American Indians met in D.C. last week.

“On Wednesday, we didn’t get anything,” Fineday continued. “On Thursday, we didn’t get anything, and on Friday is when we had a special tribal council meeting with our finance team, our legal team and our government relations team.”

“So at that point, that’s when we really began to outline a financial plan for how we were going to keep all of our services and programs operational without making cuts to the  services that our people rely on,” Fineday said last Tuesday during a tribal leader panel at NCAI’s executive council winter session.

A federal judge in D.C. has issued a temporary restraining order against the Trump administration, following assertions from the White House that the funding freeze is still in effect. The 30-page ruling from February 5 cited the experiences of tribes and tribal organizations, including one that was forced to make layoffs due to a loss of funds.

At NCAI’s meeting last week, attorney Aurene Martin — who served as an appointee in the administration of Republican former president George W. Bush — indicated that the Native American Contractors Association has been hit by the changes in Washington. The non-profit represents tribal enterprises, Alaska Native corporations and Native Hawaiian organizations that do business with the federal government.

“We’ve actually had to let go of a number of employees because one of our contracts was frozen,” Martin said last Wednesday during a panel on economic development priorities in Indian Country. “We know it’s going to be canceled.”

"We're having to deal with them fast and furious": Aurene Martin says Native American Contractors Association is working to ensure Congress and new administration understand importance of Tribal and Native business involvement in 8(a) program. @Native8a @NCAI1944 #ECWS2025 pic.twitter.com/iRnb42L0B1

— indianz.com (@indianz) February 12, 2025

Over two days of NCAI’s general assemblies, attendees heard numerous accounts of the chaos and confusion caused by the new presidential administration since January 20. But Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, in a last-minute appearance at the winter meeting, easily discounted Indian Country’s experiences with the Trump team.

“I’m not a guy that watches C-SPAN. Never watched it in my life,” said Burgum, a former, two-term governor of North Dakota. “I turn on the thing, and every speaker gets up and talks about all the funding that’s been cut off. And I’m like, asking people that work in D.C., why are they talking about that, when a week ago they rescinded this thing?”

“It’s like, we got to fight back,” Burgum said last Wednesday in a lengthy speech as the newly-confirmed leader of the federal agency with the most trust and treaty responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives. “So I would want you to make sure that either you’re talking to Interior or you’re talking to the source from the White House, because I know there’s misinformation.”

During his remarks, which lasted 45 minutes, Burgum did not offer the assistance of anyone at the Department of the Interior who tribes could contact for information. Notably, he did not once mention the nomination of William “Billy” Kirkland, a citizen of the Navajo Nation who has been tapped by Trump to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, a political position at the cabinet-level agency.

Burgum reminded the crowd that he was the only representative of the Trump team to speak at NCAI’s meeting in D.C. That’s a significant departure from years past, when Republican and Democratic administrations alike sent a slew of cabinet secretaries, high-level officials and key government employees to talk about their tribal priorities and initiatives.

Yet Burgum, who spent the first 20 minutes of his speech rehashing minor details about the nearly decade-old movement against the Dakota Access Pipeline in North Dakota, suggested he was talking to tribal leaders only so he could be seen publicly standing up for his boss, the 47th president of the United States.

“I understand I might be the only person that is here from the Trump administration, and I know from some of my team that’s been sitting here in the last couple of days, there’s been a lot of things that have been said,” Burgum told tribal leaders.

“And some of it — like that protest at Standing Rock — is just misinformation,” Burgum said in reference to efforts led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, still ongoing, to stop the construction and, now, operation of a $3.4 billion oil pipeline on treaty territory.

Burgum did not publicly identify anyone from his team that he said had been “sitting” at NCAI last week. Following his remarks, which occurred before the noon hour on Wednesday, a person declared herself as being with the Secretary but declined to give her name when asked by an attendee in the backstage area of the conference.

Interior’s press team likewise has not responded to a request for comment about Kirkland’s nomination, which was made public on February 4 — not by the White House but by tribal advocates. A request for more information about a secretarial order that Burgum said he was going to issue has gone unanswered as well.

“So I’m still getting around here, trying to understand what’s going on,” Burgum said of his first days at the main Interior building in D.C., where the central office of the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) is located.

