John Hult
South Dakota Searchlight

A spending bill passed last week by the U.S. House of Representatives would reduce funding for environmental priorities, but includes a 34 percent increase in funding for tribal law enforcement.

The legislation passed 210-205 largely along party lines, with all but one House Democrat – Vicente Gonzalez of Texas – voting against it and all but five House Republicans voting for it. 

It now moves to the Democrat-controlled Senate, where it faces an uncertain future.

Rep. Dusty Johnson, R-South Dakota, voted for the measure. Johnson and the other members of South Dakota’s congressional delegation have pushed for additional public safety dollars for tribes.

Johnson called the funding in the bill “a historic investment” in tribal public safety.

“It is not everything we need, but it’s a big step in moving us in the right direction, and it’s something that we’ve been fighting for for a long time,” Johnson said in a social media video posted Wednesday.

Funding boosts for tribes

Tribal law enforcement funding flows through the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Office of Justice Services. The BIA is part of the Interior Department, which also includes the National Park Service, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, the U.S. Geological Survey and several other agencies.

A Wednesday press release from Johnson’s office said the bill includes other “wins for tribal communities” beyond law enforcement.

The legislation would boost total BIA funding by 14.5 percent, to $2.81 billion. That total includes a $746 million allocation for tribal public safety, an increase of 34 percent from fiscal year 2024, according to the release. Included in that is $414 million for criminal investigations and police service, a 51 percent increase, and $55 million for tribal courts, an 18 percent increase.

About $180 million of the public safety funding would flow to Oklahoma, where a recent U.S. Supreme Court decision expanded the footprint of tribal jurisdiction. The rest would be split among the more than 500 other federally recognized tribes.

The bill has $1.47 billion for the Bureau of Indian Education and $8.56 billion for the Indian Health Service, increases of 7.5 percent and 23 percent, respectively. The bill’s total cost is $72 million lower than the 2024 funding level, the release said.

Hurdles remain

The bill serves as a starting point for negotiations. The federal fiscal year ends in September, and talks between the House and Senate will determine spending levels for fiscal year 2025, which begins Oct. 1.

Even that deadline is a squishy one, though. Congress has missed its deadline to pass appropriations bills by Oct. 1 for years, opting instead for continuing resolutions that keep the government funded at existing levels until a final spending package passes. The current spending package didn’t pass until March – about six months after the 2024 fiscal year began.

Johnson said he understands that “we’re all adults and we’re not going to get everything we want,” but argued that the increases for tribes written into the appropriations bill are a win regardless of the timeline or outcome. That’s because they represent a consensus on increases for tribal funding from House Republicans that “wouldn’t have happened 10 or 20 years ago.”

“This is now the official House position in negotiations with the Senate,” Johnson said.

Democrats with the U.S. Senate Appropriations Committee issued a news release Thursday outlining their own spending bill. The news release points to smaller increases in funding for tribal areas, including a $17.6 million boost over 2024 levels for tribal public safety. The tribal justice portions of the spending bill would total $573.2 million, compared to $746 million in the House bill.

The Senate has yet to vote on its spending bill.

Park funding stripped

The spending cuts in the bill could present a snag during negotiations. Johnson’s press release said the tribal funding increase was possible because the bill would implement “significant cuts elsewhere,” including a $55 million cut to Inflation Reduction Act spending.

Johnson’s office later confirmed that the $55 million noted in the release was a reference to money intended to help upgrade the energy infrastructure, rehabilitate historic buildings and protect habitat at Presidio National Park in California.

Part of the “Presidio Forward” plan outlined on the park’s website also references planned upgrades to the park’s sidewalks, roadways and public gathering spaces built on “thousands of comments from visitors and underrepresented communities.” That portion of the plan would also see the park’s shuttle fleet converted to “a clean electric fleet.”

The national park is in the district of former Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat. Her communications director did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment. 

The bill passed Wednesday night also included amendments that aim to stop the flow of Inflation Reduction Act dollars to projects tied to diversity, equity and inclusion, and environmental justice. The EPA, meanwhile, would see a 20 percent budget cut.

Those issues were key to GOP support, Johnson said.

“House Republicans are going to be united in our desire to increase public safety in Indian Country and roll back the worst abuses of the Inflation Reduction Act,” Johnson said.

Some Democrats who spoke against the measure criticized GOP efforts to reduce funding for the EPA.

“If we are going to preserve the health of our environment and our economic well-being, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and increase our efforts to respond to and mitigate against harmful climate impacts,” Rep. Chellie Pingree, D-Maine, said on the House floor.

Backdrop of controversy

Funding for tribal law enforcement and public safety on South Dakota’s Native American reservations has been a powder keg of controversy in relations between Gov. Kristi Noem and tribal leaders through much of 2024.

It began in January, when Noem delivered a speech on the U.S.-Mexico border. In it, she claimed that drug cartels had set up shop on the state’s reservations.

Some of Noem’s language in the speech drew the ire of tribal leaders, as did her comments in the weeks that followed, in which she suggested that some tribal leaders are “personally benefiting” from cartels.

Leaders in all nine of South Dakota’s Native American tribes voted to ban her from their lands in the months after the speech. In addition to her remarks on cartels, the leaders objected to her comments during a town hall in March, when she said children living on tribal lands “don’t have any hope.”

Even so, tribal leaders have long decried a dearth of federal funding for policing, which is wrapped up in U.S. treaty obligations. Tribes including Oglala, Rosebud and Crow Creek have declared public safety emergencies. Oglala has twice sued the federal government over a lack of police funding.

State officials have tried to help by opening an additional basic law enforcement training course earlier this summer that prioritized tribal recruits. The idea was to make it easier for recruits to receive the 13-week training closer to home than Artesia, New Mexico, the site of the BIA’s training facility.

Noem and Attorney General Marty Jackley proposed the idea this spring.

In a Wednesday post on X, formerly Twitter, Noem lauded Johnson for his leadership on tribal police funding. She said she’d reached out to him for help on the issue.

“For months, we have been calling for Washington to take action to address tribal law enforcement shortages. We brought @repdustyjohnson to the table to help,” Noem wrote. “Today, he and the House secured what we asked for: a big funding increase for tribal law enforcement.”

Johnson shared Noem’s post, saying “thank you for your leadership.”

This article was first published in South Dakota Searchlight.