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S. HRG. 111–47 

DISCUSSING TRIBAL PRIORITIES IN THE FISCAL 

YEAR 2010 BUDGET 

HEARING 

BEFORE THE

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

UNITED STATES SENATE 

ONE HUNDRED ELEVENTH CONGRESS 

FIRST SESSION 

MARCH 12, 2009 

Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs 

( 

(II) 

COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS 

BYRON L. DORGAN, North Dakota, Chairman 

JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming, Vice Chairman 

DANIEL K. INOUYE, Hawaii 

KENT CONRAD, North Dakota 

DANIEL K. AKAKA, Hawaii 

TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota 

MARIA CANTWELL, Washington 

JON TESTER, Montana 

TOM UDALL, New Mexico 

lllll, lllll 

JOHN MCCAIN, Arizona 

LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska 

TOM COBURN, M.D., Oklahoma 

MIKE CRAPO, Idaho 

MIKE JOHANNS, Nebraska 

ALLISON C. BINNEY, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

DAVID A. MULLON JR., Minority Staff Director and Chief Counsel 

(III) 

C O N T E N T S 

Page 

Hearing held on March 12, 2009 ............................................................................ 1 

Statement of Senator Barrasso ............................................................................... 5 

Statement of Senator Dorgan ................................................................................. 1 

Statement of Senator Tester ................................................................................... 68 

WITNESSES

Burger, Jessica, Executive Committee Member, National Indian Health 

Board; Health Director, Little River Band of Ottawa Indians ......................... 17 

Prepared statement with attachment ............................................................. 19 

Cook, Robert B., President, National Indian Education Association .................. 37 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 39 

Johnson-Pata, Jackie, Executive Director, National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) ......................................................................................................... 7 

Prepared statement .......................................................................................... 10 

Parish, Cheryl, Executive Director, Bay Mills Housing Authority; Vice-Chairperson, National American Indian Housing Council ......................................... 50 

Prepared statement with attachments ........................................................... 53 

APPENDIX

Navajo Nation, prepared statement ....................................................................... 85 

United Tribes Technical College, prepared statement ......................................... 90 

(1) 

DISCUSSING TRIBAL PRIORITIES IN THE 

FISCAL YEAR 2010 BUDGET 

THURSDAY, MARCH 12, 2009 

U.S. SENATE, COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS, Washington, DC. 

The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 9:30 a.m. in room 

628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Byron L. Dorgan, 

Chairman of the Committee, presiding. 

OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA 

The CHAIRMAN. I am going to call the hearing to order this morning. This is a hearing of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, and 

I thank all of you for being here. 

Today, the Committee is going to examine the tribal priorities in 

the President’s 2010 budget. The purpose of this hearing is to receive information about program priorities as we develop our views 

and estimates letter to the Senate Budget Committee. 

The Senate Budget Committee will, in turn, consider our recommendations as they prepare their recommendations to the full 

Senate for the 2010 budget resolution. 

Now, it is true that we are still awaiting more details with respect to tribal programs in the President’s budget, but I was encouraged to see that his budget has some proposed general increases for programs to address Indian health care, Indian education, and public safety issues. 

In addition, for the first time in eight budget cycles, the Administration has recommended funding in their budget for the United 

Tribes Technical College, which is one of the premier tribal colleges 

in our Country. It is a college that serves many states and many 

tribes. It is true that it is in North Dakota, so I of course have special interest here, but it is also true that it is one of the premier 

colleges of its type in the Country. 

I am also pleased to see the Administration recognizes the success of so many of the tribal college institutions. Overall, the funding for tribal programs represents, I think, an attempt by the 

United States to meet treaty and trust obligations that are owed 

to tribal governments. 

North Dakota tribes refer to the 1896 Treaty of Fort Laramie as 

the governing document for their relationship with the United 

States. In that treaty, the United States made specific promises to 

provide for public safety, education and health care, and the genVerDate Nov 24 2008 09:06 Jan 11, 2010 Jkt 050708 PO 00000 Frm 00005 Fmt 6633 Sfmt 6633 S:\DOCS\50708.TXT JACK PsN: JACKF
2 

eral welfare of reservation communities. That was a promise, a 

treaty signed by the government of this Country. 

Unfortunately, this Country has not met its obligations. In the 

past eight budget cycles, we have seen proposed cuts to tribal programs which this Committee has strongly opposed. Because of past 

budget cuts, the Committee has been forced to work hard just for 

the status quo in funding tribal programs. I have some charts that 

I will show. 

The first chart shows funding over the past decade for Indian 

health care construction, dental and mental health, and Contract 

Health Services. And you will see that it is pretty much flat lined, 

with the exception of an increase in Contract Health in the last fiscal year. 

These are slight increases, but not adjusted for inflation or increased population. In fact, the IHS budget has never accounted for 

the high levels of medical inflation. The end result is that tribes 

continue to see multi-billion dollar unmet needs for health care 

construction and services. 

