Bill
S 612
Expands NATIVE Act grant authority, allowing BIA, ONHR, and select agencies to fund Indian tribes, Native Hawaiian groups for tourism and visitor programs, with $35M (FY25-29).
Note on scope and content
- The bill title you supplied (“Requires the appointment of an independent fiduciary upon the dissolution of a charter school”) does not match the legislative text and committee report you provided. This summary is based on the Senate Report (S. Rept. 119-20) and bill text for S. 612 (119th Congress), which would amend the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act (the NATIVE Act). If you intended a different bill, please provide the correct text.
Summary — Purpose and intent
- S. 612 clarifies and expands federal grant authority under the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act (25 U.S.C. 4351 et seq.) so that the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Office of Native Hawaiian Relations (ONHR), and specified other federal agencies may make grants to Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations to support Native tourism and visitor-experience activities. It also authorizes funding to implement the program.
Key provisions
- Technical reorganization:
- Redesignates existing section 6 (25 U.S.C. 4355) as section 7 and inserts a new section 6 after section 5 (25 U.S.C. 4354).
- New section 6 (grant authority):
- 6(a): Authorizes the Director of the Bureau of Indian Affairs to make grants to and enter into agreements with Indian tribes and tribal organizations to carry out the purposes of the NATIVE Act (see section 2 of the Act).
- 6(b): Authorizes the Director of the Office of Native Hawaiian Relations to make grants to and enter into agreements with Native Hawaiian organizations.
- 6(c): Clarifies that heads of other federal agencies — explicitly naming the Secretaries of Commerce, Transportation, Agriculture, Health and Human Services, and Labor — may make grants and enter into agreements under this authority with eligible tribes, tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations.
- 6(d): Authorizes $35,000,000 to be appropriated for the grant program for fiscal years 2025 through 2029.
- Purpose: remove implementation ambiguity that previously required agencies without explicit grant authority to rely on partners to issue awards (example cited: DOI/NPS issuing grants in FY2022 because ONHR lacked authority).
Who is affected
- Directly: Indian tribes, tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations as eligible grant recipients.
- Agencies: Bureau of Indian Affairs, Office of Native Hawaiian Relations, and other named federal agencies (Commerce, Transportation, Agriculture, HHS, Labor) which gain explicit authority to award grants under the NATIVE Act.
- Indirectly: Native communities and local economies that could use funding to develop tourism infrastructure, cultural programs, interpretation, language/cultural revitalization tied to visitor experiences.
Budgetary and procedural notes
- Appropriations: $35 million authorized for FY2025–FY2029 (statute does not specify per-year breakdown). CBO estimates implementation would cost $35 million over 2025–2030 assuming appropriation of the authorized amount.
- Legislative status (from report): Introduced Feb 18, 2025 (Senators Schatz, Murkowski); ordered reported favorably by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (March 5, 2025); reported with written report No. 119-20 (May 7, 2025); placed on Senate Legislative Calendar, Calendar No. 72 (May 8, 2025). A hearing was scheduled for early May 2025 per the record.
- History: Similar/identical measures were considered in prior Congresses (e.g., S. 385 in the 118th Congress).
Potential impact
- Removes a legal/administrative barrier by giving explicit grant-making authority to BIA and ONHR (and enabling other agencies to award grants), likely increasing federal capacity to deliver grants directly to Native recipients for tourism development, cultural interpretation, and related visitor-experience projects. Provides a modest, time-limited funding authorization ($35M) to support those activities.
Compiled from official sources — confirm details with the bill’s official record.
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