Washington D.C.  – Today, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.), a member of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, announced $2,470,439 in Head Start funding that she secured in the bipartisan government funding law for the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada (ITNC). These funds, made available through the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Head Start Indian Grants Program, will provide critical services to eligible Native American families and children—including day care, home visits, and support for parents attending high school.

“I’m glad to see these federal funds going to the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada to help prepare Native families for success through early education and family well-being programs,” said Senator Cortez Masto. “I’ll continue doing all I can in the Senate to help Native families and children in Nevada have a strong start in life and school so they can fulfill their dreams.”

“We greatly appreciate these funds Senator Cortez Masto fought for, which will help our Tribal Head Start teachers continue providing early education and nutrition programs for Tribal children, as well as support parents and quality improvement for school infrastructure,” said Deserea Quintana, Executive Director of the Inter-Tribal Council of Nevada.

ITCN is a nonpartisan, nonprofit organization and governing body to the 28 Tribal Nations throughout the state of Nevada that works to deliver support and services to our Native communities.

Senator Cortez Masto has been a strong advocate on behalf of Tribes in Nevada and across the country, and she’s consistently advocated for robust federal funding for Head Start to benefit tribal communities in Nevada. Understanding the importance of preserving Native heritage, she has worked to protect and support Tribal languages. The Senator has continuously highlighted the ongoing crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women (MMIW), and she was instrumental in passing Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s Act into law. Most recently, she introduced the Bridging Agency Data Gaps & Ensuring Safety (BADGES) for Native Communities Act to address federal inefficiencies that hurt Bureau of Indian Affairs law enforcement recruitment and retention, increase the effectiveness of federal missing persons resources, and give Tribes and states resources to combat the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and girls.