Child and Family Policy Update

House Introduces Indian Boarding Schools Legislation (H.R. 7227)

On February 5, 2024 Representative Sharice Davids and Representative Tom Cole introduced a House companion bill (H.R. 7227) to the Senate introduced Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act (S. 1723). S. 1723 was introduced on May 18, 2023 by Senator Elizabeth Warren and has 29 co-sponsors. This is a reintroduction of legislation that was introduced in the House and Senate in the 117^th Congress. NICWA submitted written testimony for a May 2022 hearing on the legislation that focused on the intersection of the Indian boarding schools and the experience of Native children and families in state and private child welfare systems. NICWA is supporting the legislation and the National Native American Boarding School Healing Coalition, who is leading advocacy efforts on this legislation.

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a markup of the legislation on June 7, 2023, where the committee reported out the legislation favorably with amendments. The amendments approved in committee were generally clarifying amendments without making substantive changes to the key purposes of the legislation. Now, the legislation is being scheduled for full consideration by the Senate. No companion bill has been introduced in the House of Representatives.  

The legislation establishes a commission to formally document and investigate Indian boarding school policies and practices in the United States. The commission members are appointed by Senate and House of Representatives leadership and the President. The legislation also establishes an advisory committee to provide advice and recommendations to the commission comprised of representatives that include, but are not limited to:

• National Indian organizations with expertise in child welfare, education, and boarding school issues
• Federal agencies, such as Bureau of Indian Education, Office of Indian Education in the Department of Education, and commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans
• Members of federally recognized tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations
• Mental health, healthcare, or Native healing practitioners that have experience working with descendants of board school students
• Family members of students that attended boarding schools, current teachers, and students that have attended a boarding school in the past or currently are attending one

The commission will be holding public hearings to gather evidence and will be making recommendations on how to address and heal the historical and intergenerational trauma caused by the Indian boarding school policies and practices. The commission will also collaborate and exchange information with the Department of Interior during its investigation.

Tribes and advocates for Native children and families are encouraged to contact your Congressional representatives and urge them to sign on as co-sponsors to the legislation and support its passage. You can find contact information for your congressional representatives here.

Native American Child Protection Act Passes House and Senate Committees

The Native American Child Protection Act, H.R. 663, was reintroduced by original co-sponsor Representative Ruben Gallego (D-AZ) on January 31, 2023, and Senator Lujan introduced a companion bill in the Senate, S. 2273. The legislation reauthorizes the two grant programs and the national resource center for tribes, clarifies that cultural programs and services may be used in the grant programs, and increases the funding authority Congress has to appropriate funding for the tribal grants authorized in the legislation. This is some of the only dedicated tribal funding regarding access for child abuse prevention and child abuse victim treatment. The legislation was introduced in the last Congress and was approved by the House of Representatives and the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

The House Natural Resources Committee reported out H.R.663 on May 17, 2023, with amendments that removed the amount of funding authorized for the two grant programs, the resource center, and the years the funding was authorized. This language is crucial to reauthorizing the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act grant programs for tribes. The language that remained in the bill reported out of committee contained amendments that clarified eligible activities that could be carried out under the grant program but stops short of reauthorizing the grant programs. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs reported out a companion bill that is identical to the one reported out by House Natural Resources on July 19, 2023.

The impact of deleting the funding authorization levels and years authorized continues over two decades of not having a current authorization for these critical grant programs. While Congress will sometimes appropriate funding for federal grant programs that are not authorized, it sends a message that these grant programs are not a priority and creates barriers to getting sufficient appropriations funding in the future. 

NICWA is working with tribes and Indian organizations to contact their House and Senate members to support S. 2273.  This legislation is one of NICWA’s top policy priorities and we need your help to get the legislation authorized this year. You can find contact information for your congressional representatives here.

Tribal Family Fairness Act Legislation in 118^th Congress

Congresswoman Sidney Kamlager-Dove (D-CA) with co-sponsors Don Bacon (R-NE) and Sharice Davids (D-KS) introduced the Tribal Family Fairness Act (H.R. 2762) in the House of Representatives on April 20, 2023. The bill would provide additional funding for tribes under the Promoting Safe and Stable Families Program (Title IV-B, Subpart Two under the Social Security Act) that funds flexible family preservation and support services. The legislation also seeks to streamline the reporting and application requirements for tribes and increase funding for tribal court improvement grants for tribal family courts. The legislation is an important step forward in helping tribes secure more flexible child welfare funding that can help children avoid removal from their homes and strengthen families so children can be returned home safely. The legislation was introduced first in the 117^th Congress in 2021 but needed to be reintroduced to be considered in the current 118^th Congress. Senate members are considering introducing a version of this legislation in the Senate as well.

NICWA has been a supporter of this legislation and urges tribal advocates to contact their senators and urge them to sign on to the legislation as a co-sponsor. Please ask your House of Representative members to sign on to the legislation as a co-sponsor and support the legislation.

The House and Senate passed two final appropriations bills for FY 2024 in March. The first bill provided funding for programs under Justice, Veterans Affairs, Agriculture, Interior, and Transportation departments. The second bill, which includes the remaining federal departments such as Health and Human Services where most federal human service programs reside, was also approved by Congress. These two appropriation bills follow three previous continuing resolutions that kept the government funded while House and Senate leaders could finish work on FY 2024 appropriations. For the most part, FY 2024 funding for human service programs that tribes operate are continued at or near the same levels as previous years. The lateness in Congress finishing its appropriations work causes challenges for tribes as they have to wait months past the time when last year’s funding ran out, September 30, 2023, to receive the new fiscal year’s funding. In addition, when Congress is late in getting its appropriations work finished, it often results in little to no increase in funding for programs that tribes depend upon to meet the needs of their communities.

President Biden released his FY 2025 budget recommendations for Congress on March 11, 2024 with a number of increases in his recommendations for child and family service programs that tribal nations utilize. In addition, the President’s budget also contains recommended legislative changes to improve access to and operation of federal programs. The President’s budget request articulates his priorities in the budget process that Congress undertakes each year. Some of the President’s key FY 2025 recommendations include:[1]

Budget Recommendations

• Increase HHS Promoting Safe and Stable Families (Title IV-B, Subpart 2) mandatory funding $180 million over FY 2024 levels and increase funding for the tribal court improvement program.[2]
• Increase BIA Tiwahe Initiative funding $26.8 million over FY 2024 levels.[3]
• Increase BIA Indian Child Welfare Act funding $7.9 million over FY 2024 levels.[4]
• Increase BIA Social Services by $24.3 million over FY 2024 levels.[5]

Legislative Recommendations

• Increase the set-aside for tribal and migrant populations under the Child Abuse and Prevention Treatment Act, Community Based Child Abuse Prevention grants to $5 million from the current 1% set-aside from the overall funding under this program (typically produces less than $1 million per year to be shared by tribal and migrant population grantees).
• Provide a consolidated grant opportunity for tribes under the Title IV-B, Subparts 1 and 2, and the Chafee and discretionary Education and Training Voucher programs so tribes can use these program funds more flexibly to meet a variety of child welfare needs. [6]
• Allow tribes that participate in the Title IV-B, Subpart 1 Child Welfare Services program, but do not currently participate in the Title IV-E Foster Care and Adoption Assistance programs to submit a plan to operate the Title IV-E Prevention Services program.[7]

For more information relating to this update, please contact NICWA Government Affairs Director David Simmons at desimmons@nicwa.org.

[1] The President’s budget request includes funding increases that would be shared by states and tribes in some programs. Specific data on how much of the proposed increase would accrue to tribal nations is not always specified.

[2] Tribes receive a 3% set-aside from the overall mandatory funding levels. The President’s request, if approved by Congress, would raise the amount of funding allocated to tribes from $9.75 million to $15.15 million and increase the overall number of tribes eligible to apply for the funding under the statutory formula. The tribal court improvement program is currently funded at $1 million per year and the President’s budget includes a legislative change to raise the amount of funding for tribal court improvement programs (level of increase is not specified).

[3] The Tiwahe Initiative uses an integrated model of service delivery for child and family programs under the BIA, which supports integration of existing programs to improve well-being and promote development of culturally-specific program and service systems. The FY 2025 funding increase is spread across several different programs that contribute program support to tribal Tiwahe grantees.

[4] Includes funding for both tribal and off-reservation programs (specific amounts not specified for each).

[5] The increase would also be used to expand implementation of the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act programs (P.L. 101-630) that funds child abuse and neglect and family violence prevention and treatment of victims (specific amount not specified). 

[6] The specifics regarding how consolidation of these programs would work, some which not all tribes are eligible to administer, are not available in the President’s request.

[7] Currently, tribal nations must operate all of the mandatory sections of the Title IV-E program to be eligible to operate the Prevention Services Program under Title IV-E. The Prevention Services program provides reimbursement for a portion of eligible prevention services costs to help children who are at risk of being placed in foster care or other out of home placement.