When President George W. Bush's fiscal year 2006 budget was released in February, the Senate of Indian Affairs Committee, Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), United South and Eastern Tribes, and other senators familiar with Indian issues fiercely voiced their opposition.
The proposed budget will cut funding for the BIA by $110 million to a total of $2.2 billion. The agency also faced cuts last year.
At a Native American press conference in late February, South Dakota Senator Tim Johnson said that the budget will hurt those American Indians in the poorest communities who are served by the weakest infrastructures and have the least access to economic opportunity.
Lillian Sparks, the executive director of the National Indian Education Association, told Indianz.com that the budget is the first in nearly a decade to "completely disregard Native students' critical needs."
But Victoria Vasques, the director of the Office of Indian Education at the U.S. Department of Education, said in a phone interview that the proposed 2006 budget will indeed meet the needs of Indian students, especially the 500,000 who attend public schools and will receive further funding from the federal No Child Left Behind Act. Those not satisfied with funding for Indian education are not looking at the "bigger picture," she said.
Over 90 percent of Indian students attend public schools and nearly all fall under Title 1, a law which is meant to improve the academic achievement of disadvantaged students, Vasques said. The proposed budget gives Title 1 a $1 billion boost in federal funding.
Although BushÂ’s proposed budget may benefit public school students on a large scale, programs specific to Indian students have been cut drastically. The Tribal Work Experience Program, as well as programs designed to facilitate tutoring and provide supplies to BIA schools, will be cut if the proposed budget is enacted.
In response to VasquesÂ’s argument, Senator JohnsonÂ’s Communications Director Julianne Fisher said, "Is it really fair to say that the budget is adequate when children on reservations are attending schools that are literally crumbling at their feet?"
The Bush administration promised $1 billion for school construction on Indian reservations in 2001—since then, only nine facilities have been built. The remaining 25 are still in the initial stages of design, according to Indianz.com, and Bush's 2006 budget only provides sufficient funding to complete the construction of South Dakota's Porcupine Day School and New Mexico's Crownpoint Community School.
Charles Grim, the director of the Indian Health Services (IHS), told Indianz.com that he supports Bush's budget. According to a February 15 press release, the budget reflects a two percent increase for IHS from the 2005 federal budget.
Fisher responded, "This increase of $64 million is way below levels to provide adequate [health] care, and disregards rates of inflation." New Mexico Senators Pete Domenici and Jeff Bingaman told Indianz.com that they were frustrated over IHSÂ’s inability to prevent the imminent closure of a local urban health clinic that annually served 25,000 American Indians.
The federal government spends almost twice as much money on federal prisonerÂ’s health care needs than on Native Americans and Alaska Natives, according to Indianz.com.
Even with increased funding, the IHS will face budget problems—an additional 30 thousand people will be eligible for IHS services in 2006, according to the IHS press release.
President BushÂ’s 2006 budget has been sent to Congress for approval before the end of this year.
