A long-stalled bill, further along than it has ever been

For five years, Congress has considered creating a federal commission to investigate the Indian boarding school system — and for five years, the proposal has gone nowhere. In the current Congress, that has begun to change. The Senate bill, S.761, has cleared committee and sits on the Senate calendar awaiting a floor vote. A bipartisan House companion, H.R.7325, was introduced in February 2026. Neither has become law, but together they represent the furthest the legislation has ever advanced.

The history the commission would examine

Between 1819 and 1969, the federal government operated or supported a nationwide system of Indian boarding schools. The Interior Department’s Federal Indian Boarding School Initiative — a multi-year investigation whose first volume was released in May 2022 and second and final volume in July 2024 — documented the system’s scale.

The final report identified 417 federal Indian boarding schools across 37 states or then-territories. Native American, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian children were removed from their families, often by force, and placed in institutions whose stated purpose was assimilation: the suppression of Native languages, religions, family structures, and cultural identity. Many of these schools were run by churches and religious organizations under federal funding and policy.

The investigation’s findings on harm are sobering, and the report itself cautions that they are incomplete. It confirmed that at least 973 Native children died while attending these schools, and identified at least 74 marked and unmarked burial sites at 65 different school locations. The report estimated that the federal government directed more than $23.3 billion in inflation-adjusted dollars into the boarding school system and related assimilation policies over roughly a century.

The Interior investigation was an executive-branch effort. It produced a documentary record but had no power to compel testimony or records, and it ended when the report was published. A congressional commission would be a different instrument — established by statute, with a defined mandate and the authority that comes with it.

What the commission would do

S.761, the Truth and Healing Commission on Indian Boarding School Policies Act, would establish a commission within the legislative branch with a defined investigative mandate. As written, the bill provides for:

• A five-member commission, established within the legislative branch, authorized to operate for up to six years.
• A formal investigation of the boarding school policies — the forced removal of children, the attempted termination of Native languages and cultures, and the ongoing intergenerational effects in Native communities.
• Records and graves. The commission would work to locate burial sites, including unmarked graves, and to identify, analyze, and preserve records from the schools, including records held by religious institutions and other private organizations.
• Public hearings, conducted in a manner respectful of survivors and descendants, to gather testimony.
• A report to Congress with findings and recommendations for federal action.
• Roughly $90 million authorized to carry out the work, drawn from existing authorities.

The distinction from the Interior report is the point. A statutory commission has standing, a longer time horizon, and — depending on the final text — greater capacity to compel the production of records, including from private and religious institutions whose archives the executive-branch initiative could not reach. It is a truth-telling instrument, not a compensation program; its product is a documented record and recommendations, not payments.

Why “finally moving” is the accurate description

The legislation is not new. A version was first introduced in 2020 by then-Senator Elizabeth Warren and then-Representative Deb Haaland, who later became Secretary of the Interior and oversaw the boarding school investigation. It was reintroduced in subsequent Congresses with bipartisan House sponsorship from Representatives Sharice Davids (D-KS) and Tom Cole (R-OK), co-chairs of the Congressional Native American Caucus. In each prior Congress, the bill stalled — receiving a committee hearing at most, never a committee vote or floor action.

The 119th Congress is different:

• The Senate bill cleared committee. S.761, introduced by Senator Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) in February 2025, was approved by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on March 5, 2025 (Congress.gov bill actions; S. Rept. 119-54).
• It is on the Senate calendar. On July 31, 2025, S.761 was placed on the Senate Legislative Calendar under General Orders. A bill on the calendar is eligible for a floor vote — a procedural stage the legislation had never reached before.
• The House has a fresh bipartisan companion. H.R.7325 was introduced on February 3, 2026 by Representatives Cole and Davids, preserving the bill’s bipartisan character (Rep. Cole). It was referred to the House committees on Education and Workforce and on Natural Resources.

“On the calendar” is not the same as “enacted.” A bill can sit on the Senate calendar indefinitely without ever receiving floor time, and the House companion has not yet cleared committee. The legislation still requires a Senate floor vote, House passage, and a presidential signature. But after five years in which the bill never escaped committee in either chamber, clearing the Senate Indian Affairs Committee and reaching the calendar is a genuine — and measurable — advance.

What to watch

• Whether Senate leadership schedules floor time for S.761, or whether it remains parked on the calendar.
• Whether H.R.7325 receives committee action in the House, the step the bill has historically failed to clear.
• The final statutory text — in particular, the scope of the commission’s authority to compel records from religious institutions and other private holders of boarding school archives.

What to ask your representatives

• If they are senators: will they urge leadership to schedule a floor vote on S.761, and will they vote for it?
• If they are House members: will they cosponsor H.R.7325 and press for committee action?
• Will they support a commission with meaningful authority to obtain records from private and religious institutions, not only federal agencies?
• Do they support pairing the commission’s truth-telling mandate with a commitment to act on its eventual recommendations?