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Tribal Leaders Say Proposed Budget Increase For Indians Is Not Enough
Mon, 28 Feb 2000
By Matt Kelley

WASHINGTON (AP) _ President Clinton's proposal to provide $1.2 billion more
for Indian health care, law enforcement and education is not enough to meet
the dire needs of reservation communities, tribal leaders and their allies
in Congress say.

Indian programs have been underfunded for so long that more money is needed
to bring them up to minimal standards, the leaders said Thursday at a
meeting of the National Congress of American Indians.

The president's proposal to boost spending on Indian programs to $9.4
billion, more than a 12 percent increase over the current year's level,
"does not begin to address the Third World conditions on our reservations,"
Congress President Susan Masten said.

"It is only the first step to recognize the trust obligations and treaty
responsibilities to Indian Nations," said Masten.

Lynn Cutler, the top White House aide on Indian issues, and other
administration officials acknowledge the budget proposal won't meet all
tribes' needs, but say a larger increase might have trouble in the
GOP-controlled Congress.

"It's still not enough to meet basic needs, but it's a good package to go
around," White House adviser Mary Smith, a Cherokee, told the tribal leaders
Thursday.

Senate Budget Committee Chairman Pete Domenici, R-N.M., said he would
welcome proposals for additional spending.

"A billion dollars is nothing to laugh at, it's pretty good," Domenici said
Wednesday during a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing. "But it may be
that somebody might want to put more (money) in, especially in school
construction."

Clinton's budget proposal for the nation's 2.4 million Indians includes $300
million for reservation school construction and renovation, more than double
the $133 million to be spent this year. The money would pay for six new
schools, mostly in Arizona and New Mexico, but would not erase an estimated
$800 million backlog in vital repairs and construction for Indian schools.

The budget also calls for $140 million in new spending on Indian law
enforcement, more than $60 million more for building and repairing
reservation homes and nearly $230 million more for the Indian Health
Service.
 

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