U.S. House of Representatives Committee on Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Aaron A. Payment, MPA April 8, 2014 Ahneen, Boozo. Biiwaagijiig, Ndznoz. My name is Aaron Payment. I serve as the Midwest Vice President for the National Congress of American Indians. I am also the elected Chairperson of the Sault Ste Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians ~ the largest tribe East of the Mississippi. On behalf of NCAI, and President Brian Claadoosby, we thank you for holding this important hearing on the Presidents Fiscal Year 2015 Budget for Native American programs. As Congress considers this budget and beyond, tribal leaders call on Congress to ensure that the promises made to Indian Country are honored in the federal budget. Annual funding decisions by Congress are an expression of the US government’s obligation to the indigenous people of these lands. Numerous treaties, statutes, and court decisions have created a fundamental contract between tribal nations and the United States. The federal government has accepted the trust responsibility to protect these rights and to fulfill its solemn covenant to Indian tribes. After all, a government is only as good as its word. Part of this trust responsibility includes basic governmental services in Indian Country ~ funding which is appropriated in the “discretionary” portion of the federal budget. The level of funding is demonstrative of the extent to which the United States honors its commitments to American Indian tribes. Just as we do not have any discretion over the millions of acres of land we ceded to create peace and make this great nation, we ask that you no longer treat our funding as discretionary. Sequestration, level funding, arbitrarily capping Contract Support and similar practices are perceived by Indian Country as an abrogation of this trust obligation guaranteed in treaties. We ask that you enact an honorable budget, one for which the federal government can be proud and one which puts the “trust” in “trustee”. Our written testimony includes recommendations for Interior bureaus, the Indian Health Service, and the Environmental Protection Agency. But the FY 2015 Indian Country Budget Request includes many more specific recommendations and we urge this subcommittee to use it as a resource during this appropriations cycle. NCAI supports the testimony of: • The National Indian Health Board, • National Indian Child Welfare Association, • National Indian Education Association, and • American Indian Higher Education Consortium. Department of the Interior, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) The FY 2015 budget request for the Operation of Indian Programs is $2.4 billion, an increase of $33.8 million, or 1.4 percent above the FY 2014 enacted level. The budget request for the Construction account is $109.9 million; a decrease of $216,000 below the FY2014 enacted level. The bud¬get also proposes $922.6 million in Tribal Priority Allocations, an increase of $19.3 million over the FY 2014 level, a 2 percent increase. The request for contract support is $251 million; an increase of $4 mil¬lion above the FY 2014 enacted level. The requested amount will fully fund estimated FY 2015 contract support costs, according to the BIA based on the most recent analysis. NCAI commends the Administration (of course with the impetus from Congress) for requesting full funding for Contract Support Costs in FY 2015. We recommend that the Tribal Grant Support Costs for tribally controlled schools and residential facilities also be fully funded. Tribal Grant Support Costs funding is provided to the schools to cover administrative and indirect costs incurred in operating contract and grant schools. In School Year 2012-13, tribally controlled grant schools experienced a 36 % shortfall of the grant support funding needed as defined by the administrative cost grants formula. Major Initiatives The proposed budget would provide: • A new $11.6 million for the Ti-wa-hey (Family) Initiative; • $10 million to build on social services and Indian child welfare; • $550,000 to expand job placement training programs; • BIA law enforcement to create a pilot program to implement a strategy for alternatives to incarceration and increased treatment; • $1 million to develop and establish a program for evaluating social service and community development needs and to inform programmatic design, evaluation, management, and budgeting; • Tribal leaders through the Tribal Interior Budget Council have repeatedly called for increases to Social services and Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) funding. This is more critical now that ever. Education increases include: • $500,000 for JOM education assistance grants to support a new student count in 2015 and funding for the expected increase in the number of eligible students; • $1 million for the ongoing evaluation of the BIE school system; • NCAI also recommends $263.4 million for School Construction and Repair ~ • $73 million For Tribal Grant Support Costs; • $431 million for Indian School Equalization Program Formula Funds; • $73 million for Indian student transportation; and • $42 million for JOM funding Public Safety: Safe communities invite economic investment. The Indian Law and Order Commission found that tribal nations would benefit greatly if locally based and accountable law enforcement officers were staffed at levels equitably to their brothers and sisters in blue. In 2010, the DOI High Priority Performance Goal initiative resulted in a 35 percent decrease in violent crime across the four pilot sites. NCAI recommends an expansion of this effort, an increase for BIA Tribal Courts, and juvenile placements in Indian operated and culturally appropriate facilities. BIA Overall: In the FY 2015 President’s Budget, the DOI’s current appropriations would increase 2.6 percent. For the BIA to approach parity with this over DOI increase it would require just an additional $69.2 million. Indian Health Services NCAI requests that for FY 2015, Congress truly restore the sequestration cuts remaining from FY 2013, and adjust for inflation and population growth. While discretionary spending is not facing sequestration in FY 2015, NCAI urges you to support ADVANCED APPROPRIATIONS and continue to advocate for permanent, full exemption from sequestration, and budgetary rescissions. Again, the federal Trust obligation should not be considered discretionary. Conclusion Thank you for this opportunity to share our concerns on programs and funding that fulfill treaty and trust obligations. We look forward to working with this Subcommittee on a bipartisan basis once again this year. Remember, please put the trust back in trustee.
Posted on: Wed, 09 Apr 2014 02:19:25 +0000
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