Sponsors (2)
The bill provides modest, targeted federal funding and interagency support to help tribes grow tourism and strengthen economic self-determination, but the funding may be too small and could impose administrative burdens and trade-offs for already stretched tribal programs.
Indigenous tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations can obtain federal grants to develop tourism and visitor-experience projects, which is likely to increase local revenue and create jobs in tribal communities and nearby small businesses.
The bill authorizes $35 million in federal appropriations (FY2025–2029) to fund tribal tourism programs and capacity-building, providing a predictable funding stream for planning and initial projects.
Multiple federal agencies (Commerce, Transportation, Agriculture, HHS, Labor, BIA) are enabled to coordinate support, which can fund infrastructure improvements, workforce training, and marketing that help tribes scale tourism sustainably.
The total authorization of $35 million over five years may be insufficient to meet demand, limiting the scale and impact of tourism projects tribes can undertake.
Federal grant programs often come with administrative and reporting requirements that can strain small tribal offices, increasing compliance costs and staff burden.
Focusing agency resources and attention on tourism grants could create trade-offs, potentially diverting limited funding and programmatic capacity away from other priorities like transportation, agriculture, or workforce programs that tribes also need.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Authorizes multiple federal agencies to award grants to tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations and authorizes $35M for FY2025–2029 to carry out the Act.
Official title: Amend the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act to authorize grants to Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations, and for other purposes.
Introduced February 18, 2025 by Brian Emanuel Schatz · Last progress December 17, 2025
Authorizes multiple federal agencies to make grants and enter into agreements with Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations to support implementation of the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act. It redesignates the existing grant-authority section, expands which agency heads can award grants (including BIA, Office of Native Hawaiian Relations, and the Secretaries of Commerce, Transportation, Agriculture, HHS, and Labor), and authorizes $35 million in appropriations for fiscal years 2025–2029 to carry out the grant program. The change centralizes and broadens federal grant authority under the Act so tribes and Native Hawaiian entities can receive funding and interagency cooperative agreements to support tourism and visitor-experience activities described by the Act.