II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 1181
To amend the Energy Policy Act of 1992 with respect to the Department
of Energy Tribal loan guarantee program, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
MARCH27, 2025
Mr. S
CHATZ(for himself and Mr. CURTIS) introduced the following bill; which
was read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural
Resources
A BILL
To amend the Energy Policy Act of 1992 with respect to
the Department of Energy Tribal loan guarantee pro-
gram, and for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Tribal Energy Fair-4
ness Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. DEPARTMENT OF ENERGY TRIBAL ENERGY PRO-6
GRAMS. 7
(a) D
EPARTMENT OF ENERGYTRIBALLOANGUAR-8
ANTEEPROGRAM.— 9
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(1) IN GENERAL.—Section 2602(c) of the En-1
ergy Policy Act of 1992 (25 U.S.C. 3502(c)) is 2
amended by adding at the end the following: 3
‘‘(8)(A) At the request of an applicant, and 4
subject to subparagraph (B), the Secretary of En-5
ergy may use funds appropriated to the Secretary of 6
Energy to carry out financial and technical assess-7
ments, and related activities, in connection with ap-8
plications for loans and loan guarantees under this 9
subsection to support eligible projects, including re-10
newable energy and transmission projects on or near 11
Indian land and eligible projects carried out outside 12
Indian land. 13
‘‘(B) The Secretary of Energy may use not 14
more than $500,000 to carry out financial and tech-15
nical assessments under subparagraph (A) for any 1 16
application for a loan or loan guarantee under this 17
subsection.’’. 18
(2) D
ENIAL OF DOUBLE BENEFIT RESTRIC -19
TION.— 20
(A) I
N GENERAL.—Section 50145(a) of 21
Public Law 117–169 (136 Stat. 2045) is 22
amended by striking ‘‘, subject to the limita-23
tions that apply to loan guarantees under sec-24
tion 50141(d)’’. 25
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(B) ADDITIONAL DOE TRIBAL PRO -1
GRAMS.—Section 50141(d)(3) of Public Law 2
117–169 (136 Stat. 2043) is amended— 3
(i) in subparagraph (C), by striking 4
‘‘or’’ at the end; 5
(ii) in subparagraph (D), by striking 6
the period at the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; 7
and 8
(iii) by adding at the end the fol-9
lowing: 10
‘‘(E) projects carried out by an Indian 11
Tribe on or near Indian land or outside Indian 12
land.’’. 13
(b) P
REVENTINGOUTAGES AND ENHANCING THE 14
R
ESILIENCE OF THEELECTRICGRID.—Section 40101 of 15
the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (42 U.S.C. 16
18711) is amended— 17
(1) in subsection (d)— 18
(A) in paragraph (2)— 19
(i) by striking subparagraph (A) and 20
inserting the following: 21
‘‘(A) I
N GENERAL.—For each fiscal year, 22
to be eligible to receive a grant under this sub-23
section— 24
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‘‘(i) a State shall submit to the Sec-1
retary an application that includes a plan 2
described in subparagraph (B); and 3
‘‘(ii) an Indian Tribe shall submit to 4
the Secretary an application, which shall 5
include— 6
‘‘(I) a plan that describes how 7
the Indian Tribe will use the proposed 8
funding for projects if the Indian 9
Tribe will be executing the projects; or 10
‘‘(II) a plan described in sub-11
paragraph (B), if the Indian Tribe in-12
tends to award grants to eligible enti-13
ties with amounts made available to 14
the Indian Tribe under this sub-15
section.’’; and 16
(ii) in subparagraph (B)— 17
(I) in the subparagraph heading, 18
by striking ‘‘
