Child and Family Policy Updates

After the House Approves Their Budget Reconciliation Bill, the Senate Begins Work on Their Bill

The House of Representatives narrowly approved their budget reconciliation bill, One Big Beautiful Bill Act (H.R. 1), on May 22, 2025. The budget reconciliation bill included individual bills from eight different House committees. The final bill addressed several of the Administration’s priorities, including tax reform, defense, and border security. H.R. 1 was expected to include cuts to federal human service programs that tribal nations receive funding under, such as the Temporary Assistance to Needy Families (TANF) and Social Services Block Grant (SSBG), however, no cuts to these programs were included. NICWA sent letters to members of the House Ways and Means Committee, which has jurisdiction over TANF and SSBG programs, urging them to avoid cutting funding to these programs.

While cuts to TANF and SSBG were not included, cuts to Medicaid and Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) were included in the House bill. These cuts will impact low-income families and children’s ability to receive services funded under these programs, especially for Native children and families living outside tribal lands. Currently, 40% of Native children are enrolled in Medicaid or the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIPS), which funds health services for children not eligible for Medicaid. The cuts to large federal health and human service programs are needed to offset the costs of tax cuts and other priorities of the President’s which have significant costs (approximately $4.5 trillion over 10 years).

With the passage of the House reconciliation bill, the Senate begins work on their version of a budget reconciliation bill. There is pressure in the Senate to make greater cuts to programs, including health and human service programs, to reduce federal spending and find larger offsets to the President’s priorities. Likely a Senate budget reconciliation bill will not mirror the provisions in the House bill completely, which will set up a conference between the House and Senate to negotiate a final bill that can pass both chambers. The Senate has a goal of approving their bill by Independence Day, so tribal nations and Native children’s advocates are strongly encouraged to reach out to their Senators to voice their concerns about cutting funding to programs like TANF, SSBG, Medicaid, and SNAP. You can adapt NICWA’s letter to the House for a letter to your Senators. Contact information for your Senators can be found here.

The process of budget reconciliation is being used to help pass tax cuts and support the President’s immigration, defense, and energy priorities. The budget reconciliation process allows Congress, in particular the Senate, to pass legislation with only 51 votes instead of the usual 60 votes needed. While 51 votes is still a majority in the Senate, they have rules that allow members to filibuster legislation, which can significantly delay a vote. To end a filibuster, the Senate needs 60 votes to achieve what is referred to as “cloture” to end the filibuster. Currently, Senate Republicans only have 53 seats out of 100 Senate seats, and moving to a vote, especially on legislation that is more controversial, requires 60 votes. 

To start the budget reconciliation process, the Senate and House passed budget resolutions that identified the amounts of increases or decreases in spending and revenue. The Senate passed their budget resolution on February 21, 2025 (S. Con. Res. 7) and the House passed theirs on February 25, 2025 (H. Con. Res. 14). The budget resolutions contains charts that outline how much savings or increases each committee has, which they use as they develop legislation to be included in the final budget reconciliation bill. The committees focus on federal programs under their jurisdiction.

Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) Requests Comments on Deregulation Priorities

On May 14, 2025, HHS published a request for information to solicit comments on HHS’s goal to dramatically reduce regulations. The request for information (RFI) asks commenters to address several questions that focus on identifying regulations that create barriers to access to and operation of federal programs, are considered overly burdensome, are thought to be unlawful, and impede innovation among many other questions. The RFI is focused on identifying regulations that can be modified or eliminated in support of Executive Orders 14192 and 14219. While tribal nations are generally supportive of regulation reforms that improve program accessibility and operation, there are concerns about changing regulations that provide protection for Native children and families or tribal nations. Comments are due by July 14, 2025, and NICWA is urging tribal nations and advocates to submit comments about regulations that could be reformed to improve federal program access and operation, while also identifying regulations that provide protection for Native children and families and should not be changed, such as the 2024 final rule to require collection of data from states through the AFCARS data system that measure how the Indian Child Welfare Act is being implemented with Native children and families in state child welfare systems.