For a number of years, our Committee has heard from tribal 

leaders who run out of contract health care funding in January, 

perhaps April, some June. Some tribal leaders have said to us that 

on their reservation, it is said do not get sick after June because 

there is no contract health care funding available. 

The same situation is true with respect to Indian education. We 

have a chart that shows what is happening for funding for Indian 

school construction, and flat figures for Indian school services. As 

you can see from that chart, the funding levels for Indian children 

have not met the promises that our country has made. 

A 2007 Inspector General’s flash report found many deficiencies 

at Indian schools, from leaking roofs to buckling walls to outdated 

electrical systems. These schools, frankly, pose danger to both students and to teachers. And Indian students simply cannot learn, in 

my judgment, in an environment where they have to fear for their 

safety and have concern for their well being. 

I have visited many Indian schools. We know that some of the 

greatest disrepair in American schools are those schools that are 

attended by young Indian children. 

Finally, chart three that we will put up, shows the fluctuations 

in funding for Indian jails and tribal police officers. These are the 

law and order or law enforcement issues. And you will see for tribal police officers, tribal detention, jail and prison construction, a 

precipitous drop in the amount of funding that has existed. 

Indian jails have long been proclaimed a national disgrace. I 

have seen first-hand the circumstances in some of these detention 

facilities. I have seen young teenage children lying on a cement 

floor in an adult detention center, breaking all the rules one would 

expect to exist. This Country has made promises, again, that it has 

not kept. 

On the Standing Rock Indian Reservation, which is just one, but 

one in which we have had some testimony, an Indian reservation 

that is very, very large, expansive land, in which there are 2.3 million acres. There are nine police officers to patrol 2.3 million acres. 

And we have had police officers admit that they are forced to triage 

even rape cases. 

3 

So the situation is difficult. It is dangerous. On the reservation 

I just described, the rate of violent crime was five times the rate 

of the national average, and yet they are so short of the funds that 

are necessary to provide for that law enforcement. 

In the just-passed American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 

2009, Economic Recovery Act, at least some of these deficiencies 

were addressed. Congress provided about $925 million in construction funding for these three areas I have just described. 

Overall, the Recovery Act provided $2.5 billion for Indian Country jobs and construction. We know this is a good start, but we also 

have a long ways to go to meet all of the unaddressed needs. I am 

working with Vice Chairman Barrasso to develop a proposal that 

we will soon send to the Budget Committee that offers some recommendations on funding. So, we wanted to have a hearing and receive your analysis of the President’s budget proposal in order that 

we might include that in our evaluation of what we think needs to 

be done to keep the promises that our Country has made, both in 

treaty and also trust obligations to American Indians. 

[The charts referred to follow:] 


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Senator Barrasso, welcome. We would like to hear from you. 

STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM WYOMING 

Senator BARRASSO. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman. I want 

to thank you for holding this budget hearing today. 

I would like to also welcome our witnesses, and thank them for 

being here to share their time and information with us this morning. 


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We are now considering the fiscal year 2010 budget, and we will 

be hearing the tribal perspective on what the budget should include. In the past month, as you just mentioned, Mr. Chairman, we 

passed unprecedented spending bills, one intended to spur the 

economy, another to provide funding for Federal programs throughout the balance of Fiscal Year 2009. 

With the ink barely dry on these two bills, we are now turning 

our attention to spending for Fiscal Year 2010. Several Committee 

hearings have demonstrated the tremendous levels of unmet need 

in many Indian programs, especially health, law enforcement, and 

we have been documenting those in several of our studies and reports. 

The 2006 Bureau of Indian Affairs gap analysis study to project 

additional staff needed for Indian Country law enforcement and detention personnel indicated a total of 4,490 sworn officers are still 

needed in Indian Country to provide the minimum level of coverage 

enjoyed by most communities across this country. 

To address this shortage, the gap analysis estimated that it would take over three years and cost an additional $681 million to 

hire, to train, and to equip the needed personnel. That shortage is 

evident on the Wind River Reservation, where as I have mentioned 

in prior hearings, there are currently only two patrol officers for 

the entire 2.2 million-acre reservation per shift during a 24-hour/ 

7 days-a-week period. 

The Eastern Shoshone and the Northern Arapaho Tribes also 

have a great need for health care facilities, for irrigation improvements, other public safety improvements, and plus another key, 

economic development. Their needs in these regards are shared by 

other Indian communities across the Country, so I look forward to 

working with you, Mr. Chairman, to do our part to address these 

needs. 

I am sure you will agree that despite the level and urgency of 

need, we must never lose sight of the fact that this is taxpayer 

money that we are spending. Now that Congress has committed 

the Federal Government to spending so much of American taxpayers’ hard-earned money, and is now considering a budget for 

next fiscal year, I think it is more important than ever that the resources be used with great prudence, efficiency, as well as accountability. 

Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

The CHAIRMAN. Senator Barrasso, thank you very much. 

Let me mention to you that we are going to do a hearing April 

2, to those who are here, for the purpose of hearing views on the 

Carcieri Supreme Court decision, which has an impact, or potentially has a very significant impact on every tribal government in 

America. And so on April 2, I just want folks to know that hearing 

will be held, and we will be doing a fair amount of work between 

now and that time with organizations to understand the potential 

consequences of it and what might need to be done as a result of 

it. 

