{"id":274776,"date":"2025-10-29T09:47:14","date_gmt":"2025-10-29T14:47:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=274776"},"modified":"2025-10-29T10:11:40","modified_gmt":"2025-10-29T15:11:40","slug":"witness-list-for-senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-hearing-on-government-shutdown","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/10\/29\/witness-list-for-senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-hearing-on-government-shutdown\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness list for Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on government shutdown"},"content":{"rendered":" \"Senate<\/a>
A star quilt hangs on the wall of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building in Washington, D.C. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Witness list for Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on government shutdown <\/div>\r\n
Wednesday, October 29, 2025<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nWith the shutdown of the U.S. government entering its second month, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs<\/a> is holding an oversight hearing to consider the impacts on Native communities.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe hearing is titled \u201cImpacts of Government Shutdowns and Agency Reductions in Force on Native Communities<\/a>.\u201d In addition to the government shutdown, the committee will look at the loss of federal employees at programs serving Native communities.\r\n

<\/p>\r\n“It often takes years for the right relationships to be built,” Alaska Federation of Natives<\/a> President Ben Mallott states in written testimony. “Simply put, reductions in workforce at both the regional and headquarters levels compromise the ability of federal agencies to meet their consultation obligations.”\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“And during a shutdown — especially one as long as the current lapse in\r\nappropriations — there is essentially no path for our communities to engage in real\r\ndiscussions with agency personnel making key decisions affecting our livelihoods,” Mallott states. [PDF: Testimony of Ben Mallott \/ Alaska Federation of Natives<\/a>]\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe hearing takes place at 2pm Eastern in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building. A webcast will be available at indian.senate.gov<\/a>.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nNo federal officials are testifying at the hearing. The witness list follows:\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Honorable Sarah E. Harris [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nVice Chairwoman \/ Secretary
\r\nUnited South and Eastern Tribes
\r\nNashville, Tennessee\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMr. Ben Mallott [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nPresident
\r\nAlaska Federation of Natives
\r\nAnchorage, Alaska\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMr. Kerry Bird [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nBoard President
\r\nNational Indian Education Association
\r\nWashington, DC\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMr. Pete Upton [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nNative CDFI Network
\r\nGrand Island, Nebraska\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMr. A.C. Locklear [PDF: Testimony<\/a>]
\r\nCEO
\r\nNational Indian Health Board
\r\nWashington, DC\r\n

<\/p>\r\nFederal funding for most programs serving tribes and their communities lapsed on October 1, 2025. The 119th Congress has been unable to pass appropriations bills to reopen the government.\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe last government shutdown occurred during the first administration of President Donald Trump. At 35 days — from December 22, 2018, through January 25, 2019<\/a> — it was the the longest in history.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nBy the end of the current week, the ongoing shutdown will have lasted 31 days. \r\n

<\/P>\r\n

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice<\/div>\r\nOversight Hearing entitled \u201cImpacts of Government Shutdowns and Agency Reductions in Force on Native Communities\u201d<\/a> (October 29, 2025)","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"With the shutdown of the U.S. government entering another month, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is looking at the impacts on Native communities.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":274862,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,19,20,13,1,14],"tags":[5366,139,78,79,214,5156,1202,170,75,71,121,6879,6143,6880,1153,368,6877,213,91,224,755],"class_list":["post-274776","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-education","category-health","category-indian-trust","category-law","category-national","category-politics","tag-119th","tag-afn","tag-alaska","tag-alaska-native","tag-appropriations","tag-ben-mallott","tag-cdfi","tag-congress","tag-donald-trump","tag-economic-development","tag-employment","tag-fed-upton","tag-kerry-bird","tag-native-cdfi","tag-niea","tag-nihb","tag-sarah-harris","tag-scia","tag-senate","tag-shutdown","tag-uset","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/29\/SenateCommitteeonIndianAffairs-11.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-19tS","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274776","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274776"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274776\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":274918,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274776\/revisions\/274918"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274862"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274776"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274776"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274776"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}