REQUIRED’’ and inserting 19
‘‘
DESCRIBED’’; 20
(II) in the matter preceding 21
clause (i), by inserting ‘‘, as applica-22
ble,’’ after ‘‘Indian Tribe’’; and 23
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(III) in clause (iii), by inserting 1
‘‘, as applicable’’ after ‘‘Indian 2
Tribe’’; 3
(B) by striking paragraph (4) and insert-4
ing the following: 5
‘‘(4) O
VERSIGHT.—The Secretary shall ensure 6
that each grant provided to a State or an Indian 7
Tribe, if the Indian Tribe intends to award grants 8
to eligible entities with those grants funds, under the 9
program is allocated pursuant to the applicable plan 10
of the State or Indian Tribe, as applicable.’’; 11
(C) in paragraph (5), by inserting ‘‘, as 12
applicable,’’ after ‘‘made available to the appli-13
cable State or Indian Tribe’’; 14
(D) in paragraph (6), by inserting ‘‘, as 15
applicable,’’ after ‘‘made available to the State 16
or Indian Tribe’’; 17
(E) in paragraph (7), in the matter pre-18
ceding subparagraph (A), by striking ‘‘or In-19
dian Tribe’’ each place it appears; 20
(F) in paragraph (8)— 21
(i) by striking ‘‘and Indian Tribe’’; 22
and 23
(ii) by striking ‘‘or Indian Tribe’’; and 24
(G) by adding at the end the following: 25
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‘‘(9) SAVINGS PROVISION.—Nothing in this sub-1
section requires an Indian Tribe to award grants to 2
eligible entities described in any of subparagraphs 3
(A) through (F) of subsection (a)(2) with amounts 4
made available to the Indian Tribe under this sub-5
section.’’; 6
(2) in subsection (e)— 7
(A) in paragraph (1)— 8
(i) in the matter preceding subpara-9
graph (A), by inserting ‘‘Indian Tribe or’’ 10
before ‘‘eligible entity’’; and 11
(ii) in subparagraph (H)— 12
(I) in clause (i), by striking 13
‘‘and’’ at the end; 14
(II) in clause (ii), by adding 15
‘‘and’’ at the end; and 16
(III) by adding at the end the 17
following: 18
‘‘(iii) distributed generation;’’; and 19
(B) in paragraph (2)— 20
(i) in subparagraph (A)— 21
(I) in the matter preceding clause 22
(i), by inserting ‘‘Indian Tribe or’’ be-23
fore ‘‘eligible entity’’; and 24
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(II) in clause (i)(I), by inserting 1
‘‘transmission system-connected’’ be-2
fore ‘‘electric generating’’; and 3
(ii) in subparagraph (B)— 4
(I) in clause (i), by inserting ‘‘In-5
dian Tribe or’’ before ‘‘eligible enti-6
ty’’; and 7
(II) in clause (ii), by inserting 8
‘‘Indian Tribe or’’ before ‘‘eligible en-9
tity’’; and 10
(3) in subsection (h)— 11
(A) in paragraph (1), by striking ‘‘para-12
graph (2)’’ and inserting ‘‘paragraphs (2) and 13
(3)’’; and 14
(B) by adding at the end the following: 15
‘‘(3) I
NDIAN TRIBES.—An Indian Tribe that re-16
ceives or awards a grant under subsection (d) or an 17
eligible entity described in subsection (a)(2) that is 18
owned by an Indian Tribe and receives a grant 19
under subsection (c) shall not be required to match 20
any amount of the applicable grant.’’. 21
(c) C
OST-SHARINGEXEMPTIONUNDER THEENERGY 22
P
OLICYACT OF2005.—Section 988(f) of the Energy Pol-23
icy Act of 2005 (42 U.S.C. 16352(f)) is amended— 24
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(1) in paragraph (2), by striking ‘‘or’’ at the 1
end; 2
(2) in paragraph (3)(B), by striking the period 3
at the end and inserting ‘‘; or’’; and 4
(3) by adding at the end the following: 5
‘‘(4) a grant awarded to an Indian Tribe under 6
section 40101(d) of the Infrastructure Investment 7
and Jobs Act (42 U.S.C. 18711(d)).’’. 8
Æ
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