Davids Urges Trump to Immediately Stop Harmful Impacts to Vital Tribal Programs

Today, Representative Sharice Davids and 110 of her colleagues urged President Donald Trump, Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, and Secretary of Health and Human Services Robert F. Kennedy Jr. to immediately halt and reverse the harmful impacts of executive actions that have to led to funding freezes and mass firings impacting Tribal programs.  

This includes recent Executive Orders, including EO 14210, that have disrupted services administered or funded by the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), Indian Health Services (IHS), and other Tribal-serving entities which would directly violate the trust and treaty obligations of the United States to Tribal Nations. 

The bicameral letter was signed by 17 Senators and 94 Members of the House. 

Lawmakers wrote to the administration, “to take immediate action to halt, exempt, and reverse the impacts to federal employees and funding serving Indian Country, as those positions and programs are essential for the administration of legally mandated Tribal programs and services.” 

This letter comes during concerning reports of the impact on students after federal orders terminated employees at Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute (SIPI) and Haskell Indian Nations University (HINU), and that more layoffs are expected. 

“There have also been reports of layoffs at Tribal Colleges and Universities, including dozens of people at both Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute which are operated by the Bureau of Indian Education,” the lawmakers wrote. “Independent federal oversight entities, such as the Office of the Special Counsel, have already deemed some of these firings to be unlawful.” 

“Tribal Nations are sovereign governments with a unique legal and political relationship to the United States. The inherent sovereignty of Tribes is recognized in the U.S. Constitution, in treaties, and across many federal laws and policies, and it has been consistently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court,” the lawmakers continued. “These trust and treaty obligations in some cases predate both the establishment of all of the agencies in question as well as the United States itself. Pursuant to those legal obligations, we must adequately fund and staff agencies that provide these essential services and programs, including at BIA, BIE, and IHS.” 

The full letter is below: 

Dear President Trump, Secretary Burgum, and Secretary Kennedy:  

We write to you today to urge you to take immediate action to halt, exempt, and reverse the impacts to federal employees and funding serving Indian Country, as those positions and programs are essential for the administration of legally mandated Tribal programs and services. We are gravely concerned about the implementation of recent Executive Orders (EO), including EO 14210 entitled “Implementing the President's “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative,” and the implications of reductions in the federal workforce and funding for Indian Country. As you know, the U.S. government has both trust and treaty responsibilities to Tribal Nations. These responsibilities are implemented by agencies including Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bureau of Indian Education, Indian Health Services, and others providing critical healthcare, education, and social services to Tribal communities. Your administration’s recent executive actions undermine Tribal sovereignty, existing federal law, and the federal-Tribal government-to-government relationship.   

In the past month, your administration has taken aim at thousands of federal workers across various government agencies. Reports indicate that this includes more than 2,600 federal employees at the Department of Interior, including more than 100 Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) employees, more than 40 Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) employees, several employees at the Office of Indian Affairs, as well as social workers, firefighters, and police that work on behalf of Indian Country, plus some 950 Indian Health Service (IHS) employees at the Department of Health and Human Services. There have also been reports of layoffs at Tribal Colleges and Universities, including dozens of people at both Haskell Indian Nations University and Southwestern Polytechnic Institute which are operated by the Bureau of Indian Education. Independent federal oversight entities, such as the Office of the Special Counsel, have already deemed some of these firings to be unlawful. Beyond the legal questions surrounding the ability to fire employees without specifying performance or conduct issues, any unilateral attempts to disrupt existing services administered or funded by the BIA, BIE, IHS, or other Tribal-serving entities would directly violate the trust and treaty obligations of the United States to Tribal Nations. 

Tribal Nations are sovereign governments with a unique legal and political relationship to the United States. The inherent sovereignty of Tribes is recognized in the U.S. Constitution, in treaties, and across many federal laws and policies, and it has been consistently upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court. These trust and treaty obligations in some cases predate both the establishment of all of the agencies in question as well as the United States itself. Pursuant to those legal obligations, we must adequately fund and staff agencies that provide these essential services and programs, including at BIA, BIE, and IHS. 

We have many concerns about the legality of the administration’s recent actions and, importantly, the ways in which those actions impact the sovereignty, self-determination, and trusty and treaty obligations for Indian Country. The implementation of these obligations is a vital, non-discretionary part of federal law and the federal budget. This is not a partisan issue. We urge your administration to immediately halt, exempt, and reverse any federal workforce or federal funding reductions for Tribal programs or services and to engage in formal consultation with affected Tribal Nations at the government-to-government level. Any attempts to unilaterally dismantle or undermine these programs violates trust and treaty obligations, the U.S. Constitution, and centuries of legal precedent.