Native American Seeds Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
Directs the Department of the Interior to identify and support the protection of Native American seeds with Tribes, protect culturally sensitive tribal information, and make implementation subject to available appropriations.
Who Benefits and How
Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and tribal seed banks gain federal support for identifying, preserving, and protecting culturally significant seeds and related traditional agriculture systems.
Who Bears the Burden and How
The Department of the Interior must consult with Tribes, support seed-protection efforts, and administer confidentiality protections, all without any additional dedicated authorization.
Key Provisions
- Defines Native American seeds, Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and the Secretary.
- Requires the Secretary to work with Tribes to determine which seeds qualify and to support seed-protection and seed-bank efforts.
- Bars disclosure of Tribe-submitted confidential information, requires judicial deference to reasonable agency interpretations, and provides no new funding authorization.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
Directs the Department of the Interior to identify and support the protection of Native American seeds with Tribes, protect culturally sensitive tribal information, and make implementation subject to available appropriations.
Key Policy Areas
Agriculture, Tribal Affairs, Government Operations
Primary Purpose
Directs the Department of the Interior to identify and support the protection of Native American seeds with Tribes, protect culturally sensitive tribal information, and make implementation subject to available appropriations.
Policy Domains
Main Provisions
Identified Gains
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations
- Tribal seed banks and traditional agriculture systems
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Identified Costs
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation- Department of the Interior
- Program implementation dependent on existing appropriations
Contextual inference, no direct clause citation
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeReferred to the Subcommittee on Conservation, Research, and Biotechnology.
Mrs. Torres of California (for herself and Mr. LaMalfa) introduced …
Referred to the Committee on Agriculture, and in addition to …
Introduced in House
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations seeking support under the Act
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
- "the secretary"
- → Secretary of the Interior
Key Definitions
Terms defined in this bill
A seed of traditional or cultural significance to an Indian Tribe.
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology