Amelia Schafer
ICT
The federal government’s fiscal year ends at midnight Sept. 30, meaning the government will shut down and dozens of services to tribal nations will be cut off if a new spending deal isn’t reached in Congress.
A shutdown is something tribes can’t afford. Tribal nations and communities depend on hundreds of thousands of government personnel and programs for roads, tribal police, energy, health care, food and other programs.
“We’re at a point now where the government is going to shut down,” said Michael Stopp, Cherokee and Muscogee and the president and chief executive officer of Seven Star Holdings. “The question is, how long is that going to happen and which side is going to blink?”
During a shutdown, certain functions and personnel can be deemed essential and continue to operate during the shutdown, including the Indian Health Service. IHS has six accounts not funded by advance appropriations and will use prior year balances to keep all staff functional.
But IHS isn’t completely out of harm’s way. Lease payments are not included in the advance appropriations and a prolonged shutdown could prevent IHS from issuing payments to tribes, according to the National Congress of American Indians.
“Government shutdowns affect Indian Country more quickly and more broadly than they do every day Americans because of our direct relationship with the federal government,” said Holly Cook Macarro, Red Lake Ojibwe and a tribal advocate and political strategist. Cook Macarro is also a Democratic pundit.
Any shutdown would be the result of a failure for Republicans and Democrats to agree on passing a new funding bill. Both chambers of the U.S. Congress are controlled by Republicans, but the Senate is short of the 60 votes needed to pass the 2026 spending bill.
“Republicans do not have much of an issue with letting the government shut down until they get what they want, and Democrats don’t usually have the stomach for it,” Stopp said, a Republican pundit.
Democrats are refusing to pass the Republican-introduced bill unless it restores cuts to Medicaid made in President Donald Trump’s so-called “big, beautiful bill” and by extending permanently the subsidies for people who use the Affordable Care Act. They also oppose cuts to spending for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and National Institute of Health.
Republicans have rejected the Democrat’s plan and are offering a temporary extension on government funding through Nov. 21 to allow time for more discussions. The Democrats have offered an Oct. 31 deadline for further discussions.
While shutdowns typically last a few days, the longest in history occurred during the first Trump administration when the government shut down from Dec. 22, 2018 to Jan. 25, 2019. This was also the most recent government shutdown, though threats of a shutdown occur nearly every year.
“It’s about the economy right now and it’s about the economy going into the 2026 election and folks who don’t want votes on the record on the healthcare subsidies and would prefer that Democrats are forced to vote on this spending bill on its own or be held responsible for a government shutdown,” Cook Macarro said. “All of this is going to have impacts on the pocketbooks of Americans.”
Dangerous shift from previous shutdowns
Outside of the norm of a typical government shutdown, a recent Office of Management and Budget memo indicates organizations are encouraged to plan to lay off employees rather than the typical furloughs associated with government shutdowns.
The letter indicates that the Office of Management and Budget has directed federal agencies to begin considering mass layoffs in the event of a government shutdown. These would be a continuation of the reduction-in-force mechanisms used by the Department of Government Efficiency to cull the federal workforce.
“The administration is taking this opportunity to further implement their priority of the reduction in the federal workforce, and these are permanent job losses,” Cook Macarro said.
Roughly 30,600 federal employees are Native American, accounting for 1.5 percent of the federal workforce, according to data from 2023. This number has likely changed following cuts from the Department of Government Efficiency in early 2025 and the “Fork in the Road” memo allowing for federal employees to leave the federal workforce earlier this year.
“We really need to double down and make sure we’re advocating for those positions that serve programs that go out to Indian Country, that those positions remain safe and are not subject to (Reductions in Force),” Liz Carr, Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians and vice president of intergovernmental affairs for the Cedar Rock Alliance, said in a National Congress of American Indians webinar on Sept. 29.
“Indian Country can’t afford a shutdown,” she said.
NCAI is encouraging tribal nations to protect tribal program staff from reductions in force, something that was discussed during the Sept. 29 webinar.
Almost all federal programs and accounts impact tribal nations in different ways, and after a shutdown, federal staff would beneeded to help get Indian Country back on its feet.
What does a shutdown look like for Native communities?
Trust and treaty obligations dictate that the federal government provide education, policing and healthcare for Native nations. A federal shutdown does not end the government’s obligation, however, to provide those services.
Programs are funded in different ways, making it difficult to give a one-off answer for the multitude of programs serving Indian Country.
NCAI has a full list of federal programs tribes receive. Here is a brief list of programs that will be impacted and what it will look like:
Bureau of Indian Affairs
A shutdown would mean the already under-funded and under-staffed tribal police department would be further slashed. In past shutdowns, tribal police and other public safety officials were furloughed without pay or forced to work without pay as essential employees. Tribal court services and public safety agencies that rely on federal funding will also be impacted, as funds cannot be dispersed during a shutdown.
Overall, officers will continue to work, but won’t receive pay. This differs from IHS, which received advance appropriations for the first time ever in 2023.
Emergency response times could be even longer than they already are in rural communities, not just in terms of police response but natural disaster assistance and road maintenance.
Food and nutritional assistance
Tribal schools, programs and individuals often rely on food programs like the Food Distribution Program on tribal lands, often referred to colloquially as “commods,” or commodities. During a shutdown, the Department of Agriculture, which is responsible for commodities, will rely on reserve funding to ensure food is still available, though a prolonged shutdown could lead to significant disruptions just like it would with IHS.
Housing programs
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development would shut down, affecting Native American programs or Indian Housing Block Grants, Section 184 Home Loan Guarantees, Community Development Block Ramps and more.
Strain on tribal government, families
Smaller, more rural tribal governments rely heavily on federal dollars and federal agencies to operate. All government grants, contracts and funding could come to a haltm impacting domestic violence shelters, homelessness shelters or other crisis agencies. Aside from direct services, families of federal workers and military personnel could go weeks without a paycheck until the shutdown ends.
In the event of a shutdown, tribal governments would need to bear the weight of the shutdown and draw from whatever reserve they have, something the National Congress of American Indians encouraged tribes to begin to work on during the Sept. 29 webinar.
“When I was much younger, my mother worked for IHS and we had a very long shutdown,” Stopp said. “I believe it was in the mid ‘90s. It went on for weeks and weeks and weeks and it was very difficult. You know, my mother was an IHS nurse. She wasn’t getting paid, but she had to be at work and we had a hard time putting food on the table. I hate these fights in Washington, whether I’m a Republican or Democrat, whoever leads it. It’s not those guys having this fight that suffers.”
Where Indigenous congressional members stand
Of the five Native American and Indigenous congressmen, many are split, with Republicans such as Oklahoma Rep. Tom Cole, Chickasaw, condemning Democrats for the perceived stalling tactics.
“The contrast with Democrats on this is telling,” Cole said in a press release. “It is wrong and they know it. House Republicans rejected that approach and chose stability, discipline, and results instead.”
Others, such as Democratic Kansas Rep. Sharice Davis, Ho-Chunk, are asking for bipartisan conversations.
“Instead of canceling votes and continuing to push partisan agendas, it is time for members to reach across the aisle and be open to compromise,” wrote Davids and her colleagues in a letter to Speaker of the House Mike Johnson, Republican.
“The September 30 midnight deadline is quickly approaching,” they wrote, “but there is still time to craft a bipartisan bill that keeps the government open, prevents health care costs from skyrocketing for millions of Americans, and upholds our constitutional duty.”