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Subject: Interior Fact Sheet on FY 1996 BIA Funding
Date: 8/11/95 1:45 PM
U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR NEWS RELEASE
For Immediate Release: August 10, 1995
Contact: Thomas W. Sweeney (202) 219-4152
FACT SHEET
The Senate Appropriations Committee slashed the Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) FY 1996 President's Budget by $434.5 million, or 23%.
The cut is $255 million (15%) below 1995.
The impact of these cuts will be disastrous to Indian country,
where the income, employment, and educational attainment of Indian
people already fall well below the general population. The Senate
mark puts Indian people in a precarious position. Any progress
made in achieving Indian Self-Determination will be reversed,
because tribes will be delayed in developing strong and stable
governments capable of administering quality programs and
developing the economies of their respective communities.
LOCAL TRIBAL PROGRAMS: By far the greatest consequence will be the
negative impact of a reduction of approximately $160,000,000 in
contracts to Indian tribes to run their own programs. This
reduction in Tribal Priority Allocations will undermine Law
Enforcement and Tribal Court efforts, as well as Social Service
programs (which include child protection and child welfare
initiatives). Also impacted will be job creation, job training and
economic development efforts as well as scholarships and training
for Indian youth and adults, management, protection and
preservation of natural resources such as fisheries, forestry,
minerals/mining and agriculture and water resources.
These cuts will be a devastating blow to tribal self determination
and self governance efforts in support of tribal governments to
operate their own programs. By the same token, funding for tribal
contracts will have to be reduced by approximately 30% that will
further depress employment levels on reservations. Current TPA
funding for Bureau operation programs will be reduced to a level
that services will not be provided to Indian people.
Approximately 3,300 BIA employees are funded by the Tribal
Priorities account, of that amount approximately 1,300 jobs will be
eliminated as a result of the $206,000,000 reduction. Current
estimates are that this will require consolidation of Agency
offices from the present level of 86 to nearly half that amount.
AREA OFFICE OPERATIONS: In order to absorb the approximately
Offices will have to be abolished and a new regional configuration
will have to be established, with a corresponding decrease in
employees of approximately 350.
CENTRAL OFFICE OPERATIONS: Employee reductions of approximately
40% (or 330 jobs) will be required to bring the Central Office
staff within funding levels called for in the Senate proposal. The
ability of the Bureau to provide policy program analysis is
severely limited at this level. The basic administration structure
to support programs both tribal and Bureau has been reduced.
The Senate also transferred $410 million and the responsibility for
all trust programs from the BIA to the Office of the Special
Trustee in the immediate office of the Secretary of the Interior.
The Special Trustee's office was established by the 1994 American
Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act to provide the Secretary
with expert advice in areas of trust fend accounting, management,
and investment. The Special Trustee was not intended to be a line
official with day-to-day responsibility for the implementation of
programs for the protection and management of a wide variety of
trust assets, including land, timber, minerals, and water.
LOCAL TRIBAL PROGRAMS REDUCED BY ONE-THIRD: The Senate cut Tribal
Priority Allocations by $220 million that will result in tribes
losing 35% of their funds needed to support critical programs at
the local tribal level. These programs include tribal governmental
operations; general assistance to Indian individuals and families
whose income is below current state standards; child welfare
programs that provide assistance to abandoned or neglected children
and prevent the separation of Indian families; higher education
scholarships; law enforcement, detention services and community
fire protection; maintenance of more than 20 million miles of roads
on rural and isolated reservations; and housing repair for needy
families.
NEW CHILD PROTECTION PROGRAM ZEROED: The Senate zeroed the BIA's
request for funds to establish child protection and family violence
prevention programs on Indian reservations. Just a few weeks ago,
Congress reauthorized this grant program, citing the serious child
abuse problems on reservations.
SCHOOL ACCREDITATION JEOPARDIZED: The Senate cut of $30.6 million
severely limits the Bureau's ability to meet its responsibilities
for educating Indian children. At least 7% of the children in BIA
schools could be turned away in School Year 1996-97 because there
will not be sufficient funds to pay teachers' salaries or provide
transportation for all the students. The Bureau anticipates a 4%
increase in student enrollment in 1996; the Senate level allows
RESERVATION SAFETY JEOPARDIZED: The $23.6 million cut in Education
Construction presents a serious problem with the safety of BIA
school facilities. The Senate reduced new school construction by
first century for construction of new schools to replace
dilapidated buildings. The $10 millon cut in school repair funds,
despite a backlog of $660 million in BIA facility repair projects,
basically means that many Indian children will attend school in
crowded and potentially unsafe school buildings that would have
otherwise been repaired with 1996 funding. BIA will be forced to
close schools where children are in imminent danger due to health
and safety risks.
The Senate reduced law enforcement construction by $8.9 million.
Without adequate detention facilities, criminal offenders remain at
large and at risk to the communities. Funds for correcting
structural deficiencies on high hazard dams were reduced by $12
million, putting public safety at risk in nearby communities.
UNREASONABLE CUT IN CENTRAL AND AREA OFFICES: Funding for Indian
services functions in BIA's Central Office is reduced by 58%,
leaving the Bureau without sufficient resources to provide policy
direction or correct material weakness areas. To pay for severance
costs, it will be necessary to terminate almost all Central Office
staff in Washington and Albuquerque. Indian services functions at
area offices are reduced by 47%, forcing closure of area offices
that provide assistance to tribes. Administrative costs in the BIA
are already low, with 86% of all BIA operating funds going directly
to the tribes and reservations.
IMPORTANCE OF BIA FUNDING TO TRIBES MISREPRESENTED: In the Senate
report on the proposed appropriations bill, the Committee defended
the reduction of over one-fifth of the BIA budget by implying that
tribes depend more heavily on non-BIA federal programs. It is true
that BIA represents about 30% of all federal funds for Indian
programs. However, it is through the BIA that the tribes receive
funds critical to the ongoing operation of tribal governments, as
the tribes depend on the BIA for a wide variety of basic programs
not available from other federal agencies. The Indian Health
Service, comprising about 36% of federal funding for Indian
programs, is limited to the provision of health and medical
services. The Department of Education provides 9% of the federal
funds for Indians, with almost all of these funds going to states
for Indian children in public schools. The remaining 25% of
federal funds are for specific programs with narrow eligibility
requirements. These programs are also intensely critical to the
tribes and must not be reduced, however, it is deceptive to imply
that tribes can look to other federal programs to compensate for
the deep cuts made to the BIA.
SUMMARY: It will be necessary to reduce nearly 2,000 jobs in the
Bureau, with the majority of those jobs involved in providing
services to tribes that have chosen not to contract or compact for
those functions and fulfilling inherent federal functions for all
tribes at the tribe/agency level.
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