H.R. 10205 — REACH Our Tribes Act

This section establishes a formal annual consultation process at the Department of Agriculture with Tribal Governments on annual budget requests and multi-year reauthorization bills with budgetary impacts, including farm bills. It requires 30-day advance notice of consultations, a reporting mechanism that summarizes issues discussed, Tribal comments, and any Department responses, and a report to the House and Senate Agriculture Committees within 12 months describing the process developed.

This section requires the Secretary of Agriculture and the Office of Tribal Relations, in consultation with Tribal Governments, to establish a plan for analyzing and publicly reporting to Tribal entities on funding provided through Department-administered programs for which such entities are eligible. It further requires the Secretary to identify ways to improve assistance to Tribal entities, including through additional outreach and technical assistance for underutilized programs.

This section establishes definitions for use in section 309 of the Federal Crop Insurance Reform and Department of Agriculture Reorganization Act of 1994. It defines “Tribal entity” to include an Indian Tribe, Tribal organization, Tribal Government, 1994 Institution, Urban Indian organization, or tribally owned or controlled business or nonprofit; “Tribal Government” as the governing body of any federally recognized Indian or Alaska Native Tribe; and “Indian Tribe” for subsection (c) as having the meaning given in section 102 of the Federally Recognized Indian Tribe List Act of 1994.

This section establishes an interagency task force led by the Secretary of Agriculture, in consultation with the Secretary of Housing and Urban Development and the Assistant Secretary of Commerce for Economic Development, to review guidance and application requirements for USDA economic development programs and develop agreements that align planning, stakeholder engagement, and other requirements across the three agencies. The task force must also create a plan for regularly updating the agreements to reduce applicant burdens, duplication, and technical assistance needs while advancing shared objectives.

This section directs the Secretary of Commerce, in consultation with the Office of Native American Business Development, to establish a working group of representatives from nine Federal agencies to identify all Federal economic development programs available to Tribal entities, create a comprehensive public repository of those programs, share the repository with Federal, State, local, and Tribal governments, and update the repository at least every two years.