YourVoice.Now Summary
Your MoneyCivil LibertiesTransparency & AccountabilityA $90 million commission would look for lost graves at Indian boarding schools and tell families what it finds.
Your Money
Every hearing would have to offer trauma-informed care during and after testimony. Private space would also be set aside for survivors, their families, and community members.
The bill adds no new money. It takes $90 million from amounts already authorized for Indian land buyback and Indian loan programs.
Civil Liberties
The Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act would clearly apply to items tied to these schools. A federal agency could not read the law more narrowly.
Once remains or sacred items are returned to a tribe, family, or Native Hawaiian group, they could be reburied on federal land. The agency and the parties would have to agree on the site.
The Privacy Act normally bars sharing a person's records without written consent. That rule would not apply to the committee that gathers school files from agencies and religious groups.
The last section says the Act creates no private right of action. If an agency or the commission does not follow it, no one could go to court.
Transparency & Accountability
The commission would look for marked and unmarked graves, including mass graves. Where it can, it would share locations and the children's names with descendants, tribes, and the Office of Hawaiian Affairs.
Interior, Education, Defense, and Health and Human Services would each have to publish a written response to the recommendations. They would also send it to the President and two committees in Congress.
The first report, due four years after members are seated, and the final report would both have to be made public. Four agencies would also post the final report on their websites.
Records held by the Federal and Religious Advisory Committee would be exempt from the Freedom of Information Act. That panel collects agency and church files about the schools.
The Federal Advisory Committee Act would not apply here. That law normally makes advisory bodies meet in the open and post their records. The bill sets its own hearing and notice rules instead.
The commission would end six years after the law takes effect. Its advisory panels would close 90 days after the final report goes out.
More about this bill
Native American and Native Hawaiian families could learn where children sent to Indian boarding schools were buried. A new federal commission would search for marked and unmarked graves, including mass graves. Where it can, it would share those sites and the children's names with families and tribes. The commission would also hold public hearings in all 12 Bureau of Indian Affairs regions and in Hawaii. Anyone may ask to speak, though the chair may limit who testifies. Free counseling and care would have to be offered at each hearing, with private space for survivors. Five members would be named by House and Senate leaders of both parties. None may work for the federal government. A 15-member survivors panel would advise them, and 9 of those seats go to people who attended the schools. Two more panels would bring in tribes, federal agencies, and three people from religious groups. The work is paid for with $90 million. That money comes out of funds already set aside for Indian land and loan programs, not from new spending. First findings would be due four years after members are seated. The commission would close six years after the law takes effect. Some open-government rules would be set aside. The federal advisory committee law would not apply to the commission or its three panels. Records held by the federal and religious panel would be closed to public records requests. The Privacy Act consent rule would not cover that panel either. Four agency heads would then have to answer the final report in public within 120 days. The report itself would go on federal websites within 180 days. The graves protection law would clearly cover items tied to these schools. Agencies would have to allow reburial on federal land at sites the parties agree on. No one could sue to enforce any part of this law.
Congressional Summary
This bill establishes the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies in the United States within the legislative branch and sets forth its powers, duties, and membership.Among other duties, the commission must investigate the impacts and ongoing effects of the Indian Boarding School Policies (federal policies under which American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children were forcibly removed from their family homes and placed in boarding schools).Further, the commission must develop recommendations on ways to (1) protect unmarked graves and accompanying land protections; (2) support repatriation and identify the tribal nations from which children were taken; and (3) discontinue the removal of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children from their families and tribal communities by state social service departments, foster care agencies, and adoption agencies.
Details
- Congress
- 119th
- Chamber
- House
- Status
- summarized
- Action
- Introduced in House
- Action Date
- 2026-02-03
- Date Added
- 2026-04-10
- Source
- Congress.gov →
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