Sponsors (18)
The bill improves predictability, planning, and tribal input for BIA/BIE/IHS funding—reducing shutdown risk and better aligning health funding with costs—while increasing near-term federal spending commitments, constraining congressional budget flexibility, and adding administrative burdens.
Tribal governments receive more predictable, stable funding because covered BIA/BIE and IHS accounts will include advance appropriations beginning in FY2026.
IHS and tribal health facilities can plan staffing, services, and facility projects more effectively because next-year funding estimates and CPI-indexed cost and population adjustments will be included in budget submissions.
Tribal programs and residents face lower risk of service interruptions during federal government shutdowns because advance appropriations make next‑year funds available in funding Acts.
Taxpayers face higher near-term federal spending obligations because Congress must appropriate advance funds and CPI-indexed adjustments may raise requested funding levels.
Congress's flexibility to reallocate or reduce funding in response to changing priorities or fiscal constraints is reduced by the advance-appropriations requirement.
Interior, HHS, tribal programs, and their staff will face increased administrative and reporting burdens from new estimate fields, CPI adjustments, annual reports, and consultation processes.
Based on analysis of 3 sections of legislative text.
Requires one-year-ahead (advance) appropriations estimates and reporting for specified BIA, BIE, and IHS accounts beginning in FY2026, with tribal consultation and an annual resource-sufficiency report.
Official title: To amend the Indian Self-Determination Act and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act to provide advance appropriations authority for certain accounts of the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education of the Department of the Interior and the Indian Health Service of the Department of Health and Human Services, and for other purposes.
Introduced September 11, 2025 by Betty McCollum · Last progress September 11, 2025
Requires federal budget submissions and future appropriations to include one-year-ahead (advance) funding authority estimates for specified Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), and Indian Health Service (IHS) accounts, starting with FY2026. It also directs the Interior Secretary and agencies to provide detailed next-year estimates and an annual report, developed in consultation with tribes, assessing resource sufficiency and workload for the coming year. These changes amend the Indian Self-Determination Act and the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and add requirements to existing budget-submission statutes so covered tribal/self-determination and IHS accounts present amounts both for the current fiscal year and the following fiscal year in agency budget materials and justifications.