WASHINGTON, D.C. – During his tenure as Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs from 2021-2025, U.S. Senator Brian Schatz (D-HI) led the passage of 26 tribal-specific bills and helped secure over $45 billion – making historic investments in healthcare, housing, education, languages, infrastructure, and public safety – that will benefit Native communities for generations to come.
“Together, Senate Democrats made historic progress over the past four years, helping pass dozens of bills and delivering significant funding for a wide range of Native priorities,” said Vice Chairman Schatz. “I’m proud of the progress we’ve made over the past two congresses, but we still have a lot more work to remedy the generations of neglect and help Native communities determine their own futures.”
Highlights include:
- Passing the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act in the Senate
- Advancing Appropriations for the Indian Health Service for the first time ever, preventing potentially life-threatening service disruptions due to government shutdowns or funding lapses
- Billions more for Native housing to address historic underfunding in Native housing program
- Violence Against Women Act reauthorization and a restoration of tribal jurisdiction over non-Indians who commit crimes against tribal officers and youth
- $3.5 billion for Indian Health Service sanitation projects to close the water divide on tribal lands
- $3 billion for the Tribal Broadband Connectivity Program, providing access to affordable high-speed internet
- More than $2.1 billion to address public safety needs, including the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous People and fentanyl and opioid abuse in Native communities
- $2.5 billion to complete enacted Indian water rights settlements, and committee consideration of 12 Indian water rights settlement bills, totaling more than $12 billion in need
- Restored over 6,171 acres to tribal homelands by enacting 11 bills
- Nearly $2 billion in climate funding for Native communities
