Sen. Brian Schatz (D-Hawaii) and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) are keeping their leadership positions on the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
Schatz will chair the committee for another term, and Murkowski was re-elected to serve as vice chair.
The committee during the last session was instrumental in passing bipartisan legislation including laws that protected tribal sovereignty as well as billions of dollars in funding for Native Americans.
“None of our achievements in the last Congress would have been possible without the committee’s bipartisan commitment to Native people in Indian Country, in Alaska and in Hawaii,” Schatz said in a statement to Native News Online. “Our longstanding tradition of bipartisanship is our strength. I am proud to serve, for the second consecutive Congress, in leadership alongside my good friend, Sen. Murkowski.”
Democratic Sens. Maria Cantwell of Washington, Jon Tester of Montana, Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto of Nevada, Tina Smith of Minnesota and Ben Ray Luján of New Mexico, and Republican Sens. John Hoeven of North Dakota, Steve Daines of Montana, Markwayne Mullin of Oklahoma and Mike Rounds of South Dakota round out the committee.
The panel recently adopted its rules for the 118th Congress and its funding resolution.
“The 117th Congress proved to be a remarkably productive time for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs,” Murkowski said. “We navigated part or all of close to 20 measures jurisdictional to us into federal law. We made strides in early 2021 with the passage of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which contained nearly $13 billion in historic investments for Native people.”