I’m calling to urge [Senator/Representative] to fully support Native tax parity by backing two key bills:
• the Tribal Tax Investment and Reform Act, H.R. 8318, in the House, and
• the Native American Tax Parity and Relief Act, S. 5048, in the Senate.
Together, these bills would finally create real tax parity between states and tribal governments by:
• Allowing tribes to issue tax-exempt bonds, so they can finance housing, infrastructure, and community projects on equal footing with states;
• Giving tribes access to federal funding programs that are typically reserved for states, instead of excluding them by default;
• Ensuring equal treatment under excise and related taxes, instead of penalizing tribes for exercising sovereignty and governing their own economies.
As tribal leaders have explained, current federal policy structurally forces tribal governments to operate with fewer tools and less support than states, even though tribes are sovereign governments with treaty-based relationships to the United States. That’s not an accident; it’s a policy choice.
When we are celebrating Thanksgiving—a time when this country talks about gratitude and shared abundance—we have to be honest: there is no real gratitude without justice. The United States still benefits from Native land and broken promises, while Native nations are denied the same basic fiscal tools states take for granted. That is unacceptable and it must change.
At the very minimum, the U.S. government owes Indigenous nations the honest fulfillment of treaty obligations and equal treatment as governments. Supporting H.R. 8318 and S. 5048 is the bare minimum. There is no excuse not to support these bills.
I’m asking my members of Congress to:
• Publicly support and co-sponsor H.R. 8318 in the House or S. 5048 in the Senate, and
• Push leadership to move these bills forward quickly.
I look forward to your decisive action on this matter.
First sent on November 26 by BlueCollarJew
