by an Osage citizen
The record holds every document this rests on.
In early August 2026, Daposka Ahnkodapi, our people’s immersion school, closed days before classes were to begin. The Fairfax Visitor Center closed soon after. Harvest Land is scheduled to close on December 31. The Executive Branch cited a budget shortfall, described in Executive Order 26-01 as “shortfalls with projected revenue and constraints in the budgetary outlay.”
One number sits at the center of what followed.
Congress established a $60 million Executive Branch outlay for FY2027.
Osage law defines an outlay as anticipated spending for a fiscal year. 15 ONC § 1A-104 requires Congress to set one for each branch, but does not say how to calculate it.
In 2026, the Executive Branch treated the $60 million figure as a spending constraint and named it as the driver of a State of Emergency.
Congress had used the figure as a limit before. In September 2023, it reduced budget requests to bring them under the Executive Branch outlay. For FY2026, Congress set every branch’s outlay at $0. A member then described it as the first time since the outlay limits were applied to law that the Executive Branch had no number “that they had to try to fit into.”
Three numbers that are not the same
When the Chief said approximately $38 million in reductions were needed, he was comparing nearly $98 million in departmental requests with a $60 million outlay. Neither figure was the enacted projected revenue, which Congress set at $90,958,077. The table separates the three.
| Figure | What it is | Who set it |
|---|---|---|
| $90,958,077 | Projected revenue: what Congress expects the Nation to take in | Congress, ONCR 26-12 |
| $60,000,000 | Executive Branch outlay: required by law, with no calculation method stated in 15 ONC § 1A-104 | Congress, ONCR 26-12 |
| Nearly $98,000,000 | Departmental requests: what Executive Branch departments asked for | Executive Branch departments |
Osage law requires Congress to set projected revenue and each branch's outlay in an annual resolution. Congress must adopt that resolution before it introduces annual appropriation bills. (15 ONC §§ 1A-104(A), 1A-104(D), 1A-105(D))
Projected revenue can change. Congress raised the FY2026 projection from $88,310,077 to $97,610,077 on the first day of that fiscal year. The FY2025 audit later identified $7,223,992 in retained revenue available for future appropriation. The enacted revenue resolutions and audit summaries collected for this record do not state the amount held in reserves or owed on prior-year obligations, or how much projected revenue is expected to recur.
These figures do different jobs. Congress uses an appropriation to give a department money to spend. Projected revenue is what Congress expects the Nation to take in. The outlay is the branch figure defined above. A branch can be over its outlay and still inside projected revenue: the Osage Constitution caps the annual budget at projected revenue, not at any branch’s outlay (Art. VI § 24).
What changed in 2020
Until 2020, Osage law said what an outlay was for and gave a Revenue Advisory Commission a role in setting it. ONCA 20-40 removed that language and repealed the Commission. It left the duty to establish an outlay in place.
| Osage law, 2019 to 2020 | Osage law today |
|---|---|
| A Revenue Advisory Commission approved revenue estimates | Commission repealed |
| Congress set outlays using those approved estimates | No replacement method stated in § 1A-104 |
| Outlays stated what each branch should budget | That sentence removed |
| Outlays were set five years ahead | Five-year requirement removed |
| Appropriations restricted to no more than 98% of projected revenue | Restriction removed |
| Branch budgets were due to Congress by July 15 | Deadline moved to August 15 |
| An outlay was required | An outlay is still required |
With the cap removed, the binding ceiling is the constitutional one: the annual budget may not exceed projected revenue (Osage Nation Constitution, Art. VI § 24).
Two provisions remained. The Code still defines a budget outlay as “the amount of anticipated expenditures for a given fiscal year,” and § 1A-104 still requires Congress to establish one. ONCA 20-40 removed the sentence saying that outlays stated what each branch should budget. The definition describes anticipated spending. Article VI § 24 places the annual-budget ceiling at projected revenue.
How we got here
March 2017. Osage voters amend the Constitution at a special election, requiring that the budgetary process be set forth in Osage law.
