Markup of funding bill for Indian Country programs postponed

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Monday, June 23, 2025

Indianz.Com

An appropriations bill that provides funding for most Indian Country programs is running into delays on Capitol Hill.

The House Committee on Appropriations was scheduled to advance the fiscal year 2026 Interior bill during the week of June 23. But work is being delayed due to scheduling issues.

“Due to scheduling changes, those proceedings will be rescheduled to a later date, which will be announced when available,” the committee said in a June 18 update.

The Interior appropriations bill provides funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) and the Bureau of Trust Funds Administration (BTFA). It also funds numerous other Indian Country programs at the Department of the Interior (DOI), the federal agency with the most trust and trust responsibilities to tribes and their communities.

Additionally, the Interior appropriations bill funds the Indian Health Service (IHS), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS).

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Indian Country is closely watching the appropriations process in light of major cuts proposed by President Donald Trump. For example, the BIA would lose about $1 billion in federal funding unless Congress changes course.

The IHS would also suffer a major setback with the loss of advance appropriations. Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), who is the first Native person to chair the House Committee on Appropriations, has vowed to preserve the policy, which was secured with bipartisan support in Congress and protects the IHS from government shutdowns and other lapses in funding.

“I can just tell you now, we will be retaining advanced appropriations,” Cole, who is a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, said at a June 5 budget hearing for the IHS.

Cole originally scheduled the markup for the Interior appropriations bill on Monday, June 23. The bill is handled by the Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies.

The U.S. Capitol building in Washington, D.C., houses the legislative branch of the federal government. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

The full committee was then scheduled to advance the Interior appropriations bill on Thursday, June 26. From there, it can be considered by the U.S. House of Representatives.

As of Monday afternoon, the committee had not released any new information about the Interior appropriations bill, including the actual text of the measure.

Fiscal year 2026 starts on October 1. Despite the deadline, Congress has failed to enact a stand-alone Interior appropriations bill for more than a decade. Instead, lawmakers resort to omnibus measures to keep the U.S. government up and running.