WASHINGTON – This summer appeared to be a promising time for tribal crime and health advocates after the Senate passed an amendment aimed at injecting $2 billion to strengthening health and fighting crime in Indian country.
The amendment redirected $1 billion in funding for law enforcement and improved health care as well as $1 billion for water projects on reservations across the nation. The legislation pertained to the already-passed S. 2731, a $50 billion foreign assistance bill.
Under the agreement brokered by Sens. John Thune, R-S.D., Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., and others, the amendment was adopted by a voice vote July 16.
“I’m very pleased that the Senate has recognized the need and has demonstrated a willingness to address it,” Thune said in an interview with Indian Country Today. “This is something we’ve been working on for a long time, and we hope to continue to elevate some of the issues that are impacting Indian country.
Thune added that while the original foreign aid bill sought to address critical needs in Africa and other places overseas, he felt strongly that critical needs in the U.S. affecting American Indians also deserved attention.
In addition to $1 billion to develop and strengthen water projects in Indian country, the amendment authorizes another $1 billion, of which $750 million is designated for improving American Indian public safety and $250 million will be devoted to strengthening the budget of the IHS.
The $750 million for public safety broke down as follows: $370 million for detention facility construction, rehabilitation and placement through the Department of Justice; $310 million for the BIA’s Public Safety and Justice Account, which funds tribal police and tribal courts; $30 million for investigations and prosecution of crimes in Indian country by the FBI and U.S. attorneys; $30 million for the Department of Justice’s Office of Justice Program for Indian and Alaska Native Programs; and $10 million for cross-deputization or other cooperative agreements among state, local and tribal governments.
The $250 million for health care was to be divided as determined by IHS Director Robert McSwain between contract health services, construction and rehabilitation of American Indian health facilities, and domestic and community sanitation facilities serving Indian tribes.
Thune said he received assurances that his counterparts in the House were willing to accept a similar $2 billion amendment that would aid Indian country. If the legislation makes it through both chambers, Congress would then be left to appropriate the authorized funds.
By November, Thune and other senators were working on getting the money flowing. In a letter to President George W. Bush, several senators asked the outgoing president to get federal agencies to prepare their budgets for 2010 to include funding requests for the authorized funds.
“The funding would be used for desperately needed law enforcement, health care and water projects benefitting American Indians and Alaska Natives,” the senators wrote.
When asked why the letter requests funding for 2010 when the actual authorization started in fiscal year 2009, Jon Lauck, a senior advisor to Thune, told ICT it was because “this is a brand new authorization created in July 2008 and thus was not included in the FY2009 budget that passed Congress in early 2008.”
Lauck said Thune will be looking to include fiscal year 2009 funding in March when a continuing resolution affecting the legislation expires.
Since Bush will soon no longer be president, 22 senators signed and sent another letter to President-elect Obama asking him to fill in budget lines providing tribes with $1 billion for water projects, $750 million for public safety and $250 million to improve health care.
