DOGE canceled $468.7 million in grants and contracts to tribes and Native organizations, Brookings finds
A Brookings Metro analysis published Oct. 16 counts 1,597 canceled awards. Native recipients lost 12.1% of the funding obligated under those awards, against 8.3% for other recipients, and more than half of the canceled awards were funded by the EPA.
Washington. Tribal nations and Native organizations lost $468.7 million in federal funding when the Department of Government Efficiency canceled 1,597 of their grants and contracts, according to an analysis Brookings Metro published on Oct. 16. The authors, Robert Maxim, Glencora Haskins, Mary Elizabeth Campbell and Ryan Williams, confirmed each cut against de-obligation records in USAspending, the federal spending database, from the second quarter of fiscal 2025 through the end of fiscal 2026. DOGE shut down on July 4.
The count covers tribal governments, Native-owned businesses and Native organizations together; the analysis does not say how much of the total went to nonprofits. It also leaves out federal layoffs and office closures, so the authors say DOGE's full effect on Indian Country is higher.
A larger share than other recipients
Native recipients accounted for about 6.5% of all the DOGE cuts the researchers could confirm, while Census Bureau estimates put Native Americans at 1% to 2.7% of the U.S. population. Tribes and Native organizations lost 12.1% of the funding obligated under canceled awards, compared with 8.3% for non-Native recipients. The authors suggest one reason: Native recipients often draw down federal awards more slowly, which left more unspent money exposed.
More than 65% of the canceled awards in Indian Country were classified as natural resources and environment, and 11% as agriculture. Pollution control and abatement alone accounted for over 61% of the funding cut. More than half of the canceled awards to Native recipients were funded by the Environmental Protection Agency, against just over 20% for other recipients. Health made up about 5%.
The projects that lost money
Among the examples the report gives: a roughly $20 million EPA Community Change award for Kotzebue, an Alaska Native village, to build and own two wind turbines; funding for the Nevada Clean Energy Fund and the Walker River Paiute Tribe to carry out a climate resilience plan; and a nearly $9 million Agriculture Department grant to Piikani Lodge Health Institute for a community kitchen and producer training hub on the Blackfeet Reservation in Montana, meant to serve 300 farmers and ranchers.
The report also cites the Agriculture Department's $500 million cut to the Local Food Purchase Assistance Cooperative Agreement Program, which, in the words of First Nations Development Institute, "supports local and regional food systems by purchasing food from historically underserved producers and distributing it to communities facing food insecurity."
The authors call on Congress to move more Indian Country funding to formula and mandatory funding, to pay more of it up front instead of by reimbursement, and to bar terminating grants to tribes on the ground that they "no longer effectuate agency priorities."
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