“I know we have 574 — and growing — number of federally recognized tribes. I have not counted 574 flags in the building,” Burgum said in reference to the Hall of Tribal Nations that was dedicated in 2000 by the BIA in celebration of its 175th anniversary, which occurred during the administration of Democratic former president Bill Clinton. “I think we’re short of that.”

“I’m going to be doing the secretarial order today, asking that we do an inventory of the flags we have and the ones we don’t,” Burgum continued. “And then if we don’t have flags from a band, or a tribe, or Alaska Native groups that are federally recognized, then we’re going to make sure we get those and get those on display, inside of the Interior building in the appropriate place.”

The House Committee on Appropriations is chaired by Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation who has served in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2003. He is the first Native person to lead the powerful legislative panel, having assumed the post in April 2024.

Cole has repeatedly embraced Trump’s agenda since the November 2024 election but he has not specifically addressed the funding freeze’s impact on Indian Country. Nor has he discussed the termination of countless employees at the BIA, the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) or the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration (BTFA), all of which are part of Interior.

“Most Republicans are very united behind the president in his effort to do these things,” Cole said in his most recent weekly chat on February 14, referring to Trump’s rush to deport immigrants, an effort that has ensnared Native people, and to reduce the size of the federal government despite numerous reports confirming that the U.S. has not fully funded its obligations to tribes and their communities.

The three days of American Indian and Alaska Native public witness hearings occur before the House Appropriations Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee, which is led by Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho). In an opinion published in the Washington Reporter on February 13, he cited “investing in Indian Country” as among his top priorities.

Simpson did not appear at NCAI’s meeting last week, nor did Cole. But Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota) did — and the longtime Democratic member on the Interior subcommittee praised her Republican colleagues for working to advance Indian Country’s interests.

“Some of the freezes are still in place”: Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota), member of House Committee on Appropriations, warns of ongoing impacts to Indian Country amid funding freeze imposed by President Donald Trump. @BettyMcCollum04 @AppropsDems @NCAI1944 #ECWS2025 pic.twitter.com/kDjfeear4N

— indianz.com (@indianz) February 11, 2025

“I want you to know that this is the only committee that I really feel in Congress works in a bipartisan fashion,” McCollum said last Tuesday, calling Simpson a “great partner” on the subcommittee that develops the appropriations bill that funds the BIA and the BIE, along with the Indian Health Service.

“Even when the Republican majority made significant cuts across all their funding bills, the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Education and Indian Health Service were kept stable,” Collum added.

“Why? Because you expect us to work in a bipartisan fashion, and we did,” she said to applause.

The American Indian and Alaska Native public witness hearings are split into morning and afternoon sessions on February 25 and February 26. On February 27, only a morning session is currently on the schedule.

All of the hearings are scheduled to take place in Room 2008 of the Rayburn House Office Building at the U.S. Capitol. Witness lists and written testimony are currently posted on docs.house.gov. Livestreams for each session have also been set up on the committee’s channel at youtube.com/@HouseAppropriationsCommittee.

Congress has yet to completely fund the federal government for fiscal year 2025, which began on October 1, 2024. Federal agencies are currently operating under a continuing resolution that is due to expire on March 14.

Should lawmakers fail to take action, the government could enter into a shutdown — the last of which occurred under President Trump’s watch in 2018 and 2019. The shutdown was the longest in U.S. history, having lasted 35 days.

“Quickly approaching deadlines remind us that shutdowns benefit no one, and I am steadfastly committed to finishing our work,” Cole said in a statement on February 11. “Congress must do its job and govern in reality. Upholding our fiscal duties and advancing a safer, stronger, and more prosperous America remains my focus.”

Fiscal year 2026 begins on October 1. Cole has stated his intention to complete work on all of the appropriations bills before the upcoming deadline.

American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 1, Morning Session (February 25, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 1, Afternoon Session (February 25, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 2, Morning Session (February 26, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 2, Afternoon Session (February 26, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 3 (February 27, 2025)

American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 1, Morning Session (February 25, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 1, Afternoon Session (February 25, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 2, Morning Session (February 26, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 2, Afternoon Session (February 26, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 3 (February 27, 2025)

American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 1, Morning Session (February 25, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 1, Afternoon Session (February 25, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 2, Morning Session (February 26, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 2, Afternoon Session (February 26, 2025)
American Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 3 (February 27, 2025)