Bureau of Indian Education: Greater Progress Needed to Address Remaining Challenges in Supporting and Overseeing Schools. Statement of Melissa Emrey-Arras, Director, Education, Workforce, and Income Security. Testimony before the Subcommittee on Oversight and Investigations, Committee on Natural Resources, House of Representatives. GAO-25-108103

Abstract

The Government Accountability Office (GAO) has identified and reported on numerous problems since 2013 at the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), within the Department of the Interior (Interior). During this period, GAO issued 24 reports and testimonies and made 38 recommendations to BIE related to the agency's support and oversight of schools. Key problem areas with BIE's support and oversight have been school spending, special education, school safety and construction, distance learning, and administrative support for schools. For example, in 2024 GAO found that nearly half of COVID-19 spending made with purchase cards at BIE schools involved transactions at elevated risk for fraud or misuse, but BIE did not provide evidence that it had investigated any of these purchases. GAO's repeated findings of problems in key areas have indicated a pattern of systemic management weaknesses at BIE that limit its support and oversight of schools. This testimony describes: (1) problems GAO has identified at BIE; (2) progress BIE has made in recent years; and (3) the high-risk management weaknesses that remain. It draws on GAO's reports and testimonies on BIE since 2013. For these prior reports, GAO reviewed relevant federal laws and regulations, examined agency documentation, interviewed agency officials, and conducted site visits to selected BIE schools, among other methods. This testimony also includes new information on BIE's progress in addressing high-risk management weaknesses since GAO's most recent high-risk update in 2023. This new information is based on GAO's review of agency documentation and interviews with agency officials.