- Details
- By Elyse Wild, Shaun Griswold, Levi Rickert, Kaili Berg
Plans to orderly halt operations at federal agencies across Indian Country continued as the U.S. Senate failed this morning to meet terms to end the federal government shutdown hours after it began at 12:01 a.m. on Wednesday.
It’s unclear when the partial shutdown will end. Blame from Republicans and Democrats in Congress is pointed at each other. Democrats have made it clear they won't support any government funding bill unless it includes an extension of health care subsidies set to expire at year’s end. Republicans, meanwhile, maintain that such negotiations should only happen once the government is reopened. Senators will return Friday after the Yom Kippur holiday.
The longest federal shutdown lasted 35 days between December 2018 and January 2019. This is the third government shutdown under a President Donald Trump administration.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs is set to furlough more than half of its employees across the country.
Departments and agencies across the federal government that support tribes with health care, education, public safety, environmental protection and housing have executed different staffing orders.
Across the country, 750,000 federal employees are expected to be furloughed.
Indian Health Service (IHS) is exempt from shutdown orders, and should continue to see full salaries for all staff due to advanced appropriations from Congress. The Bureau of Indian Education is also expected to resume total operations for schools across Indian Country under a similar plan, according to its shutdown orders.
Food benefits for people that already receive SNAP or WIC assistance should also continue as normal. These programs are funded through the end of the year, but could expect to see impact the longer that the shutdown lasts.
People should also expect normal procedures, albeit with fewer staffing in some places, at Social Security, Medicaid, Veterans Affairs, judicial, and law enforcement services.
Tribal governments have also stepped up with a response to provide resources for some federal gaps during the shutdown.
Navajo Nation Council Speaker Crystalyne Curley said the tribe’s legislative arm is in discussion with federal agents as it started its response on Wednesday to line up with BIA priorities.
“Although the federal government shutdown is now in effect, certain personnel and operations are deemed ‘essential’ and will continue to function,” Curley’s office said.
Robert Blanchard, executive director and tribal chairman of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, said the Tribe is watching the situation closely but has not yet triggered the shutdown of its operations.
“It is a little early to tell just how the shutdown will impact tribal operations at this point, but I am assuming it will soon,” Blanchard told Native News Online. “We have been in discussion internally about the situation as things are up in the air and may change quickly.”
Blanchard also noted that the Tribe’s health center and medical services remain open for now but Bad River Tribal leaders are monitoring developments in D.C. in case they need to adjust quickly.
Other nations have already covered costs themselves to keep their services running. Cherokee Nation Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. said in September that the tribe has absorbed millions in federal cuts this year, including funding for water infrastructure projects tied to new housing.
“We faced $26 million in cuts at the Cherokee Nation, and we're looking at about $20 million more,” Hoskins said in an interview in Washington D.C. before the shutdown. “While we may be able to absorb some of the damage done by cuts, there are tribes for which this is absolutely consequential in terms of stopping services.”
Below are some agency shutdown plans and reactions from across Indian Country.
The Bureau of Indian Affairs does expect to furlough some workers while keeping less than half of its workforce paid and in service.
BIA’s contingency plan reports 3,126 employees at the agency this year. Its shutdown plan is to furlough 1,154 workers across 38 states. It’s similar to other agency plans for shutdown within the Department of Interior.
Emails from the chief of staff should be sent to employees that notify them about their status during this shutdown. Workers should receive information that allows them to opt into text message alerts that signal when to return to work. Whenever the shutdown ends, all federal employees are expected to return to work on the next business day.
The BIA has 741 employees that will remain at their post during the shutdown. They are deemed essential under President Trump’s terms as “necessary to protect life and property, and/or are functions that are necessarily implied by law.”
This definition is used across all federal agencies to keep people at work Under the current shutdown at the BIA this includes:
Law enforcement and detention centers
Social services, child and adult protection
Irrigation, Power safety and Dams
Transportation programs
Wildland Fire management
Emergency Energy Production
Annual budget creation
Along with those responsible to carry out those functions for the BIA with tribal governments, the funding for tribal operations are also deemed necessary and are currently protected under shutdown plans.
Department of Health and Human Services
Approximately 41% of its workforce will be furloughed under the Department of Health and Human Services contingency staffing plans during the shutdown. Essential health and safety operations will continue.
According to the plan, HHS now employs 79,717 people, and is set to furlough 32,460 during the shutdown.
The remaining 47,257 employees —roughly 59% of the workforce—will continue to work to maintain critical health services. The agency estimates it needs half a day to complete shutdown activities before implementing the contingency plan.
HHS will rely on the Anti-Deficiency Act (ADA) to maintain operations protecting human life and property. Essential activities will continue through various funding mechanisms, including prior-year-appropriations, mandatory appropriations, and user fees. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention will maintain disease outbreak monitoring, while the Food and Drug Administration will continue emergency response operations, including monitoring foodborne illness outbreaks and screening imported food and medical products.
Medicare and Medicaid payments will continue, as will research and clinical activities at the National Institutes of Health deemed necessary for protecting human life. The NIH Clinical Center will care for existing patients and admit new ones when medically necessary.
The Administration for Strategic Preparedness and Response will maintain readiness for pandemic flu and hurricane responses.
However, significant operations that will cease include the oversight of research grants and contracts, processing Freedom of Information Act requests, and most data collection activities. The CDC's ability to communicate health information to the public will be compromised, and CMS will lose oversight capacity for major contractors. NIH will generally be unable to admit new patients to its Clinical Center except in medically necessary cases.