I also wanted to indicate that I will have to leave before this 

hearing is complete. Senator Tester is going to be here to chair as 

well. We have an Energy Committee hearing on a transmission 

issue that I have been working on that I have to attend. 

7 

But this hearing is very important for the purpose of getting on 

the record Indian organizations’ assessment of the President’s, the 

President’s budget submission to the Congress. And we have traditionally done this. This hearing is a part of that tradition that 

helps us as Senator Barrasso and I put together a letter of recommendation from our Committee to the Budget Committee, as I 

indicated. 

We have as witnesses today Jackie Johnson-Pata. Ms. Johnson, 

have you changed your name? 

Ms. Johnson-Pata. Yes, I got married last summer. 

The CHAIRMAN. Congratulations to you. 

So Jackie Johnson has another name today, Jackie JohnsonPata. We welcome her, Executive Director of the National Congress 

of American Indians; Ms. Jessica Burger, the Health Director of the 

Bemidji Area National Indian Health Board in Michigan; and Mr. 

Robert Cook, the President of the National Indian Education Association here in Washington, D.C.; and Ms. Cheryl Parish, who is 

the Vice Chair of the National American Indian Housing Council. 

All of you work in the real key areas that have great need for 

funding and attention by the Congress. I know that you do a lot 

of work all year long to try to bring these issues to the attention 

of the Congress. I appreciate that work. 

So we will hear from the four of you. Again, at some point during 

this hearing when I have to excuse myself to go to the Energy 

Committee, please excuse me for my absence, but Senator Barrasso 

will be here, as well as Senator Tester. 

Ms. Johnson-Pata, welcome. You may proceed. 

STATEMENT OF JACKIE JOHNSON–PATA, EXECUTIVE 

DIRECTOR, NATIONAL CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS 

(NCAI) 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. Thank you very much. 

Thank you, Chairman and Vice Chairman, for inviting NCAI to 

participate in this hearing today. 

Before I get started, I want to just let you know that we have 

shared with members of Congress, all members of Congress, 

NCAI’s budget priority document that was put together with the 

help of all these fine organizations I am sitting here at the table 

with today, and other organizations like Intertribal Agriculture, et 

cetera. 

I think this is a true reflection of what Indian Country’s requests 

are, and I hope that you take the time to take a look at it. It also 

has the gentle reminder that you so, that you talked about, Mr. 

Chairman, about the treaties and the responsibilities and the obligations that you speak so honorably about, and that is the foundation of this book here. 

We look forward to sharing and working with your staff on the 

2010 budget priorities. As you reflected, President Obama has released his blueprint and framework for a budget, but we don’t have 

the details there yet. We, like you, were also pleased to see the increases that were in education and public safety, and health care. 

And we are looking forward to how those budgets get built out. 

We also know that this is a trying time for Congress and the Administration, given the current economic situation and the deficit. 

8 

We know that you want to make sure that your investment in any 

of America’s programs or services are a good investment for America. 

So we stand with you to work to work to ensure that Indian 

Country is a good investment, and I think all of our sister organizations sitting here have the same commitment to making sure 

that happens. 

In fact, in the economic recovery plans, NCAI quickly responded 

to put forward a technical assistance component to be able to help 

tribes, one, access the dollars, as well as report back to ensure that 

we are also keeping track of the value of those dollars to Indian 

Country. And we look forward to doing the same kind of thing with 

the 2010 budget as this Country deals with its economic challenges. 

I would like to remind you that, as I looked at your charts this 

morning and reflected on your charts, that we see, basically what 

we are seeing is a decrease or a flat line. In fact, if you look at Indian Country’s overall budgets since 1998, you will see that Indian 

Country has received a substantial decrease that we have never recovered from. 

In fact, all the budgets since about 1998, if you took off the cost 

of living or inflation factors, would be basically flat line for Indian 

Country. And so we are not keeping up with the cost of real business in Indian Country. 

And certainly, that hurts us in the way that Indian Country 

since about that same time has taken on the challenge of self-determination and self-governance. And so we are looking forward to 

a time to working with you and with the Administration, that we 

can actually get programs that support self-determination and selfgovernance, and deal with the real costs of those factors such as 

contract support costs and other relevant factors. 

We also know that you know, and I don’t need to remind those 

here, sitting here in the room, that Indian Country lags far behind 

the Country in infrastructure, health care, public safety, the list 

goes on and on. 

So that all of these dollars are real investments into where tribes 

want to go. Tribes have taken on the resurgence of self-determination in the last couple of decades. They have done measurable improvements in their ability to perform and to be the primary responsible party for the delivery of services within their communities. They are rebuilding our nations around honoring their ancestors and cultures, and I am sure you will hear that from several 

of the panelists today about the value of that. 