President Releases Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 Budget Priorities

President Trump released his FY 2026 budget request to Congress on May 2, 2025. The budget request document contains his top line budget requests for all federal departments and operations. The budget request, referred to as the “skinny budget,” does not provide individual program budget requests in many cases, only his top line requests. Within the “skinny budget” are requests to cut or eliminate several Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) and Department of Interior (DOI) programs that tribes receive funding from. Some of these include the elimination of the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program, Community Services Block Grant (basic needs and poverty reduction), Circles of Care grant program (children’s mental health system development), and Tribal Behavioral Health Grants program (grants for suicide prevention and mental health services for Native youth). There is also language in the skinny budget that suggests Bureau of Indian Affairs Social Services programs will be cut or proposed for elimination. Important to note is the skinny budget is a request to Congress and does not mandate changes in federal spending. Only Congress can authorize federal program spending through the appropriations process.

Following the release of the skinny budget, HHS released their FY 2026 budget in brief and the Administration published a technical amendment to their FY 2026 skinny budget. The HHS budget justification does not provide significantly more detail about specific program requests than the skinny budget, but the technical amendment provides language that suggests the Administration is requesting no more than $10 million be reserved for BIA Welfare Assistance programs. Welfare Assistance programs include General Assistance, Child Assistance, Adult Care Assistance, Emergency Assistance, and Burial Assistance. The total FY 2025 funding appropriated for BIA Welfare Assistance programs was $78.5 million, suggesting the Administration is requesting an 87% decrease in funding requests.

You can find a NICWA analysis of the President’s FY 2026 budget request here. You can also find a copy of a letter sent by the Coalition for Tribal Sovereignty regarding proposed budget cuts to Administration for Children and Families programs under HHS here. NICWA has previously provided testimony to the House Appropriation Committee and HHS on the need to preserve funding for these programs and will be working with members of Congress to educate them about the vital role these programs play in supporting vulnerable tribal citizens. NICWA urges tribal advocates to contact their House and Senate delegation to ask that programs that tribes access not be cut or eliminated. There is little time left in this fiscal year for Congress to act on FY 2026 appropriations, so it will be critical that tribal advocates reach out to their congressional delegates very soon. You can find contact information for your Congressional members here. 

Trump Administration Executive Orders Causing Concern in Indian Country

Starting with President Trump’s first day in office on January 20, 2025, his Administration began issuing numerous Executive Orders and other policies that are expanding the scope of the Executive Branch’s authority in the federal government and challenging constitutional norms regarding the powers of the Executive Branch. These actions are putting roadblocks up to accessing federal funding authorized for tribal nations by Congress, eliminating federal staff positions that help oversee and administer federal programs for tribal nations, and freezing regulations and other policies that benefit tribal nations. As of May 13, 2025, the Administration has issued 147 Executive Orders and the number is expected to grow. You can find a regularly updated list of Executive Orders here.

Key Executive Orders and administrative policies that have impacts for tribal nation human service programs and Native children and families:

