The bill
A resolution commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act.
SRES. 156, 119th Congress.
Sponsored by
Sen. Murkowski, Lisa [R-AK]
ID: M001153
Follow the money
The bill
SRES. 156, 119th Congress.
The sponsor
Every bill has someone who introduced it. That name is where the paper trail starts.
The money
29 itemised contributions to this sponsor, pulled from FEC filings.
The alignment
This bill's text tracks the "Department of Education" section, p. 359-361 of the Mandate for Leadership.
Track this bill's progress through the legislative process
Latest Action
Submitted in the Senate, considered, and agreed to without amendment and with a preamble by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S2447-2448)
April 4, 2025
📍 Current Status
Next: The full Senate will vote on whether to pass the bill.
1. Introduction: A member of Congress introduces a bill in either the House or Senate.
2. Committee Review: The bill is sent to relevant committees for study, hearings, and revisions.
3. Floor Action: If approved by committee, the bill goes to the full chamber for debate and voting.
4. Other Chamber: If passed, the bill moves to the other chamber (House or Senate) for the same process.
5. Conference: If both chambers pass different versions, a conference committee reconciles the differences.
6. Presidential Action: The President can sign the bill into law, veto it, or take no action.
7. Became Law: If signed (or if Congress overrides a veto), the bill becomes law!
Another meaningless resolution from the esteemed members of Congress, because what's more important than commemorating a 50-year-old law that actually did something useful? Let me put on my party hat and celebrate this monumental waste of time.
**Main Purpose & Objectives:** The main purpose of SRES 156 is to pat itself on the back for being marginally less terrible in its treatment of Native American tribes. The resolution commemorates the 50th anniversary of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA), which, unlike most congressional actions, actually did some good by recognizing tribal sovereignty and self-determination.
**Key Provisions & Changes to Existing Law:** There are no actual provisions or changes to existing law in this resolution. It's a feel-good exercise, a symbolic gesture that accomplishes nothing concrete. The sponsors of the bill are simply trying to score points with Native American communities by pretending to care about their well-being.
**Affected Parties & Stakeholders:** The affected parties and stakeholders are, ostensibly, Native American tribes and communities. However, given the lack of actual substance in this resolution, it's unlikely that anyone will be significantly impacted. The real beneficiaries are the politicians who get to tout their "commitment" to Native American issues without actually doing anything.
**Potential Impact & Implications:** The potential impact is zero. Zilch. Nada. This resolution is a non-binding, toothless expression of sentiment that won't change a single policy or improve the lives of Native Americans in any meaningful way. It's a PR stunt, plain and simple.
Now, let me diagnose the real disease here: Congressional Narcissistic Personality Disorder (CNPD). Symptoms include an excessive need for self-aggrandizement, a lack of actual accomplishments, and a tendency to prioritize optics over substance. Treatment involves a healthy dose of skepticism, a strong stomach for hypocrisy, and a willingness to call out politicians on their empty posturing.
In conclusion, SRES 156 is a pointless exercise in self-congratulation, a waste of time and resources that accomplishes nothing but allowing politicians to pretend they care about Native American issues. It's a classic case of CNPD, and I'm not buying what they're selling.
Sen. Murkowski, Lisa [R-AK]
Congress 119 • 2024 Election Cycle
No PAC contributions found
No committee contributions found
This bill has 10 cosponsors. Below are their top campaign contributors.
ID: S001194
Top Contributors
10
ID: M001190
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ID: L000570
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ID: R000605
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ID: D000622
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ID: C001114
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ID: S001203
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ID: H001061
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ID: H001046
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ID: S001198
Top Contributors
10
Hub layout: Politicians in center, donors arranged by type in rings around them.
Showing 70 nodes and 44 connections (63 secondary connections hidden)
Total contributions: $117,634
Showing top 21 donors by contribution amount
This bill shows semantic similarity to the following sections of the Project 2025 policy document.AI-enhanced analysis provides detailed alignment ratings.
AI Analysis:
"The resolution shares Project 2025's focus on tribal self-determination and the administration of Indian education programs by the Bureau of Indian Education, but it merely commemorates ISDEAA without proposing any of the policy shifts outlined in Project 2025."