And as you know, in the Harvard report, that before the economic recession, Indian Country was actually, was growing at a 

faster economic rate than the rest of the Country as a whole. And 

so we have made great strides in our ability to take these resources 

and maximize and leverage those opportunities, and we want to 

continue to do that. 

If we look at the President’s budget priorities and the President 

overall, he says education, health care, infrastructure and clean energy are his priorities. Well, certainly Indian Country can align 

with those priorities because they are all issues of concern that we 

care about. 

9 

And if we look at Indian Country’s priorities as the tribal leaders 

from the TBAC, the Tribal Budget Advisory Committee, has stated 

in the last several years, their budget priorities are public safety, 

health care, education, and natural resources. Once again, those 

clearly align with the President’s budget priorities, but are budget 

priorities that the tribal leaders themselves have decided. But if we 

had to focus in a couple areas, we want to focus in those areas that 

we think will have meaningful difference and will actually help a 

holistic improvement for our communities. 

So we look forward to working with you, the Committee, to ensure that Indian Country is a good Federal investment, to working 

with you to work with OMB to make sure that our measures for 

success, while we are measuring success, are relevant for Indian 

Country so we can prove that we are a good Federal investment, 

and working with you on refining what the 2010 fiscal year budget 

looks like. 

Thank you very much. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Johnson-Pata follows:] 

10 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JACKIE JOHNSON-PATA, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, NATIONAL

CONGRESS OF AMERICAN INDIANS (NCAI) 


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The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much. 

Ms. Burger, thank you for your work in the area of health care, 

and we welcome you here. You may proceed. 

STATEMENT OF JESSICA BURGER, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE 

MEMBER, NATIONAL INDIAN HEALTH BOARD; HEALTH 

DIRECTOR, LITTLE RIVER BAND OF OTTAWA INDIANS 

Ms. BURGER. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. 

Mr. Chairman, Mr. Vice Chairman and members of the Committee, I am Jessica Burger. I am an executive committee member 

of the National Indian Health Board, and I am also the Health Director for my nation, the Little River Band of Ottawa Indians located in Manistee, Michigan. 

I am pleased to be here today to give you the National Indian 

Health Board’s views on the priorities of the Fiscal Year 2010 

budget for the Indian Health Service. We were pleased, as you 

were, to learn that the Obama Administration is proposing an increase to the budget of $4 billion. We don’t have any details, but 

we are hopeful that the Administration’s budget will reflect the recommendations made by the Tribal Leaders Committee in March of 

2008, and National Indian Health Board supports the recommendations made by that committee. 

Overall, the work group recommended increases totaling $908 

million above the expected 2009 fiscal year funding levels. They focused on two types of need. First, our current service increases, 

and those are the increments needed to support the Indian Health 

Service system at its current level of service. They include pay 

costs, medical inflation, contract support costs, funding for population growth, facilities construction and staffing in urban program 

funding, which as you know was eliminated in three previous budgets. 

Facilities construction and urban program funding are very important to Indian Country. And we also advocate for the restoration 


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of the rescissions of Fiscal Year 2005 and 2006 budgeted amounts. 

The work group recommended a $449.3 million increase overall for 

all of those items. 

Secondly, we talked about program service increases. Those are 

increases that provide the programs the ability to improve and expand services provided to Indian patients. The IHS has long been 

plagued by inadequate funding in all areas, and what that has 

done is made it impossible to supply our Indian people with the 

level of service that they need and that they deserve. The work 

group recommended a $458.7 million increase to the program in facilities accounts, and we support that recommendation. 

Relative to the budget, I would like to call your attention to two 

issues regarding budget management. First, it has been the OMB’s 

practice for the past several years to apply the non-medical inflation factor to the Indian Health Service budget. This woefully 

underestimates the amount needed to keep up with inflation. The 

medical inflation factor should be applied to the Indian Health 

Service budget, and it would more correctly reflect the amount it 

needs to supply necessary care to Indian people. 

Second, the Indian Health Service budget must be shielded from 

Administration rescissions and congressional across the board cuts. 

Our system provides direct care to patients. It is unfair to make 

the Indian Health Service programs vulnerable to budget cuts employed for the sole purpose of achieving arbitrary budget ceilings. 

Our system is funded at a 60 percent level of need at best. Unplanned cuts to programs puts funding patient care issues at severe risk. We would ask for language to protect the Indian Health 

Service budget from all rescissions and across the board cuts imposed by Administration and Congress. 

And lastly, I would like to highlight some recommendations for 

increases in four programs and explain why those recommendations are needed. 

First, Contract Health Services. The Committee is well aware of 

the Contract Health Services program and the critical role it plays 

in addressing the health care of Indian Country. CHS exists because the Indian Health Service system is not capable of supplying 

all the care needed by our population. It should be a way to purchase needed care, and especially specialty care that is not cost-effective to deliver at every location. 

In reality, the gross under-funding of CHS means that we cannot 

purchase the quality and types of care that we need. Many of our 

Indian patients are left untreated in painful conditions that plague 

the system, and over time those persons suffer from injuries of life 

and limb that are very costly to treat at the end result. 

