URL: https://www.indianz.com/News/archives/001776.asp

Thursday, October 2, 2003

The president of the National Congress of American Indians on Wednesday criticized the Bush administration and Congress for not providing enough resources to Indian Country.

According to the Associated Press, NCAI president Tex Hall said some members of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee were not supporting the interests of tribes. He drew applause speaking at the annual conference of the National Indian Health Board, which is being held in St. Paul, Minnesota.

Last week, the Senate approved a $20 billion spending bill for the Department of Interior. Some members of the Senate committee, including chairman Ben Nighthorse Campbell (R-Colo.) and vice-chairman Daniel Inouye (D-Hawaii), voted against an amendment that would have stopped the reorganization of the Bureau of Indian Affairs that tribes oppose.

Most Republicans on the committee also voted against an amendment that would have increased funding to the Indian Health Service. The only exceptions were John McCain (R-Ariz.) and Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska). Maine Republican Olympia Snowe, who does not sit on the committee, also voted for more funding.

Get the Story:
Indian leader says congressional resources needed at home (AP 10/1)

Senate Roll Call:
Vote on S.Amdt 1734 | Vote on S.Amdt 1739

Get the DOI Budget Bills:
H.R.2691 | H.Rept.108-195 | S.1391 | S.Rept.108-89

Related Stories:
Senate approves $20 billion DOI budget bill (9/24)

All stories in the Indianz.Com Archive are available for publishing under a Creative Commons License: Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0)