Policy Solution

• Read more about AIPI Policy Article: The Emergency Broadband Benefit Program

Broadband is critical for Indian Country, but it is often unavailable. In 2019, the American Indian Policy Institute (AIPI) found that 18 percent of Tribal reservation residents have no Internet access, while 33 percent rely on smartphones for Internet service. According to the FCC, about 72 percent of people on Tribal lands have broadband access at the FCC benchmark of 25 Mbps download and 3 Mbps upload. Even where broadband is available, cost can be a barrier to access.

• Read more about Indian Country's Voice: Recognizing, Respecting, and Protecting our Electoral Power

Joe Biden won the 2020 Presidential Election. An ordinary fact and objectively unexceptional opening sentence instead represents a still contested issue in Arizona and the impetus for the influx of legislation targeting the voting rights of Americans across the country. President Biden won the electoral college in what his predecessor once described as a “massive landslide” and became the first Democrat to carry Arizona since 1996 and just the second since 1948, the year Native Americans in the state were extended the right to vote.

• Read more about AIPI Policy Brief: Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act – Broadband Analysis

On Tuesday, August 10, 2021, the Senate passed H.R. 3684. This historic legislation includes an extraordinary investment in Indian Country infrastructure and is the latest in a series of momentous legislation affecting Native communities. The CARES Act, Consolidated Appropriations Act 2021, and the American Rescue Plan Act of 2021 provided significant investments into Indian Country to address the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic. H.R. 3684 continues in such a direction by maintaining focus on existing adversities that circumstances brought on by the pandemic has magnified.

• Read more about AIPI Policy Brief: Tribal Broadband Funding Opportunity Update

Key federal legislation over the last two years created many funding opportunities for Tribes to expand broadband access in their communities. This list of funding programs has an estimated $15.2 billion 1 available to Tribes for broadband projects, however much of the same funding is meant for other significant needs like COVID-19 mitigation. Some programs also consider Tribes as one eligible entity among many with no guarantee that Tribes will be awarded. Therefore it is difficult to say how much of the funding available for broadband will ultimately be used for that purpose.

• Read more about Tribal Broadband Policy Priorities 2022

Tribal Nations have been at the forefront of connecting their communities to broadband internet because carriers often do not choose to service remote Tribal areas. The COVID-19 pandemic exacerbated digital inequities facing Indian Country that have long existed. Broadband is infrastructure and is an essential service with its importance of accessibility similar to other necessary resources such as water or electricity.

• Read more about POLICY ALERT: Indian Country Fights To Protect ICWA: Haaland v. Brackeen to be heard by SCOTUS on November 9, 2022

On November 9, 2022, the Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) will hear the alarming case, Haaland v. Brackeen. The questions of the case are (1) whether the Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) interferes with a State’s power over adoptions and foster care and (2) whether the ICWA unfairly limits adoptions by parents who are not members of the Native child’s tribe.