Secondly, hospitals and clinics are the core of our system’s medical programs. In addition, the Indian Health Care Improvement 

Fund provides separate funding that reduces disparities that exist 

unit to unit within the Indian Health Service system. Without an 

appropriate level of support in the hospitals and clinics accounts, 

the United States’ trust responsibility for Indian health cannot be 

met and health directors like me are unable to fulfill our health 

care mission. We urge you to accept the recommendations of the 

committee to increase the hospital and clinics account by $107.4 

19 

million and to supply an additional $61.2 million to the Indian 

Health Care Improvement Fund. 

I would also like to talk about health care sanitation and facilities. We would like to call attention to the work group recommendations for all of the facility-related accounts, health care 

facilities construction, maintenance and improvement, sanitation 

facilities, and environmental health support. 

The Committee is well aware that many of our health care facilities are poor and in very inadequate condition to provide the necessary service to our people. We are very grateful for the generous 

funding for health care and sanitation facilities, construction and 

maintenance that was provided in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, but this is only a one-time boost. 

We need the Administration and Congress to commit to provide 

more appropriate levels of support for these facility accounts and 

to do so on a continuing, recurring basis. 

Mr. Chairman, I appreciate the opportunity to address the Committee today regarding these important matters, and I look forward 

to answering your questions. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Burger follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF JESSICA BURGER, EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE MEMBER, 

NATIONAL INDIAN HEALTH BOARD; HEALTH DIRECTOR, LITTLE RIVER BAND OF

OTTAWA INDIANS


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The CHAIRMAN. Thank you very much for your testimony. I appreciate your work on health care issues. 

Next, we will hear from Mr. Robert Cook, the President of the 

National Indian Education Association. Likewise, thanks for all of 

your work dealing with Indian education issues. You may proceed. 


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STATEMENT OF ROBERT B. COOK, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL 

INDIAN EDUCATION ASSOCIATION 

Mr. COOK. [Greeting in native tongue.] 

Chairman Dorgan, Vice Chairman Barrasso, Senator Johnson 

and Senator Tester and other members of the Senate Committee 

on Indian Affairs, thank you for this opportunity to submit testimony. My name is Robert Cook. I am an enrolled member of the 

Oglala Sioux Tribe, and I serve as President of the National Indian 

Education Association. 

Under new leadership with new opportunities, NIEA believes 

that now is the time to reverse budget cuts to native education programs. To my side is a chart that illustrates the severe disparity 

in funding for native education. NIEA is hopeful that schools educating native students will receive stronger support and funding for 

native language, culture, and curriculum; increase funding for 

Head Start programs; funding for Indian school construction and 

repairs; and speaking as a tribal college graduate, increased funding for tribal college operations and construction, as stated in 

President Obama’s blueprint for strengthening tribal communities. 

The Native American programs at Department of Education are 

consistently funded at minimum levels, never the maximum. In 

consideration of the tight budget, NIEA requests a moderate 5 percent increase for a total of $198 million for NCLB Title VII funding. Included in this request is full funding for education for Native 

Hawaiians and for Alaska Native education equity. 

The purpose of Title VII of NCLB is to meet the educational and 

culturally related academic needs of American Indian, Alaska Native, and Native Hawaiian students. Funds for these programs are 

the primary sources of funding that specifically address the cultural, social, linguistic needs of Indian students. 

At the Department of Education, there is a tremendous backlog 

of construction needs for public schools on Indian lands that receive 

Impact Aid funding. The Impact Aid Program directly provides resources to public schools on trust lands. Many public schools on 

reservations are crumbling, unsafe and should be replaced. The Impact Aid program did receive $100 million in the Recovery Act. 

However, the school construction needs on Indian lands are great, 

and these schools could use additional assistance, given that they 

no tax base and receive minimum funding from the state. An increase of $62 million allocated for school construction for a total of 

$1.3 billion over the Fiscal Year 2009 level would allow for some 

progress to be made. 

While funding was provided for BIE and for Impact Aid school 

construction, NIEA was disappointed that funding for public school 

construction was eliminated in the Recovery Act. We hope that appropriations for Fiscal Year 2010 will include funding for this 

pressing need. 

As someone who has taught in both the BIE and public schools, 

I have experienced first-hand the effects of BIE’s budget being inadequate to meet the needs of Indian students. NIEA requests 

$661 million for BIE schools, which includes new program funding 

and a modest 5 percent increase over the amount for BIE schools 

in the Fiscal Year 2009 omnibus. 

38 

This includes funding for elementary and secondary education programs, education management, and a $25 million allocation for 

student transportation, and a $5 million allocation to provide technical assistance to schools to develop their own standards and assessments. 

Schools currently have to use classroom dollars to transport their 

students to make up for the shortfall. During the current school 

year, BIE-funded school buses will travel nearly 15 million miles, 

often over gravel or dirt roads. As reported by the Little Wind 

School on the Pine Ridge Reservation, the school runs 13 bus 

routes each day, during which the buses travel an average of 1,600 

miles per day during a school day, totaling 268,000 miles annually 

just for regular bus runs, and these don’t include the activity runs. 