This is the first government shutdown in which the Indian Health Service is funded by advance appropriations, largely protecting it from fallout, but tribal healthcare is still vulnerable to the lapse in funding.
Most IHS clinics and operations will continue to function during a government shutdown. Medical staff at IHS facilities are considered exempt from furlough. According to the IHS contingency plan, 100% of the agency's 14,801 staff will be exempt from furlough and paid from advance, multi-year, or supplemental appropriations, third-party collections, or carryover balances.
But, tribes will feel the squeeze as contract support costs and tribal lease payments halt. These payments reimburse tribes for operating their own health systems under self-determination contracts and compacts. Unlike direct IHS operations, these payments are not covered by advance appropriations.
Discretionary funding for facility construction, renovations, and environmental health support will freeze during the shutdown.
Major furloughs are planned for the 14,500 employed across the National Parks Services, where operations will vary by location. More than 9,290 parks workers are set to be furloughed during the shutdown. This includes staff for concessions, maintenance, and research programs.
Tribes have a unique opportunity to establish contract work for park operations, including clean up and security. Under the NPS contingency plans, state, local or tribal governments can request agreements, including those with third parties to assist with, “concessioners and commercial use authorization holders, for donations to fund the full operation of an individual park unit or for specified services. This includes donation of funds for NPS personnel and donation of in-kind services for the third party to conduct the work.”
The agreement must be approved by the superintendent at each park that is closed.
There are restrictions on special events scheduled at national parks. Tribes that have programs scheduled at parks during the shutdown can request an exemption if it has some prior funding. Also, “Activities related to facilitation of First Amendment activities including permitting and monitoring,” can be an exemption for tribes to access national park land.
Environmental Protection Agency
More than 15,000 people work at the federal agency responsible for clean air and water. Just 1,734 will remain on the job during the shutdown. The EPA is one of the hardest federal agencies hit by furloughs and will essentially be shuttered during this period.
The EPA will not be allowed to issue permits, conduct certain inspections or issue approvals on request such as authorized/delegated state-issued EPA permits, SIPs, TMDLs, Water Quality Standards.
Work at superfund sites without “imminent danger” will also cease operations. Approval of new funding grants and inter-agency operation agreements will also stop.
Under the shutdown plans exempted EPA work that can continue includes: “activities funded by unexpired appropriations from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA) and the Clean Ports program from the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)). Activities funded by Federal Insecticide, Fungicide, and Rodenticide Act (FIFRA) and Pesticide Registration Improvement Act (PRIA) fees.”
Anything funded by Superfund taxes can also continue during the shutdown.
Federal Communications Commission
Operations of the Federal Communications Commission will be limited.
Tribal Consultations, scheduled to occur during the shut down will be cancelled, or rescheduled.
For the most updated information, visit ONAP’s webpage at www.fcc.gov/native.
On Wednesday morning, the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC) issued a warning that a federal government shutdown would severely disrupt vital tribal housing programs and increase the risks faced by Native families.
While some Tribes can draw down existing funds or rely on reserves, many do not have that financial cushion. For those programs, delayed disbursements — or the absence of U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) staff to provide technical assistance, process requests, or oversee competitive grant programs — could bring critical housing services and construction projects to a halt.
According to the housing council, the timing of the shutdown is especially disruptive to housing services that are under the Office of Native American Programs.
The shutdown will disrupt current competitive funding opportunity windows available under the Indian Housing Block Grant Competitive Program and the Indian Community Development Block Grant Program.
U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA)
More than 36 million small businesses, including those in tribal communities, will lose access to services from the U.S. Small Business Administration.
That’s according to an email from Diane L. Cullo, who works in the SBA’s Office of Native American Affairs.
“As a result of the shutdown, please note that many of our SBA services are currently unavailable,” she wrote.
Tribal Exemption
The Coalition for Tribal Sovereignty wrote a letter on Monday that asked the U.S. Office of Management and Budget to approve furlough and reduction-in-force exemptions for workers in tribal governments across the country.
The letter is addressed to OMB director Russell Vought and outlines how this request supports President Donald Trump’s priorities, U.S. tribal treaty obligations and is authorized by the Anti-Deficiency Act that “ensure that federal employees providing services related to the ‘safety of human life or protection of property’ are exempt from government shutdown furloughs.”
The letter was signed by 26 organizations representing tribal interests across the country in gaming, child welfare, education, healthcare and public safety. It was shared with tribal leaders during a call hosted by the National Congress of American Indians that outlined what services will be protected and what will be immediately frozen with a government shutdown, however long it may last.
Funding for Indian Health Services will remain, as will pay for human resource officers to continue reduction in force process, federal Indian health policy expert Tyler Scribner told tribal leaders Monday. Tribes that operate on annual budget calendars are in a good position to use the rest of their money through December. Employees deemed essential may not have immediate salary, and it's not clear how deferred compensation would work. Programs under Housing and Urban Development would see federal accounts close. Construction grants might be deemed essential by the president, but that also remains unclear.
“Even with funding mechanisms to keep tribal programs operating, the staff administering may not be deemed essential under federal government agency plans,” he said.
Elizabeth Carr, who served as the first tribal adviser with OMB under Biden, outlined the powerful role that Vought’s agency holds for tribal nations to sustain a potential shutdown.
“OMB is an agency shrouded in secrecy,” she said. “It has determined that agencies can administer a reduction in force action during a government shutdown. Typically people are furloughed during a shutdown, so they are willing to test the waters legally. That could be a problem if we enter a shutdown under any significant length.”
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