Federal Agencies Review Bush’s Budget For Indian Programs
WASHINGTON, March 07–Federal agencies in charge of Indian programs urged a Senate committee this week to review the impact of the Bush Administration’s budget request for key services to American Indians and Alaska Natives.
The Indian Affairs Committee heard testimony yesterday and Tuesday from six witnesses on spending for Indian programs involving welfare, job training, education, health care, law enforcement and housing development.
The 2000 Census counted 4.1 million American Indians and Alaska Natives, 1.5 percent of the nation’s population, including more than 9,600 in Connecticut.
“I am hopeful we will find the kind of resources we need for these important services,” said the committee’s vice chairman, Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-CO, the only American Indian in the Senate. “I do want to take the opportunity to convey what I believe is one of the most successful federal programs ever devised: the Administration for Native Americans, or ANA, as we know it.”
The ANA is considered to be a unique umbrella program that confers financial assistance to more than 550 federally recognized and 60 state-recognized Indian communities to create and expand their social, economic and governance objectives, which include native language preservation and environmental regulatory enhancement projects.
“The president’s budget seeks a straight-line reauthorization of this important program,” testified Clarence Carter, the director of the Health and Human Services Department’s Office of Community Services.
Carter also addressed the president’s reauthorization of two welfare programs, Tribal Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) and the Native Employment Works Program, pointing out that there is no separate financing source for American Indians within the TANF program and that welfare caseloads on reservations are not declining because there’s a lack of job opportunities.
On the subject of jobs, Campbell said, “I think we are really missing the boat somewhere in the Department of Labor.”
David G. Dye, the deputy assistant Labor secretary for the Employment and Training Administration, said “the federal government and Indian communities must work together” to secure employment and job training resources to enhance the Indian employment rate of 54.1 percent in 2000.
A portion of his agency’s proposed $70 million budget, Dye said, would be invested in these kinds of partnership programs.
Thomas M. Corwin, the acting deputy assistant Education secretary for elementary and secondary education, pointed out that compensatory education goes beyond the workforce and also into the classroom.
“Our request for the department’s Indian education programs is $122.4 million, an increase of $2 million over the 2002 level,” he said. “These programs include formula grants to school districts, competitive programs and national activities to further research and evaluation on the education needs and status of the Indian population.”
Dr. Michael H. Trujillo, director of Health and Human Services’ Indian Health Services, also requested additional funds to make “culturally acceptable personal and public health services” easily accessible.
Trujillo said his office sought to double the amount of funding the Bush Administration is proposing to meet the health care needs of American Indians and Alaska Native villagers. Trujillo added that said his office planned to deliver better health care services and facilities in addition to efforts to offset the rise in death rates caused by the top killers among tribal members, including tuberculosis, diabetes and alcoholism.
The Justice Department’s Office of Justice Programs sent Tracy A. Henke, its principal deputy assistant attorney general, to request that the office’s tribal programs maintain its $50.6 million budget to address serious law enforcement problems on reservations and in villages, including substance abuse and domestic violence.
“Some of OJP’s programs focus on alcohol and drug abuse, which continue to be major problems in Indian country,” Henke testified. To address these problems, Henke asked for $5 million for a new program that would improve substance abuse services by providing better treatment and stepped-up law enforcement. OJP also put in a request for an additional $19.9 million for all of the office’s tribal Violence Against Women Act programs.
The committee heard about other federal programs, such as a public housing interagency initiative within the Housing and Urban Development Department that links “18 federal agencies through a single economic development access center” for individual Native Americans, Indian tribes and economic institutions, testified Michael Liu, assistant secretary of public and Indian housing. The department requested that $1.5 million be set aside within the Indian Community Development Block Grant’s $72.5 million total.
An oversight hearing to discuss the budget is set for next Thursday.
Published in The Waterbury Republican-American, in Waterbury, Connecticut.