For BIE school construction and repair, as you can see by the 

chart, that BIE school construction has been cut in half over the 

past five years. NIEA requests a $135 million increase over the Fiscal Year 2009 level, for a total of $263 million. 

In May of 2007, the OIG at Interior issued a flash report that 

describes the conditions at BIE schools and required immediate action to protect the health and safety of students and faculty. In its 

conclusion, the IG states that: ‘‘Failure to mitigate these conditions 

will likely cause injury or death to children and school employees.’’ The Recovery Act provides $450 million to be shared among the 

BIE school construction and repairs, detention facilities, and roads. 

However, this funding will provide little headway considering the 

lengthy list of schools waiting for new facilities or repairs. 

In South Dakota, there is a term that is used called the school 

to prison pipeline. Our schools are failing our children and we are 

seeing our children dropping out of school, getting into trouble, and 

being incarcerated. Investing in children would be an investment 

in the future. 

The NIEA requests at least $24 million for JOM programs at the 

BIA. JOM grants are the cornerstone for many Indian communities 

in meeting the unique and specialized education needs of native 

students. Many Indian children live in rural or remote areas with 

high rates of poverty and unemployment. JOM helps to level the 

field by providing Indian students with programs that help them 

stay in school and attain academic success. 

I have seen first-hand the benefits of JOM. My sons are excited 

about school because of programs that JOM enables them to participate in. For example, JOM helped purchase basketball shoes for 

the fourth grade boys basketball team that I coach. These shoes are 

the only shoes that these boys have. It is hard to be in school if 

you don’t have shoes. 

At HHS, NIEA requests a $10 million increase to $57.5 million, 

with an allocation of $13.5 million for the Esther Martinez Act for 

the administration of Native Americans to support native language 

immersion and restoration programs. President Obama expressed 

his support for native languages, both in his message to Indian 

Country and principles for stronger tribal communities. 

NIEA hopes that the 111th Congress will echo President 

Obama’s support for native languages through funding for the Esther Martinez Act at a level that will make a significant impact for 

tribal communities. 

39 

Once again, NIEA thanks the Committee for its tremendous efforts on behalf of native communities. With your permission, I 

would like to submit some documents for the record. 

The CHAIRMAN. Without objection. 

Mr. Cook. Thank you. 

[The prepared statement of Mr. Cook follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF ROBERT B. COOK, PRESIDENT, NATIONAL INDIAN

EDUCATION ASSOCIATION


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The CHAIRMAN. And Ms. Cheryl Parish. Ms. Parish, thank you 

for your work on housing issues. She is Vice Chairman of the National American Indian Housing Council. 

You may proceed. 

STATEMENT OF CHERYL PARISH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, 

BAY MILLS HOUSING AUTHORITY; VICE–CHAIRPERSON, 

NATIONAL AMERICAN INDIAN HOUSING COUNCIL 

Ms. PARISH. Thank you. 

Good morning, Chairman Dorgan, Senator Tester. I am honored 

to appear before you today and provide our views on the Fiscal 


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Year 2010 funding priorities as they relate to Native American 

housing. 

My name is Cheryl Parish. I am the Executive Director of the 

Bay Mills Housing Authority. I am a member of the Bay Mills 

Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan. 

Today, I am here as the Vice Chairwoman of the National American Indian Housing Council. The Housing Council is composed of 

271 members representing 460 tribes, and it is the only national 

organization whose missions it is to represent the housing interests 

of American Indians, Alaska Natives, and Native Hawaiians. 

I would like to thank the Chairman for his leadership on tribal 

housing issues, which you have repeatedly recognized as a crisis in 

Indian Country. 

The year 2008 was a landmark year for Indian Country and Indian housing. The Native American Housing Assistance and SelfDetermination Act was amended and reauthorized through 2013. 

Thank you for your support in the reauthorization of NAHASDA 

last year. 

Just a few weeks ago, the American Recovery and Reinvestment 

Act of 2009 was signed into law. Native American housing programs were included in a very favorable way. 

Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you and the entire Committee for your support. This means a great deal to us and will 

have a lasting impact on the communities which we serve. We are 

working closely with HUD to implement our programs as Congress 

and the President intended, to quickly create jobs for American 

workers. 

In my own community, we have immediate plans to use the recovery money to weatherize our homes in the upper peninsula of 

Michigan. Beefing up the program will improve energy efficiency 

and improve the health of our housing residents. We already have 

commitments from contractors and subcontractors to hire local tribal members from our reservation, which is currently experiencing 

an unemployment rate of around 30 percent. 

We celebrate the hope brought to us by the small increases in the 

funding in the Fiscal Year 2009 omnibus appropriations bill, the 

additional economic stimulus money, and the newly reauthorized 

NAHASDA. 

However, we must not lose sight of the stark conditions that still 

exist in Indian reservations, Alaska Native communities, and on 

Native Hawaiian Home Lands. Housing conditions in native communities still lag far behind those of most of the Nation. A large 

percentage of existing homes are in great need of rehabilitation, repair and weatherization. Unemployment rates on Indian reservations are typically well over 50 percent, which is even before the 

current recessionary period. 

