The Bureau of Indian Affairs is facing a significant overhaul, including further staff cuts, according to a statement from a tribal leader during a congressional hearing last week about federal funding for Indigenous communities for fiscal year 2027.
“Just this week, we learned that the Bureau of Indian Affairs is planning on releasing and implementing a reorganization plan that will make significant cuts to the staff critical in administering programs and distributing funding to tribal nations,” said Mark Macarro, president of the National Congress of American Indians and chairman of the Pechanga Band of Indians. “This action has been done without consultation with tribal nations and without consideration of the impact it will have on the delivery of programs and services.”
The information comes after a year of intensive reorganization within the Department of Interior that has led to a 11% reduction in the workforce at Indian Affairs. According to the Government Accountability Office, those staffing cuts have “caused delays in carrying out work, left regions and agencies with critical gaps, an exacerbation of previously identified issues with lack of sufficient workforce capacity,” Macarro said.
Macarro did not expand on the planned reorganization’s details, or how he learned about it. In an emailed statement, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Billy Kirkland said, “Indian Affairs is committed to upholding federal responsibilities to tribal communities. Under President Trump’s leadership, we are prioritizing maximizing resources and enhance operational effectiveness across the organization to cut bureaucratic waste. These efforts reflect our commitment to streamlining government operations while ensuring that Indian Affairs efforts remain strong, effective, and impactful.
“This administration believes that a more effective path forward is one that reduces federal overreach and empowers tribal governments to tailor solutions that best meet the unique needs of their communities,” he said. “This shift in approach will ultimately foster greater self-governance and more responsive, culturally relevant services.” Requests for additional information from the Department of Interior and U.S. Department of Agriculture were not answered before press time.
“We urge the committee to encourage Indian Affairs to reverse course and engage in robust and collaborative consultations with tribal nations before taking any action that would imperil the already understaffed Indian Affairs workforce,” Macarro said.
“We urge the committee to encourage Indian Affairs to reverse course and engage in robust and collaborative consultations with tribal nations…”
The news that the agency plans to reorganize and cut more employees is a departure from the statements that Indian Affairs officials recently shared with the Government Accountability Office, when they said that as of December 2025 there were “no plans to reorganize or further reduce the workforce,” although “existing functions might need to be restructured or realigned to achieve administration priorities.”
In a report published in January, the GAO found that the Bureau of Indian Affairs has lost 13% of its workforce since January 2025, while the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs lost 27% and the Bureau of Indian Education lost 5%. The cuts have also impacted central BIA offices: The Pacific Regional Office lost 29% of its staff, while employees in the Southern Plains office were reduced by 26%, and the Alaska Regional Office saw a reduction of 22%. The BIA was already understaffed and underfunded and has been so for years.
Tribal leaders said that the staffing cuts have had an impact on services, while the Government Accountability Office noted that Indian Affairs officials had yet to analyze the projected cost savings from the cuts.
The agencies in the Department of the Interior that serve tribal nations aren’t the only ones that have been deeply impacted by staffing cuts. In the same hearing last Wednesday, Intertribal Timber Council President Cody Desautel (Colville) stated that the Office of Tribal Relations within the USDA already lost about 75% of its staff in the past year, adding that the Forest Service had improved consultation recently and seems open to partnering with tribal nations, but that staffing is a serious issue. That office is the primary point of contact for tribal nations for everything from tribal consultation on policies and co-stewardship agreements to supporting tribal food programs. Additional staff losses could also occur within the USDA when it moves forward with its own proposed reorganization. The department held two tribal consultations about its plans last fall, during the last government shutdown.
Tribal leaders voiced strong opposition to such a reorganization, Government Executive reported. Their primary concerns included the department’s failure to consult tribal nations before introducing the plan, pointing out that the reorganization would cause a disruption in services, and that despite being justified as a cost-saving measure, it would negatively impact tribes in the long run. According to a summary of the consultations, one tribal leader called the reorganization “a failure of USDA to adhere to its own consultation policy,” while another stated that “mass relocations will destroy irreplaceable knowledge about Treaty rights, forest conditions, and working relationships built over decades, and new staff unfamiliar with the land will make mistakes.”
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Note: This story was updated to include comment from the Bureau of Indian of Affairs.
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