By Acee Agoyo
WASHINGTON, D.C. --
With
tribal leaders in town for a big week of meetings and hearings, President Donald Trump is releasing his fiscal year 2021 budget request, a document that signals his administration's commitment to fulfilling trust and treaty obligations.
For the past three years, the request has made it look as Trump isn't that interested in meeting the needs of the first Americans. He's repeatedly sought cuts to key programs at the
Bureau of Indian Affairs, the federal agency with the most responsibilities to tribes and their citizens.
Other agencies haven't fared much better. Indian programs at the
Department of Education, the
Department of Housing and Urban Development and the
Environmental Protection Agency are among those that haven taken hits since Trump took office in January 2017.
“We have a vision for how we go,"
President Fawn Sharp of the
National Congress of American Indians told key lawmakers at a hearing that examined the
U.S. government's many "Broken Promises" last November, "to a path of prosperity."
“But in that path there are multiple barriers," Sharp said, pointing to federal policies, such as inadequate funding, that hinder Indian Country.
The only place where Trump hasn't been seeking drastic cuts is at the
Indian Health Service. But tribal advocates point out that the agency has never been funded at the level it needs to help improve outcomes and conditions among American Indians and Alaska Natives.
"In 1955, Congress established the Indian Health Service in partial fulfillment of its constitutional obligations for health services,"
Stacy Bohlen, a citizen of the
Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of
Chippewa Indians who serves as Chief Executive Officer of the
National Indian Health Board, said in testimony to Congress.
"Yet at no time since the founding of IHS has Congress fully funded health care in Indian Country at the level of need."
The White House Office of Management and Budget typically posts the
budget request in the morning.
The documents provide a high-level look at the entire government.
Individual agencies will follow with their own budget documents. The
Department of the Interior, which includes the BIA, usually updates
doi.gov/budget with the latest request.
The
Department of Health and Human Services, which includes the IHS, typically posts the request at
.hhs.gov/about/budget. IHS documents should be available at
ihs.gov/budgetformulation/congressionaljustifications.
Trump's request, though, isn't the end of the story. It is up to Congress to appropriate the funds for the BIA, the IHS and other agencies, and members from both parties frequently work together to reverse the president's cuts.
To help make the case, members of the House Committee on Appropriations will be hearing from dozens of tribal, Indian and Native leaders this week. Starting on Tuesday morning, they will hold four sessions of public witness testimony.
House Committee on Appropriations Notices
American
Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 1 AM Session (February 11, 2020)
American
Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 1 PM Session (February 11, 2020)
American
Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 2 AM Session (February 12, 2020)
American
Indian and Alaska Native Public Witness Day 1 PM Session (February 12, 2020)
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