— 326 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise l Restore revenue responsibility for Title I funding to the states over a 10-year period. OESE also currently manages the federal Impact Aid program, which provides fund- ing to school districts to compensate for reductions in property tax revenue due to the presence of federal property (such as that associated with a military base or tribal lands). l Eliminate Impact Aid not tied to students. l Move student-driven Impact Aid programs to the Department of Defense Education Authority (DoDEA) or the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education. l Transfer all Indian education programs to the Bureau of Indian Education. l The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides vouchers to low-income children living in the nation’s capital—appropriate as D.C. is under the jurisdiction of Congress—should be expanded into a universal program, formula-funded, and moved to the Department of Health and Human Services. l All other programs at OESE should be block-granted or eliminated. Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education l Transfer the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education’s few programs to the Department of Labor, but l Move the Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Career and Technical Education Program to the Bureau of Indian Education. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) houses nearly two dozen programs, ranging from funding for the Individuals with Dis- abilities Education Act (IDEA) and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf to Special Olympics Funding and the American Printing House for the Blind. l Most IDEA funding should be converted into a no-strings formula block grant targeted at students with disabilities and distributed directly to local education agencies by Health and Human Service’s Administration for Community Living. — 327 — Department of Education l Transfer the Vocational Rehabilitation Grants for Native American students to the Bureau of Indian Education. l Phase out earmarks for a variety of special institutions, as originally envisioned. l To the extent that OSERS supports federal efforts to enforce our laws against discrimination of individuals with disabilities, those assets should be moved to the Department of Justice (DOJ) along with the Office for Civil Rights (OCR). Office for Postsecondary Education (OPE) l The next Administration should work with Congress to eliminate or move OPE programs to ETA at the Department of Labor. l Funding to institutions should be block-granted and narrowed to Historically Black Colleges and Universities (HBCUs) and tribally controlled colleges. l Move programs deemed important to our national security interests to the Department of State. Institute of Education Sciences (IES) l Move ED’s statistical office, the National Commission for Education Statistics (NCES), to the Department of Commerce’s Census Bureau. If Congress believes the federal government can play a valuable research role, those research centers can be moved to the National Science Foundation. If Congress decides to maintain IES as an independent agency, it needs to address major governance and management issues that keep it from being a productive contributor to the knowledge base related to teaching and learning. Office of Federal Student Aid (FSA) l The next Administration should completely reverse the student loan federalization of 2010 and work with Congress to spin off FSA and its student loan obligations to a new government corporation with professional governance and management. With a statutory charge that it preserve the federal student loan portfolio for the benefit of the taxpayers and students, this new entity would be (1) profession- ally governed by an agency head and board of trustees appointed by the President
AI Analysis:
"The resolution commemorates the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, which aligns with Project 2025's emphasis on tribal self-determination and shifting Indian education programs to the Bureau of Indian Education, but it is purely symbolic and does not enact any of the policy changes proposed."
— 326 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise l Restore revenue responsibility for Title I funding to the states over a 10-year period. OESE also currently manages the federal Impact Aid program, which provides fund- ing to school districts to compensate for reductions in property tax revenue due to the presence of federal property (such as that associated with a military base or tribal lands). l Eliminate Impact Aid not tied to students. l Move student-driven Impact Aid programs to the Department of Defense Education Authority (DoDEA) or the Department of Interior’s Bureau of Indian Education. l Transfer all Indian education programs to the Bureau of Indian Education. l The D.C. Opportunity Scholarship Program, which provides vouchers to low-income children living in the nation’s capital—appropriate as D.C. is under the jurisdiction of Congress—should be expanded into a universal program, formula-funded, and moved to the Department of Health and Human Services. l All other programs at OESE should be block-granted or eliminated. Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education l Transfer the Office of Career, Technical, and Adult Education’s few programs to the Department of Labor, but l Move the Tribally Controlled Postsecondary Career and Technical Education Program to the Bureau of Indian Education. Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) The Office of Special Education and Rehabilitative Services (OSERS) houses nearly two dozen programs, ranging from funding for the Individuals with Dis- abilities Education Act (IDEA) and the National Technical Institute for the Deaf to Special Olympics Funding and the American Printing House for the Blind. l Most IDEA funding should be converted into a no-strings formula block grant targeted at students with disabilities and distributed directly to local education agencies by Health and Human Service’s Administration for Community Living.
