Funding has gone to climate adaptation planning, drought mitigation, water rights settlements, and more
DENVER—Today marks the two-year anniversary of the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL), a historic and ongoing investment in America’s natural and built environment. The BIL authorized an estimated $1.2 trillion in funding to be spent over ten years, including $550 billion to be spent by 2026, according to McKinsey. The funding is being distributed by government agencies, including the Interior Department and its bureaus.
Tribes have received over $1.6 billion of BIL funding from the Interior department so far. The Navajo Nation has received around $682 million, the Blackfeet Tribe of the Blackfeet Indian Reservation of Montana has received over $212 million, Gila River Indian Community of the Gila River Indian Reservation has received around $155 million, the Chippewa Cree Indians of the Rocky Boy’s Reservation has received $136 million, and the White Mountain Apache Tribe of the Fort Apache Reservation has received over $116 million. Almost 40 Tribes have received over $1 million. [data]
The Bureau of Reclamation and the Bureau of Indian Affairs received the vast majority of BIL funding allocated to Tribes by Interior. [data] Around $1.3 billion of the total funding allocated to Tribes went to water rights settlements, while $190 million went to Tribal investments. [data] These investments include $1.7 million for a climate adaptation plan for the Tulalip Tribes of Washington, $1.8 million for an irrigation project on the Fort Peck reservation, and $8.7 million for the Hopi Arsenic Management Project. [data]
TRIBAL FUNDING BY PROGRAM AREA CHART
This memo is to make reporters aware of the BIL funding that has so far been allocated by the Interior department to Tribes. To explore the funding in depth, please visit this interactive map created by the Interior department, or see this Google Sheets workbook created by manually scraping data from the interactive map webpage.
If you have any questions about using the data, please reach out to Communications Manager Kate Groetzinger at kate@westernpriorities.org or 254-652-0067. While we do not have additional information about the projects in the spreadsheet, we are happy to help you explore the data further or get in touch with the agencies responsible for the projects to learn more.
For a national look at the BIL funding distributed by Interior, please see our latest blog.
Feature image: Secretary Haaland Highlights President Biden’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law Investments in Indian Country, Water Infrastructure in Montana; Interior department, Flickr