Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act of 2025
Sponsored By: Senator Lisa Murkowski
In Committee
Summary
Establishes a federally funded Truth and Healing Commission to investigate the history and long‑term harms of Indian boarding schools and to center survivor testimony and healing. It creates a Survivors Truth and Healing Subcommittee and two advisory committees, requires culturally informed convenings and archiving, and designates funding to support the work.
Show full summary
- Survivors and communities: Creates structured, trauma‑informed hearings and convenings so survivors, descendants, and communities can give testimony, influence memorialization, and guide handling of burial sites and artifacts.
- Tribal and Native organizations: Requires meaningful consultation with Indian Tribes and Native Hawaiian organizations and forms a 19‑member Native American Truth and Healing Advisory Committee to help collect records and shape the Commission’s reports.
- Federal agencies and religious institutions: Sets up a 20‑member Federal and Religious Truth and Healing Advisory Committee to coordinate records and submissions and exempts certain committee records from FOIA and the Privacy Act.
*Designates $90.0 million, drawn from specified prior appropriations, to carry out the Commission and related activities.*
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Bill Overview
Analyzed Economic Effects
6 provisions identified: 5 benefits, 0 costs, 1 mixed.
Hearings, reports, and burial searches
If enacted, the bill would require the Commission to hold hearings and culturally appropriate convenings, including at least one in each of the 12 BIA regions and Hawaiʻi and quarterly testimony meetings starting one year after enactment. If enacted, convenings must be announced 30 days ahead and provide trauma‑informed care and private space for survivors and families. If enacted, the Commission would work to locate and document marked and unmarked burial sites tied to boarding schools and share burial information with tribes and descendants when practicable. If enacted, the Commission must produce an initial report within four years after a majority of members are appointed, send annual reports to Congress, and post a final report online with agency responses due within specified deadlines.
Commission pay, contracts, and support
If enacted, the bill would let Commission members be paid a daily GS‑5 rate for Commission work for up to 10 days per month and get travel and per diem at federal rates. If enacted, the bill would let the Commission sign contracts, accept volunteer services, and get General Services Administration support on a reimbursable basis. If enacted, federal employees could be detailed to the Commission without losing civil service status, even if their agency is not reimbursed. If enacted, the Commission could accept gifts and donations with tax paperwork, but fundraising and spending would require a 3/5 vote and unspent gifts must be returned or archived at termination.
Creates boarding school commission and funding
If enacted, the bill would create a Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School policies in the legislative branch. If enacted, the bill would set aside $90 million (one time) from cited authorizations to carry out the Commission's work. If enacted, the Commission would be appointed within 180 days and would end six years after enactment.
Repatriation, reburial, and co-stewardship
If enacted, the bill would make clear that NAGPRA applies to cultural items tied to Indian Boarding Schools so those items can be returned under NAGPRA rules. If enacted, federal agencies would have to permit reburial on federal land for repatriated items when the relevant parties agree. If enacted, federal agencies and schools that control cemeteries or school sites could enter co‑stewardship agreements to jointly manage and care for those places.
Survivors and Native advisory panels
If enacted, the bill would create a 15‑member Survivors Truth and Healing Subcommittee and a 19‑member Native American Truth and Healing Advisory Committee. If enacted, Survivors Subcommittee members could be paid a daily GS‑7 rate for up to 10 days per month and Native Committee members could be paid GS‑7 for up to 14 days per month. If enacted, nominations must be submitted within 90 days of enactment and the advisory bodies would end 90 days after the Commission's final report.
Privacy and legal limits for committees
If enacted, the bill would create a Federal and Religious Advisory Committee whose records and communications are exempt from certain Privacy Act and FOIA rules and would not be covered by the Federal Advisory Committee Act. If enacted, the bill would also specify that nothing in the Act creates a private right of action for individuals to sue or seek relief based on the Act.
Sponsors & CoSponsors
Sponsor
Lisa Murkowski
AK • R
Cosponsors
Elizabeth Warren
MA • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Brian Schatz
HI • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
John Hickenlooper
CO • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Tina Smith
MN • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Catherine Cortez Masto
NV • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Patty Murray
WA • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Richard Blumenthal
CT • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Michael Bennet
CO • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Tammy Duckworth
IL • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Bernie Sanders
VT • I
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Jacky Rosen
NV • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Mark Kelly
AZ • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Martin Heinrich
NM • D
Sponsored 2/26/2025
Maria Cantwell
WA • D
Sponsored 2/27/2025
Amy Klobuchar
MN • D
Sponsored 2/27/2025
Cory Booker
NJ • D
Sponsored 2/27/2025
Sen. Luján, Ben Ray [D-NM]
NM • D
Sponsored 3/3/2025
Mazie Hirono
HI • D
Sponsored 3/3/2025
Edward Markey
MA • D
Sponsored 3/3/2025
Jeff Merkley
OR • D
Sponsored 3/3/2025
Tammy Baldwin
WI • D
Sponsored 3/4/2025
Jeanne Shaheen
NH • D
Sponsored 3/11/2025
Richard Durbin
IL • D
Sponsored 4/30/2025
Angela Alsobrooks
MD • D
Sponsored 9/18/2025
Ron Wyden
OR • D
Sponsored 10/8/2025
Roll Call Votes
No roll call votes available for this bill.
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