July 14, 2025

The Trump administration’s proposed freeze on federal grants would cut $24.5 billion in funding to Native communities for health care, law enforcement, education, and essential social services, according to an analysis by the nonpartisan Brookings Institution.

If approved by the courts, the cuts would violate treaty obligations to tribal nations and affect nearly every tribe in the United States — particularly in Oklahoma, the Western Plains, the Southwest, the West Coast, and Alaska, the analysis found.

The report notes that the funding freeze would impact Native people both on and off reservations. “It’s going to have real, on-the-ground effects for people and tribal governments, limiting the ability of Native people with real needs to access services they are entitled to under longstanding trust and treaty obligations,” said Robert Maxim, Mashpee Wampanoag, a Brookings Metro fellow who co-authored the report.