Rep. Mike Simpson (R-Idaho) is pressing for greater federal resources to address the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons crisis, leveraging his position as chair of the House Appropriations subcommittee overseeing Interior and related agencies to direct additional funding toward tribal communities.

Simpson’s Role and the Budget Push

Simpson chairs the Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Subcommittee of the House Appropriations Committee — a perch that gives the Idaho Republican direct influence over federal spending on tribal programs. In June, his subcommittee advanced a budget that includes a 26% increase to the Bureau of Indian Affairs, with a portion of those funds directed toward tribal justice programs.

The increase came even as other agencies under the subcommittee’s purview — including the Bureau of Land Management, U.S. Forest Service, and the Smithsonian Institution — saw reductions in their allocations.

“We put a bunch more money into tribal justice, and that’s hard in a year when we’re trying to reduce spending at the federal level,” Simpson told the Idaho Capital Sun. “We’re not going to try to balance the budget on the back of the tribes. These are trust and treaty responsibilities we’ve got with our Native American brothers and sisters, and we’ve got to keep those.”

The Scope of the Crisis in Idaho

The statistics underlying Simpson’s push are stark. A 2021 Boise State University report found that 75% of missing Indigenous people in Idaho are women. The state’s overall missing persons rate stands at roughly 10.59 per 100,000 residents — but for Indigenous people, that figure nearly doubles to 18.99 per 100,000. In 2023, the Idaho Missing Persons Clearinghouse recorded 79 missing Native Americans statewide.

Nationally, Indigenous women are murdered at a rate roughly 10 times the national average, according to the National Indigenous Women’s Resource Center. Simpson has cited figures suggesting approximately 6,000 Indigenous people are murdered or go missing each year — drawing a direct comparison to the roughly 3,000 lives lost on September 11, 2001.

Simpson, a Blackfoot native who grew up near the Fort Hall Reservation, attended a July hearing of the House Committee on Natural Resources focused on the MMIP crisis.

Jurisdiction Gaps Complicate Enforcement

One persistent obstacle highlighted at the hearing is the confusion over which law enforcement authority — tribal police, local, county, or the FBI — has jurisdiction when cases arise near or across reservation boundaries. Many counties adjacent to reservations have no formal memoranda of understanding with tribal law enforcement agencies, leaving critical gaps in coordination and response.

Coeur d’Alene Tribe Chairman Chief J. Allan has expressed support for Simpson’s efforts to address those systemic shortcomings.

Idaho’s Prior Action and What Comes Next

Idaho has previously acknowledged the problem at the state level. The Legislature passed House Concurrent Resolution 33 in 2020, formally declaring missing and murdered Indigenous women a crisis, and created a dedicated taskforce whose findings were published in a 2021 report.

Federal action, however, has remained more incremental. Simpson’s appropriations work represents one of the more direct congressional levers available to increase resources on the ground. Whether the full House and Senate ultimately adopt his subcommittee’s recommended BIA funding level will determine how much of that momentum translates into actual dollars for tribal communities.

The effort fits into a broader pattern of Simpson using his committee chairmanship to steer federal resources toward Idaho priorities. Earlier this year, Simpson secured $5 million in a House bill for a potato research hub in Aberdeen, demonstrating the reach his appropriations role affords the state’s congressional delegation.

With federal budget negotiations ongoing and spending pressures acute, Simpson’s ability to hold the line on tribal funding will be watched closely by tribal governments across Idaho and the broader Northwest.