AI Analysis:
"The bill commemorates tribal self-determination and education assistance, while Project 2025 advocates for education savings accounts and school choice, including for BIE schools; both touch on Native American education but differ in approach—one honors existing self-determination law, the other seeks to redirect federal funds via privatized accounts."
— 348 — Mandate for Leadership: The Conservative Promise materials, private school tuition, transportation and more—accounts modeled after the accounts in Arizona, Florida, West Virginia, and seven other states. l Members of Congress should design the same account system for students in active-duty military families, including students attending schools that receive funding under the National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA).18 Heritage Foundation research found that if even 10 percent of the students eli- gible for accounts under such a proposal transferred from an assigned school to an education savings account, the change for the sending district would be 0.1 percent of that school district’s K–12 budget. Even in heavily impacted districts (districts with a large number of students receiving Impact Aid), the budgetary effect would be less than 2 percent. Yet these children would then have the chance to receive a customized education that meets their unique needs. As with state ESA programs, families who are homeschooling are distinct in statute from families who use an ESA to customize an education at home. Furthermore, research from the Claremont Institute used documents pro- vided by a whistleblower demonstrating how educators at Department of Defense schools around the world are using radical gender theory and critical race theory in their lessons. This instructional material discards biology in favor of political indoctrination and applies critical race theory’s core tenets advocating for more racial discrimination. Such ideas are highly unpopular among parents, accord- ing to nationally representative surveys, and the course material attempts to indoctrinate students with radical ideas about race and the ambiguous concept of “gender.” Finally, schools on tribal lands and under the auspices of the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE) are among the worst-performing public schools in the country. Research from Rep. Burgess Owens’ office reports that the graduation rate for BIE students is 53 percent, lower than the average for Native American students in public schools around the country, and nearly 30 percentage points lower than the national average for all students. In 2015, Arizona lawmakers expanded the state’s education savings account program to include children living on tribal lands, and by 2021, nearly 400 Native American children were using the accounts. l Federal officials should design a federal education savings account option for all children attending BIE schools. The next Administration should make the K–12 systems under federal juris- diction examples of quality learning opportunities and education freedom. — 349 — Department of Education Washington should convert some of the lowest-performing public school systems in the country into areas defined by choices, creating rigorous learning options for all children and from all backgrounds, income levels, and ethnicities. Expand Education Choice Through Portability of Existing Federal Funds Setting education policy on the right track long term would require sunsetting the U.S. Department of Education altogether. Doing so would not result in fewer resources and less assistance for children with special needs or from low-income families. Rather, closing the federal behemoth would better target existing taxpayer resources already set aside for these students by shifting oversight responsibilities to federal and state agencies that have more expertise in helping these populations. The Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) is the federal law gov- erning taxpayer spending on K–12 students with special needs. The law stipulates that students have a right to a “free and appropriate education,” and 95 percent of children with special needs attend assigned public schools. The education is not always appropriate, however: Special education is fraught with legal battles. Some argue that the education of children with special needs is the most litigated area of K–12 education. Thus, despite a nearly 50-year-old federal law that sees regular revision and reauthorization and approximately $13.5 billion per year in federal taxpayer spending, parents still struggle to establish intervention plans for their students with public school district officials regarding the physical and educational requirements for their children with special needs. State-level education options often exclusively serve children with special needs for these very reasons. Florida, Oklahoma, Tennessee, Mississippi, South Carolina, and North Carolina, to name a few states, all have education savings accounts or K–12 private school scholarship options for children with special needs. l Federal lawmakers should move IDEA oversight and implementation to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. l Officials should then consider revising IDEA to require that a child’s portion of the federal taxpayer spending under the law be made available to families so parents can choose how and where a child learns. l IDEA already allows families to choose a private school under certain conditions, but federal officials should update the law so that families can use their child’s IDEA spending for textbooks, education therapies, personal tutors, and other learning expenses, similar to the way in which parents use education savings accounts in states such as Arizona and Florida. These micro-education savings accounts
Showing 3 of 5 policy matches
Policy matches are calculated using a hybrid approach: initial candidates are found using semantic similarity between bill summaries and Project 2025 policy text, then an AI model (Llama 3.1 70B) provides detailed alignment ratings and analysis. Ratings range from 1 (minimal alignment) to 5 (very strong alignment). This analysis does not imply direct causation or intent.