Christopher Flavelle published an article in the New York Times discussing the infrastructure bill that recently passed through the Senate and has moved on to the House of Representatives. Being largely viewed as a bipartisan bill, supporters are confident it will pass. The article discusses $216 million dollars in the bill that will be appropriated to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) for climate resilience and adaptation, $130 million of which will support relocation efforts. This is exciting news for Tribal Nations who have been disproportionally impacted by climate change and have been working to address the challenge largely through the BIA’s Tribal Climate Resiliency Program. For comparison, this program has been operating on a minuscule annual budget of just $14.4 million dollars of climate funding to Tribal Nations in 2020. This additional funding will go a long way toward bolstering the efforts of Tribal Nations to address the impacts of climate change on their communities. Read the full New York Times article.