The conditions I just described impact our education, our health, 

and our spirituality, indeed the very integrity of our culture. Native people in America come from a proud tradition and we want 

that tradition to continue. This can be difficult when your see the 

deplorable housing conditions that exist within our communities. 

President John F. Kennedy noted almost 50 years ago that housing conditions on Indian reservations are a national shame. I must 

tell you the same housing conditions still exist today in far too 

52 

many of our native communities. I am here to ask you, help us 

change those conditions. 

With this in mind, the NAIHC presents the following budgetary 

priorities that will help improve housing and living conditions in 

Indian Country. The Indian Housing Block Grants should be funded at $854 million. This is the single largest source of capital for 

housing development, housing-related infrastructure, home repair, 

and maintenance throughout Indian Country. 

I would like to bring to your attention the slow pace at which the 

Indian Housing Block Grant funding is provided. Often it takes 

several months after an appropriations bill is signed into law for 

HUD to make these funds available. In contrast, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 required HUD to obligate 

funds by formula within 30 days. If HUD can provide these funds 

within 30 days after passage of this legislation, the annual funding 

should be available in a similar fashion. 

Let me briefly address an issue where Indian Housing Block 

Grant funding has been set aside by HUD to satisfy litigation on 

tribal claims associated with formula current-assisted stock. In 

2008, the HUD held back nearly $20 million for lawsuits that have 

yet to be resolved. This resulted in an across the board funding reduction to all of our recipients. These funds need to be returned to 

Indian Country and no further funding should be withheld by 

HUD. 

The funding for the NAIHC technical and training assistance program should be increased to $4.8 million. Tribal housing authorities rely on our training programs to effectively implement 

and improve their housing programs. 

The Indian Community Development Block Grant should be funded at $100 million. Since 2001, this program has built 160 

community buildings throughout the Indian Country. Funding has 

actually decreased 17 percent since Fiscal Year 2004. We need 

these vital funds restored to continue to build our viable communities. 

The Section 184 Program should continue to be funded at $9 million. The Section 184 loan is to facilitate home ownership in Native 

American communities on their native lands and within approved 

Indian areas which have been historically under-served by conventional lenders. 

I am so pleased to note that since May of 2008, the Department 

of Hawaiian Home Lands is the newest member of the National 

American Indian Housing Council. The Native Hawaiian block 

grant funding should be increased to $20 million to address the 

unique and significant needs of low-income Native Hawaiians. 

The Bureau of Indian Affairs Housing Improvement Program 

funding should be increased to $50 million. We know that there is 

a significant congressional support for this much-needed program 

which serves the neediest of our communities, our elders, and our 

extremely low-income people. 

In conclusion, I would like to thank you for your invitation to 

share our Fiscal Year 2010 budgetary priorities for Native American housing needs. Your continued support of Native American 

communities is truly appreciated. The National American Indian 

Housing Council is eager to work with you and your professional 

53 

staff to improve Indian housing programs and living conditions for 

America’s indigenous people. 

I would be happy to answer any questions you have, and thank 

you. 

[The prepared statement of Ms. Parish follows:] 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF CHERYL PARISH, EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR, BAY MILLS

HOUSING AUTHORITY; VICE-CHAIRPERSON, NATIONAL AMERICAN INDIAN HOUSING

COUNCIL

Introduction 

On behalf of the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC), I am 

pleased to submit the following statement to Chairman Dorgan, Vice Chairman Barrasso, and distinguished members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. 

I serve as the Executive Director of Bay Mills Housing Authority. I am a member 

of the Bay Mills Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan. I am also the Vice-Chairperson of the National American Indian Housing Council (NAIHC). 

The National American Indian Housing Council was founded in 1974 to support 

and advocate for tribes and tribally designated housing entities (TDHEs). For nearly 

35 years, the NAIHC has assisted tribes with their primary goal of providing housing and community development for American Indians, Alaska Natives and native 

Hawaiians. The NAIHC consists of 266 members representing 460 tribes. The 

NAIHC is the only national Indian organization whose sole mission is to represent 

Native American housing interests throughout the Nation. 

First of all, I would like to thank the Chairman, Vice Chairman and the Committee for holding this hearing on the tribal budget priorities as we move into the 

appropriations season. The lack of significant private investment, functioning housing markets and the dire economic conditions most Indian communities face mean 

federal investment in housing and community development in tribal communities is 

critical to thriving communities and economies. 

Next, I would like to thank the Chairman for his leadership on tribal housing 

issues, which time and time again, he has recognized as a crisis in Indian Country. 

The year 2008 was a landmark year for Indian Country and Indian Housing, in particular. The reauthorization of the Native American Housing Assistance and SelfDetermination Act (NAHASDA) provides tribes and Native American communities 

with additional tools such as flexibility and greater self management of housing programs, which are necessary to develop culturally relevant, safe, decent and affordable housing for our people. 

