13. Environmental Protection Agency · Minor
Elevate the American Indian Office to a stand-alone Assistant Administrator office
Printed page 440 13. Environmental Protection Agency
“AIO should be significantly elevated as a stand-alone EPA Assistant Administrator office. This would send a clear message to American Indians and Alaska Native Villages that the agency takes seriously the environmental issues plaguing Indian Country.”
What has happened
- Not started
There is no American Indian Office. EPA's tribal work is still done by the American Indian Environmental Office, which remains one of the three constituent offices of the Office of International and Tribal Affairs — exactly where it sat before the window — under the Assistant Administrator for International and Tribal Affairs. The FY2026 reorganization addendum, which lists every office EPA consolidated or realigned, does not mention OITA or AIEO at all, and the agency filled OITA's Senate-confirmed Assistant Administrator post rather than creating a new one. Nothing has been elevated to a stand-alone Assistant Administrator office.
Research log
What was searched, and what didn’t count as evidence
Research notes
- This is the same finding as #1046 (Restructure the Office of International and Tribal Affairs into the American Indian Office), re-checked today against the OITA page as last updated 2026-08-19; the trail is unchanged.
- A Federal Register full-text search of EPA documents for “American Indian Office” returns none, and for “American Indian Environmental Office” none.
- The page epa.gov/aboutepa/about-american-indian-environmental-office-aieo does not exist — AIEO has no stand-alone “About” page, which is itself consistent with its being a division rather than a national program office.
- Action
- create
- Object
- American Indian Office (AIO)
- ID
- 1178