'We do right by Indian Country': Funding bill moves closer to passage

Thursday, August 9, 2018  

For the first time in nearly a decade, Congress is close to passing a bill that funds a large number of Indian Country initiatives.

Before going on break last week, the House and the Senate passed their own versions of an appropriations bill for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Indian Health Service and other key tribal programs. And while the two chambers must still come up with a unifying package before sending it to President Donald Trump, key lawmakers say the outlook is good for the first Americans.

“This appropriations bill demonstrates the United States’ commitment to Native communities and honors the unique relationship that Indian tribes maintain with the federal government,” Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, said after the measure cleared the chamber on August 1. “This bill provides strong funding for tribal-related programs and key federal agencies that serve Indian Country.”

Hoeven's Democratic counterpart agreed. In addition to serving as vice chairman of Indian Affairs, Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) is the ranking member of the Senate subcommittee that wrote the Interior fiscal year 2019 funding measure.

"The bill funds the Indian Health Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs and provides resources for new health care facilities and schools for tribes across the country that are working to improve health and education outcomes," Udall said. "This funding helps fulfill our trust and treaty responsibilities to American Indians and Alaska Natives."

The House was the first chamber to take action, passing H.R. 6147 on July 19 by tally of 217 to 199. Every Democrat voted against the measure even though it contains increases for the BIA, the IHS and other agencies.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota), the top Democrat on a key House subcommittee, acknowledged that those Indian Country funding boosts represented one of the "few bright spots of bipartisan cooperation." But "toxic partisan riders" in the bill will end up harming the environment and public health, she said.

"We owe it to the American people to do better. I look forward to working with the chairman and my colleagues in the Senate to bring a better bill back to the House floor," she said, referring to Rep. Ken Calvert (R-California), the leader of the House panel that writes Interior's funding bill.

The Senate's passage of H.R.6147 on August 1 by a vote of 96 to 2 indeed leads to more work. While the bill bears the same number, the chamber did not include any of the contentious policy riders that caused trouble in the House so the differences must now be resolved.

But members of both parties were in agreement when it comes to the first Americans. H.R.6147 contains increases for the BIA, the IHS, Indian housing and other programs, representing a rejection of cuts proposed by Trump and his administration.

"We do right by Indian Country within this bill," said Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), who chairs the Senate's Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies subcommittee and also serves on Indian Affairs with Hoeven and Udall.

Murkowski noted that the Senate hadn't considered and passed an Interior funding bill in eight years, going all the way back to the Obama era. Due to partisan disagreements, Congress instead resorted to "omnibus" packages of thousands and thousands of pages in order to keep the the BIA, the IHS and other government agencies up and running.

H.R.6147 will now be sent to a joint conference committee consisting of members of the House and the Senate. The panel is expected to start its work after Congress returns to work in early September.

The goal is to resolve the differences in H.R.6147 and send it to the White House before the end of that month. Fiscal year 2019 starts on October 1 so getting the bill signed into law by that date would bring an infusion of funds to tribal communities.

"Of great import, not only to my home state of Oklahoma but to Native Americans all across the country, the bill honors our treaties and trust agreements by providing $5.9 billion for the Indian Health Service and $3.1 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Indian Education," Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), a citizen of the Chickasaw Nation, said as the bill was under consideration in the House.

The two versions of H.R.6147, the Interior, Environment, Financial Services and General Government, Agriculture, Rural Development, Food and Drug Administration, and Transportation, Housing and Urban Development Appropriations Act, 2019, differ in funding amounts and other language so the differences still need to be resolved. But here are some highlights from the Senate's version of the bill.

Indian Health Service (IHS): The bill increases the overall budget for IHS by $234 million above FY 2018 level ($348 million more than the Trump Administration’s request) for a total funding level for the IHS of $5.772 billion, according to Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico).

Bureau of Indian Affairs and Bureau of Indian Education: The bill increases the overall budget for BIA / BIE by $11.4 million over FY2018 levels ($661 million over the Trump administration’s request) for a total of $3.075 billion, Udall's office said.

Education Infrastructure. The bill includes $238 million for BIE school construction and replacement activities, 227% above the Administration’s request. This funding will help address the priority list of replacement schools, which includes three BIE schools in New Mexico, according to Udall.

Tribal Colleges and Universities. The bill provides $141.65 million for post-secondary programs at BIE, 53% above the president’s request, Udall said.

$10 million dollars from the Indian Irrigation Fund are to be made available for use by the BIA to implement the Irrigation Rehabilitation and Renovation for Indian Tribal Governments and their Economies (IRRIGATE) Act, which authorizes construction and maintenance of Indian irrigation systems, according to Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota).

Hoeven also said the bill funds the Native American Housing Block Grants program, Indian Community Development Block Grant program and continues the popular Tribal HUD–VASH program, all at the Department of Housing and Urban Development.

Additionally, the bill provides funding for Native American Community Development Financial Institutions (CDFIs) at the Department of the Treasury, according to Hoeven's office.

According to Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska), the bill establishes a new grant program through Indian Health Service (IHS) which provides $10 million to help tribes fight back against opioid abuse, $7.5 million is continued through Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to fight opioid addiction. Her office said the measure also maintains increases to address substance abuse disorders, mental health disorders, suicide, violence, and behavior-related chronic diseases among American Indians and Alaska Natives.

Additionally, the bill provides funding for the Commission on Native Children, which recently got off the ground and met for the first time after becoming law almost two years ago. The authorizing law did not provide money for the panel, whose goal is to improve health, education and other outcomes for American Indian, Alaska Native and Native Hawaiian youth.

The bill also fulfills the federal promises made to Alaska Natives by allocating full funding for Contract Support Costs, the operational costs of tribes to deliver services including federal Indian health programs, Murkowski's office said.