2019. Congress answers with the Budget Control Act, creating the Revenue Advisory Commission and writing into law what outlays are for: the amount each branch should budget.
February 2020. The Commission approves revenue estimates, the only time it ever does.
April 2020. Congress repeals the Commission and removes the explanatory language, by nine votes to three. The sponsor and the recorded votes are named on the record.
FY2026. The stated outlay is $0 for every branch. Congress appropriates $75.9 million to the Executive Branch anyway.
April 2026. Congress adopts ONCR 26-12 on April 27, reusing the FY2025 figure of $60 million for FY2027. Chief Tillman takes office July 11.
August 2026. The Executive Branch declares a State of Emergency and identifies the $60 million outlay as its driver. The closures are announced the next day. Ten days after the declaration, the Chief lifts it and asks Congress to raise the outlay to $82 million. The closures stand.
What is established, and what is not
The record establishes what the enacted documents and the recordings say: the votes, the figures, the language removed in 2020, and the words officials used.
The recordings show how the FY2027 figure was chosen. In April 2026, the member presenting the outlays told the Appropriations Committee that 15 ONC § 1A-104 does not explain how to calculate one. The committee returned to the FY2025 figure because FY2026 had stated the outlays as zero.
Still unknown: the budget instructions departments worked from, the calculation behind the asserted revenue shortfall, and the authority relied on to halt programs Congress had already funded.
Where the record leaves us
The outlay has served different purposes over time. In 2019, Congress described it as an amount the branches should not exceed when preparing their budgets. In 2023, Congress reduced requests to bring them below the outlay. Congress has also appropriated above an outlay, including in FY2025, and appropriated more than $75 million in FY2026 after setting the Executive Branch outlay at zero.
Using the FY2027 outlay to constrain departmental requests therefore had precedent. The unresolved issue is how that budget constraint became the basis for a State of Emergency and the immediate closure of existing programs.
Chief Tillman was directly involved in the history behind the present law. As a legislator, he co-sponsored the act creating the Revenue Advisory Commission, served on that Commission, voted for the act that later abolished it and removed the former explanation of an outlay’s purpose, and remained in Congress as later outlays were debated and applied. In April 2026, he voted for the $60 million FY2027 outlay that he later inherited as Chief.
The enacted acts, roll calls and recordings reviewed here cannot establish what he personally understood or intended. It does establish that he was familiar with the system and participated in its development.
The programs selected for closure also served priorities identified through the Nation’s own planning process. The 2026-2030 Osage Nation Strategic Plan, based on eighteen listening sessions and 1,275 completed surveys, ranked Cultural Preservation, Sovereignty and Education among the Nation’s four highest priorities. It described language immersion as strengthening identity and intergenerational knowledge and identified Harvest Land as advancing food sovereignty.
Reviewed in full, the plan did not require the government to preserve these programs in their existing forms. It does show that the closures reached beyond an accounting exercise and affected institutions connected to the Nation’s stated direction.
On August 14, the Chief lifted the emergency and asked Congress to raise the outlay from $60 million to $82 million. The closures remained. The public materials reviewed here still do not explain the separate projected-revenue shortfall, the authority relied upon for each closure, why these programs were selected, what savings each will produce, or why the closures preceded the request to amend the outlay.
Those explanations may exist within the government. They do not yet appear.
A fuller reading of what this may mean is set out separately, as opinion rather than record.
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The record is the full account, with every source shown. Reference documents are the enacted PDFs behind every figure.
About this record
I am an Osage citizen, and this record is independent. It rests on enacted Osage law, public records, committee proceedings, financial documents, and public statements.
Everything on this page is compiled from public material: enacted legislation and resolutions, recordings of Congressional and committee proceedings, financial documents, and published reporting, with each source named or linked where it is used. Every figure, date and quotation on this page can be checked against the document it came from.
This record is not affiliated with, endorsed by, or written on behalf of the Osage Nation government, the Osage Nation Congress, the Executive Branch, the Minerals Council, or any candidate or political organization.
Its purpose is to preserve the available record, distinguish documented facts from unresolved questions, and incorporate new information as it becomes available.