(ND Monitor) – The Trump administration has proposed cutting all federal funding for tribal colleges and universities, the second time in two years it has sought major funding cuts for the institutions.
In its fiscal year 2027 budget request, the Department of the Interior proposed cutting $150 million dollars from tribal colleges and universities and tribal postsecondary programs.
That’s more than last year’s proposal to cut $105 million. In fiscal year 2025, tribal colleges received a total of $196 million from the federal government.
Congress rejected last year’s proposed cuts, and the Department of Education later announced it was redistributing additional funds to tribal colleges and universities and historically Black colleges and universities. That extra money came primarily from other institutions serving minority students.
Despite the win in Congress and the additional funding, tribal college leaders in North Dakota began looking for ways to minimize spending last year.
Even with those savings, Twyla Baker, president of Nueta Hidatsa Sahnish College in New Town, said that, if approved by Congress, the newest proposal would be “devastating.”
United Tribes Technical College in Bismarck gets around 70% of its funding from the federal government, according to Russ McDonald, the college’s president.
If that funding were to go away, “It’ll close us. We’ll close the doors,” McDonald said.
A study from the North Dakota Tribal College System found that from 2022 to 2023, tribal colleges added $169.5 million to North Dakota’s economy, the equivalent of supporting 2,106 jobs.
In a statement to the Monitor, Sen. John Hoeven, R-N.D., wrote: “We provided strong funding for North Dakota’s tribal colleges and universities this year, and I expect we will continue to fund them again in the coming year.”
Rep. Julie Fedorchak, also a Republican, said the president’s budget is a starting point and she plans to review priorities that matter to North Dakota communities, including tribal colleges.
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