• Office of Management and Budget Memorandum (M-25-13) on Temporary Pause of Agency Grant, Loan, and Other Financial Assistance Programs: The Office of Management and Budget (OMB) memo M-25-13 instructed federal agencies to temporarily pause federal funding and assistance while simultaneously conducting an assessment to determine individual federal funding and assistance compliance with Executive Orders. If federal funding or assistance was found to not be aligned with existing Executive Orders it was ordered to be cancelled, including funding or assistance already authorized by Congress. Two days after OMB memo M-25-13 was first issued, it was rescinded by OMB, but later that same day the Trump Administration said it would continue the freeze on federal funding. Several federal programs that support tribal human services programs were caught up in this funding freeze initially. While many of these federal programs have begun distributing funding to tribal nations, there are still federal programs that serve Native populations that are not able to draw down their federal funding, creating confusion and uncertainty about whether these funds will be available in the future.
• Executive Order 14151 Ending Radical and Wasteful Government Diversity, Equity and Inclusion (DEI) Programs and Preferencing and Executive Order 14173 Ending Illegal Discrimination and Restoring Merit-Based Opportunity. These Executive Orders require federal agencies to assess programs, grants, and contracts within their agencies for DEI promotion or activities and eliminate the programs and funding that supports them. While tribal nations and Native people have a unique political status that is the basis for federal programs and policies that address their needs and is separate from their racial status, there are numerous reports of federal programs and activities related to tribal nations being canceled based upon them being considered DEI-related. This may also have an impact on technical assistance or other services being offered by Native organizations under contract with the federal government.
• Executive Order 14170 Reforming the Federal Hiring Process and Restoring Merit to Government Service and Executive Order 14210 Implementing the President’s “Department of Government Efficiency” Workforce Optimization Initiative: While tribal nations and Native people have a unique political status that is the basis for federal programs and policies that address their needs and is separate from their racial status, there are concerns that the language in the Executive Order does not address the unique status of Indian Preference in hiring that is separate from hiring prohibitions based upon race, sex, or religion. Executive Order 14210 seeks to reduce the federal workforce dramatically, requiring federal agency heads to consult with and seek approval for new hires from the newly created Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE). This could impede the hiring of federal staff with relevant experience in the support and administration of federal programs tribal nations access.
• Regulatory Freeze Pending Review Memorandum and Executive Order 14192 Unleashing Prosperity Through Deregulation: The regulatory freeze will impact any regulations that were not published in the Federal Register prior to January 20, 2025, or any that were published, but did not go into effect within 60 days from January 20, 2025. The Executive Order seeks to repeal 10 regulations for each new regulation promulgated during this Administration. For this to occur, many existing regulations would need to be eliminated or scaled back considerably. The Executive Order could impact existing regulations that provide protection and support to Native children and families, including the recently promulgated Adoption and Foster Care Analysis and Reporting System (AFCARS) regulations that established requirements for states to report on the status of Native children and families in their child welfare systems.
• Repeal of Richardson Waiver in the regulatory process at HHS: The Richardson Waiver has been used for a number of years to promote greater public knowledge and input into the federal agency regulatory process. Among other things, it allows public comments on proposed regulation changes. The Department of Health and Human Services has issued a Rule (policy statement) revoking the use of the Richardson Waiver and reducing or eliminating the use of public comments in the regulation process going forward. This will severely limit the ability of tribal nations to comment on HHS regulation changes and raises concerns about changes being made to regulations that introduce barriers to tribal access and operation of federal programs and weaken protections for Native people contained in existing federal regulations.

Following the release of these Executive Orders, newly confirmed Secretary for the Department of Interior (DOI), Doug Bergum, issued Secretary’s Order 3415 that exempts the Department’s treaty and trust obligations to tribal nations from DEI policies identified in Presidential Executive Order 14151. Following the DOI Order, the Office of General Counsel for the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) issued an advisory opinion (25-01) in response to a question about the application of Executive Order 14151 to Indian Health Services programs. In their opinion, they state that Executive Order 14151 and a number of related Executive Orders should not be interpreted to rescind, eliminate, hinder, or impair the Department’s legal obligations to tribal nations. While these departmental orders and opinions are helpful, there are still questions about how the policies of the new Administration will impact tribal nation human service program funding, federal staffing for programs that tribal nations administer, and changes for state programs that will trickle down to Native children and families in state human service systems.

If your tribe or urban Native organization is seeing impacts from these or other Executive Orders, you can provide information to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs by emailing them at oversight@indian.senate.gov. The Committee is tracking impacts to Indian Country from Executive Orders and communicating concerns to the Administration. All information provided will be held confidential. You can also contact NICWA Government Affairs and Community Development Specialist Evan Roberts at evan@nicwa.org, to provide information on your experiences. While we appreciate concerns that tribes and urban Native organizations have about sharing this kind of information, it is critical to being able to provide accurate and impactful advocacy to remove barriers and address concerns.