HHS proposes to fold the remaining rules for Administration for Native Americans grants into three sections
The proposal, published Oct. 14, follows a June rule that repealed most of the program's regulations. Appeals would go to the HHS Departmental Appeals Board, and the waiver of the 20 percent match would stay. Comments are due Nov. 13.
Washington. The Administration for Children and Families proposed on Oct. 14 to cut down the remaining regulations of the Administration for Native Americans grant program, folding five sections into three and sending appeals to the Departmental Appeals Board of the Department of Health and Human Services. Comments are due Nov. 13.
The Administration for Native Americans, part of HHS, makes competitive grants under the Native American Programs Act of 1974 to tribal governments, Alaska Native villages and corporations, and public and nonprofit agencies serving Native Hawaiians and American Indian and Alaska Native people. The money pays for social and economic development, Native language preservation and environmental regulatory work, usually as seed funding for 12 to 60 months. In fiscal 2025 the agency awarded $50,738,495, the proposal says.
What is left after June
The proposal is a second step. A final rule published June 18, which took effect Aug. 17, removed the regulations across 25 sections, among them eligibility, project approval and the length of grants; HHS said such details belong in funding notices and grant terms. Most of the 20 comments on that rule opposed it, HHS wrote, and several Alaska Native communities said small, remote villages could lose the predictability of their funding.
Five sections remained: definitions, notice of ineligibility, appeal of ineligibility, financial and administrative requirements, and appeals. HHS now calls them fragmented and partly duplicative of the statute.
What would change for grantees
An applicant found ineligible would still receive a letter stating the legal and factual grounds, but it would no longer have to enclose a copy of the regulations. The program's own appeal procedures would go: applicants rejected as ineligible, and grantees whose funding is suspended, terminated or not continued, would appeal to the board under its general procedures, which HHS says the current text conflicts with or repeats.
The 20 percent nonfederal match would leave the regulations because the statute already requires it. The waiver stays: an applicant must show it cannot meet the match, through an audit or a full statement of its assets and liabilities, and that reasonable efforts to raise cash or in-kind contributions from third parties failed. Examples of acceptable documents would be dropped, as would a list of federal grant rules that apply anyway; HHS says it intends to offer training so grantees still know them. Grant funds still could not buy real property.
The agency held a tribal consultation in August where commenters generally supported simpler rules, the notice says, and it asks tribes for more input. HHS says the proposal adds no paperwork. Comments go to docket ACF-2026-0826.
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