White House Issues Additional Reductions In Force
October 15, 2025 — The National Indian Education Association (NIEA), together with a coalition of national and Tribal organizations, has issued an inter-organizational letter to the Office of Management and Budget and the U.S. Department of Education calling for an immediate rescission of Reductions in Force (RIFs) affecting staff in the Office of Indian Education (OIE), Impact Aid, and other Native-serving programs.
NIEA monitored these developments in real time during last week’s 56th Annual Convention & Trade Show in Spokane and since. The coalition letter underscores that terminating personnel who carry out trust and treaty obligations undermines the federal government’s fiduciary responsibilities to Tribal Nations and must be halted without delay.
“Native education obligations—prepaid with our lands and resources—are not discretionary and must never be used as leverage in partisan negotiations,” said Jason P. Dropik (Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians), NIEA Executive Director. “RIFs that target OIE and other Native-serving offices disrupt services to students, cut off required consultation, and violate the trust relationship. They must be rescinded immediately.”
The letter urges OMB to direct the Department of Education to suspend and rescind all RIF actions impacting Tribal-serving programs, noting that program continuity, funding disbursements, and technical assistance cannot be maintained without the staff who administer them.
Congressional Action to Reopen the Government
Shutdowns disproportionately impact Native communities, whose schools, healthcare, and community safety all depend on federal funding and federal employees. We applaud the bipartisan group of Senators, including Senators Cortez Masto, Gallego, Murkowski, Rounds, and Sullivan, engaging in conversations dedicated to finding a path to get the government funded and back open. Tribal communities in their states need to ensure that both the public schools and federally-funded schools are able to consistently maintain operations and also handle any surprise issues that may arise. The possibility of that increases the longer the shutdown continues. The likelihood of impacts is even greater if the current RIFs are maintained beyond the 60-day window.
Federal Government Shutdown Begins
October 1, 2025 – Last night, Congress failed to pass either an appropriations package for Fiscal Year (FY) 2026 or a Continuing Resolution (CR) to keep the government open, with the Senate conducting two votes on potential CRs, both failing to meet the 60-vote threshold.
The first potential CR was a so-called “clean” CR, extending the government at current funding levels for 45 days, a plan supported by Republican appropriators and leadership. This legislation passed the House but did not pass the Senate. Democrats offered a counter-proposal for a 30-day CR that included extensions of Affordable Care Act subsidies and health-care tax credits. As neither CR was successful, most federal operations and programs ceased as of midnight on October 1, 2025.
While many Indian education programs are funded with the school year in mind—meaning they receive funding as early as July 1 for the next fiscal year—there are still significant barriers that Tribal Nations and Indian education programs face during a prolonged shutdown. The most recent government shutdown lasted 31 days, from December 2018 to January 2019. It is important to note that this was also a partial shutdown, whereas Congress has not passed any of the 12 appropriations bills for FY 2026. Learning from previous shutdowns, up to 90% of staff within the Department of Education (ED), Department of the Interior (DOI), and the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) will be furloughed. The longer the shutdown lasts, the more likely there will be disruptions to services and funding due to furloughed employees.
Shutdown Guidance
In the days leading up to this shutdown, many agencies released new shutdown contingency plans, outlining the expected number of employees who would remain in place for the duration of the shutdown. The White House Office of Management and Budget (OMB) has also directed agencies to consider additional Reductions in Force (RIFs) simultaneous to furloughs. Additional guidance from the Office of Personnel Management can be found here and here.
Agency contingency plans include designations of excepted employees: necessary to perform activities expressly authorized by law; necessary to perform activities necessarily implied by law; necessary to discharge the President’s constitutional duties and powers; and necessary to protect life and property. Employees under these designations will primarily remain in their positions. Additional guidance from the Office of Personnel Management can be found here and here.
Department of the Interior (DOI)
According to the September 28, 2025, Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) Contingency Plan all 2,961 employees at the BIE, all employees are to be considered excepted. This is essential to ensuring that schools, both BIE-operated and Tribally Controlled, are able to remain open and operational. Meanwhile, 37% of the employees within the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) are considered excepted according to the BIA Contingency Plan.
For funded accounts under the BIE, School Operations are forward-funded and therefore became available on July 1, 2025, for the 2025-2026 School Year (SY). However, Facilities Operations, Maintenance, Education Construction, and Johnson O’Malley (JOM) program funding are not forward-funded, meaning their appropriations have now lapsed. These funds will not be available until Congress either passes a new budget or a new CR.
Department of Education (ED)
According to the ED Contingency Plan, ED will furlough 87% of its employees. Most funding at ED is forward-funded, so the bulk of program funding schools receive from the federal government will continue. All staff at the Office of Indian Education (OIE) have been furloughed.
Health and Human Services (HHS)
Broadly, HHS will retain 59% of its employees during a shutdown. Within the Administration for Children and Families (ACF), this number is lower: ACF will maintain 44% of its staff who continue to have available appropriations to fund their work until such funding lapses, and has excepted 13% of its employees who will remain in place even with lapsed funding. While ACF will not be making any new grants, many programs—such as Head Start—do not rely on an October 1 funding cycle, so their programming can continue.
As the shutdown continues, please reach out to NIEA to share specific impacts you are seeing on the ground, including (but not limited to) funding shortfalls, lack of technical assistance, and service lapses. For additional information, please contact Julia Wakeford, Legislative and Federal Policy Director, at jwakeford@niea.org, and Rachel Two Bulls, Legislative and Federal Policy Analyst, at rtwobulls@niea.org.