GAO: Trump workforce cuts slow tribal cooperation agreements

Federal agencies need to assess whether they have sufficient staff to develop public land co-stewardship agreements with tribes, a new report says.

January 29, 2026

The Trump administration’s cuts to the federal workforce are hampering the ability of the Interior Department and other federal agencies to develop and finalize co-stewardship agreements with Native American tribes, a federal watchdog agency finds in a new report.

The Government Accountability Office report released Wednesday recommends, among other things, that the Bureau of Land Management and the Forest Service take steps to assess whether they have the “staff capacity related to developing shared decision-making agreements with Tribes and Native Hawaiian communities.”

The report says staffing cutbacks have prevented land management agencies from conducting “workforce planning to assess their capacity related to developing agreements” with tribal leaders and Native Hawaiian communities.

“Doing so could enable better understanding of how to allocate agencies’ limited resources, address any skill gaps, and make strategic use of partnerships with Tribes,” according to the report.

Interior has lost close to 10,000 staffers, including more than 1,000 at BLM, since President Donald Trump took office in January 2025 for a second term. The Forest Service has also lost at least 5,000 employees through buyouts and early retirements.

The GAO’s conclusions add fuel to ongoing criticism that the Trump administration’s efforts to reduce the federal workforce have negatively affected oversight of millions of acres of federal lands.

Those critics include California Rep. Jared Huffman, the top Democrat on the Natural Resources Committee.

Huffman said in an emailed statement to POLITICO's E&E News that the GAO report “makes it clear that there is a lot of work left to make partnerships as successful and effective as possible — and Trump’s ruthless budget cuts and mass layoffs are taking us backwards and must stop.”

He added: “I plan to keep working with my colleagues and the land management agencies to implement the GAO’s recommendations so we can ensure that co-management is more than just a buzzword; it must be a standard practice backed by the right tools, reliable funding, and a genuine commitment to strengthening tribal sovereignty.”

Many “national forests, national parks, and wildlife refuges” comprise lands that “are home to natural and cultural resources that Tribes consider sacred and important. Because of these enduring historical, cultural, and spiritual connections, Tribes seek partnerships to help manage these resources with the Departments of Agriculture, Commerce, and the Interior,” the GAO report said.

The secretaries of those three agencies signed a “Joint Secretarial Order” in 2022 committing to collaborate with tribal leaders on critical land management policies and decisions.

Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who died in March, originally requested the report from GAO shortly after the joint order.

Grijalva asked the government watchdog to explore the key factors that facilitate — and impede — development of co-management agreements, and to recommend steps to “strengthen shared decision-making agreements” in the future, according to the report.

GAO sent a letter to Huffman on Wednesday informing him of the report’s conclusions.

The report noted that since the 2022 joint order, federal agencies have worked to identify and resolve issues that have in the past hampered the development of more co-management agreements, “such as training staff working with Tribes.”

That has started to slow during the first year of Trump’s second term, according to the report.

Interior pushed back against some of the GAO concerns, saying in a statement that it “remains firmly committed to strong government-to-government relationships with tribal nations.”

The statement, which did not address the impacts of staffing cuts, added: “Interior has continued to deliver on core priorities that benefit tribes and all Americans, including modernizing environmental reviews, reforming permitting to reduce years-long delays, expanding access to public lands, and strengthening domestic energy and mineral production.”

An Agriculture Department spokesperson, in an emailed statement, did acknowledge workforce reductions, saying that recent staffing cuts are one reason why the agency is working to increase partnerships with Native American tribes.

“USDA is being transparent about plans to optimize and reduce our workforce,” the statement said. “We have a solemn responsibility to be good stewards of Americans’ hard-earned taxpayer dollars and to ensure that every dollar is being spent as effectively as possible to serve the people.”

As such, “we are working closely with partners — especially our Tribal partners — to explore solutions to fill gaps where possible, ensuring that every dollar is spent as effectively as possible to serve the people.”

Other concerns

The GAO report also singled out the Commerce Department and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which oversees more than a dozen marine sanctuaries and two national monuments.

The GAO recommended that NOAA, like BLM and the Forest Service, should evaluate staffing levels associated with co-management agreements.

Representatives with the Commerce Department and NOAA could not be reached for comment.

NOAA and BLM “generally agreed” with the report recommendations, while the Forest Service “did not explicitly state whether it agreed with the recommendations,” according to the report.

The congressional watchdog recommended the secretaries of Agriculture, Commerce and Interior update “existing policies” to incorporate the GAO’s recommendations, and “to encourage their adoption” in BLM, Forest Service, Fish and Wildlife Service, and National Park Service agreements with Tribes and Native Hawaiian communities.

It also concluded that Congress needs to take action to amend a section of the Tribal Forest Protection Act of 2004 that has blocked some Native American tribes and Alaska Native corporations from entering into co-stewardship agreements with the Forest Service.

Huffman has sponsored a bill, H.R. 3444, that would resolve some of the GAO’s concerns. The legislation would require the Interior secretary to develop co-management plans for sites that have cultural or historical significance to local tribes. It also would mandate the agency provide proper training to agency staffers on developing co-management plans.

The GAO report noted that the Biden administration prioritized tribal input and emphasized co-stewardship with Native American tribes to manage national monuments and other landmarks.

One of the most notable examples is Utah’s Bears Ears National Monument.

BLM and the Forest Service jointly manage the national monument through a co-stewardship agreement signed in 2022 with a coalition of five Native American tribes that consider the landscape sacred.

The two agencies and tribal leaders worked together to develop a monument management plan, finalized in 2023, that prioritizes conservation and tribal knowledge in an effort to protect the natural and cultural resources at the 1.35 million-acre monument designated by then-President Barack Obama in 2016.

The Bears Ears monument co-management agreement was one of five that the GAO analyzed in detail when compiling the report.

Others the GAO evaluated included an agreement at Glacier Bay National Park in Alaska between the National Park Service and the Hoonah Indian Association, and at the Chippewa National Forest between the Forest Service and the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe of the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe.


By:  Scott Streater
Source: Politico Greenwire