Judiciary Democrats Expose Republican Cuts to Tribal Public Safety Amid Missing and Murdered Indigenous People Crisis

Washington, D.C. (September 15, 2026)—Rep. Jamie Raskin, Ranking Member of the House Judiciary Committee, and Rep. Lucy McBath, Ranking Member of the Subcommittee on the Crime and Federal Government Surveillance, led Judiciary Democrats in highlighting the federal government’s longstanding failure to protect Indigenous people—and how proposed cuts to Tribal law enforcement and victim services risk exacerbating the missing and murdered Indigenous people crisis. 

The hearing included testimony from Abigail Echo-Hawk, Executive Vice President, Urban Indian Health Institute; Austin Knudsen, Attorney General of Montana; Myron Lizer, former Vice President of the Navajo Nation; and Trent Shores, former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Oklahoma and former chair of the Native American Issues Subcommittee of the Department of Justice. 

For far too long, the federal government has failed to fulfill its obligation to work with Tribes to help them keep their members and communities safe, which has contributed to the missing and murdered Indigenous people crisis.

• Ranking Member Raskin said: “The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people is not an issue to be politicized and picked up momentarily for electoral purposes. It deserves not only Congress’s fleeting attention, but our serious, intense attention and serious legislative action. This Subcommittee has sat passive and silent for nearly two years as the Trump Administration has slashed funding to Tribal communities and steamrolled their sovereignty.”

• Ranking Member McBath said: “For far too long, missing and murdered indigenous people have been ignored. Criminals have taken notice of this seeming indifference and found new ways to exploit and victimize vulnerable indigenous people.”

• Ms. Echo-Hawk described how jurisdictional disputes can leave sexual assault cases unresolved: “They won’t test the rape kits. We’ve been gathering the rape kits and the feds won’t test them, and the state won’t test them because they’re not sure whose jurisdiction it is over these rapes of men, women, children—rape kits that just sit while they fight over jurisdiction.”

• Mr. Lizer said: “Families should not have to understand federal Indian law before they can understand what happened to their loved one’s case. They should not have to determine whether the FBI, Tribal police, a prosecutor or another agency is still responsible. Government should know.”

• Ms. Echo-Hawk stressed that violence against Indigenous people is not a partisan issue and invoked the federal government’s treaty and trust obligations: “My rape was not partisan. The murder of Kaysera Stops Pretty Places was not partisan. The murder of Elijah on the Crow Reservation was not partisan. This is treaty and trust obligations. It is the law of the land, and we deserve to not only have the justice, but have the resources that were paid for on the land that this building is on right now.

By defunding vital programs and cutting critical resources dedicated to finding and bringing justice to Tribal victims and their families, the Trump Administration is only making the problem worse.

• Ms. Echo-Hawk said funding cuts and uncertainty have made Tribal-serving organizations struggle to rehire staff and restore programs: “We’ve seen a significant drop in services across the nation as a direct result.”

• Ranking Member McBath said: “According to a study conducted by the Urban Indian Health Institute, a significant number of tribes and organizations serving native survivors of violence rely heavily on federal funding for more than half of their budget. And as a result of the cuts, 44% of those organizations report that they will have to drastically reduce or cut survivor services.” Ranking Member McBath continued: “That includes safe housing, transportation, court accompaniment, and counseling. Make no mistake, lives will be lost because of these cuts.”

• Ranking Member Raskin noted that the Trump Administration has proposed cutting more than $100 million from Tribal law enforcement and asked Ms. Echo-Hawk what effect the cuts would have. Ms. Echo-Hawk responded: “Absolutely devastating effect.” Ms. Echo-Hawk explained that Tribes struggle to retain the officers they train because “we don’t have the resources” to compete with other law enforcement agencies.