But, as we celebrate the hope that NAHASDA presents us for improving the quality of life and living conditions for Native Americans, we must not lose sight of the 

stark conditions that still exist in Indian Reservations and Alaska Native communities, and on native Hawaiian Home Lands. Housing conditions in Native communities still lag far behind those of most of the nation. An estimated 200,000 housing 

units are needed immediately just to meet current demand, and we estimate that 

there are approximately 90,000 native families that are either homeless or underhoused, living in overcrowded situations. A large percentage of existing homes are 

in great need of rehabilitation, repair and weatherization. Unemployment rates on 

Indian Reservations, even before the current recessionary period, were typically well 

over 50 percent. 

With these figures as a backdrop, the NAIHC presents the following budgetary 

priorities that will improve housing and living conditions in Indian Country. 

Indian Housing Block Grant (IHBG) 

Fund the IHBG at $854 million dollars. The IHBG is the single largest source 

of capital for housing development, housing-related infrastructure, and home repair 

and maintenance in Indian Country. This funding level will not meet all tribal housing needs, but it will, at least, keep pace with the increased cost of housing construction, energy costs, and other inflationary factors occurring since 1997. 

I would like to bring to your attention the slow pace at which IHBG funding is 

provided. As I am sure you are aware, it often takes several months, after an Appropriations bill is signed into law, for HUD to make these funds available to 

NAHASDA recipients. In contrast, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 

2009 required HUD to allocate funds, by formula, within 30 days of this bill being 

signed. HUD complied with this requirement within weeks of enactment. If HUD 

can provide IHBG funds within 30 days for the passage for this bill, then the same 

should be said for annual spending bills. Timely allocation of these funds enables 

54 

tribes to better plan their construction and save critical time and costs, especially 

in northern climates where seasons are shorter. 

Let me briefly address IHBG funding which is being set aside to satisfy litigation 

on tribal claims against HUD associated with formula current assisted stock. Funds 

for litigation and potential settlements should be derived from additional appropriations or another source and should not be withheld from the Indian Housing Block 

Grant. In 2008, HUD held back nearly $20 million for lawsuits that have yet to be 

resolved. This resulted in an across the board rescission that reduced funding for 

all recipients. These funds need to be returned to Indian Country. No other IHBG 

funding should be held back by HUD in future fiscal years related to formula current assisted stock litigation. 

Training and Technical Assistance (T&TA) 

Increase NAIHC’s T&TA funding to $4.8 million dollars. Tribal housing authorities rely on T&TA to effectively implement and improve their housing programs. For 

35 years, the NAIHC has provided invaluable capacity-building services to tribes, 

their Indian housing authorities and TDHEs. These training and technical assistance services include on-site technical assistance, tuition-free training classes, and 

scholarship programs that help offset the cost of attending NAHASDA-specific training sessions, including NAIHC’s Leadership Institute, a low cost professional certification course for Indian housing professionals. Decreased funding has required the 

NAIHC to reduce, and in some cases eliminate, much needed capacity building efforts on behalf of Indian housing authorities. By a unanimous vote at the 2008 

NAIHC Annual Membership meeting, a NAIHC resolution was passed to set aside 

IHBG funds for NAIHC’s T&TA program. 

With funding restored last year, the NAIHC scholarship program to attend training courses was reinstated. NAIHC scheduled 35 training sessions in 2009 and will 

provide 400 limited training scholarships to IHBG recipients. We seek your continued support help to restore funding so that we might continue the important capacity building efforts on behalf of tribes and their housing programs. 

Indian Community Development Block Grant (ICDBG) 

Fund the ICDBG at $100 million dollars. These funds are essential to tribes for 

housing and economic and community development efforts. Since 2001, ICDBG has 

built 160 community buildings in Indian Country but ICDBG funding has actually 

decreased 17 percent since Fiscal Year 2004. We need these vital funds restored to 

continue to build viable communities. 

Section 184 Indian Home Loan Guarantee 

Continue to fund the Section 184 Program at $9 million dollars. The Section 184 

loan is a mortgage product, specifically geared towards Native Americans, to facilitate homeownership in Native American communities on their native lands and 

within an approved Indian area. Because of the unique status of Indian lands, these 

areas have been historically underserved by conventional lenders. The default rate 

for the Section 184 Program, notably, remains at less than 1 percent. 

Title VI Tribal Housing Activities Loan Guarantee 

Continue to fund Title VI at the FY 2009 recommended $2 million dollars. The 

Title VI is designed to spur housing and other community development efforts, particularly if accompanied by an increase in IHBG funding that would serve as an 

adequate, consistent, and reliable source of income to secure the loan. 

Native Hawaiian Housing 

Increase the Native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant to $20 million. Since May 

2008, I am pleased to note that we represent Native people who reside on the native 

Hawaiian Home Lands. I am proud to welcome the Department of Hawaiian Home 

Lands as the newest members of National American Indian Housing Council. The 

funding for the native Hawaiian Housing Block Grant should be increased to address the significant needs for low-income and affordable housing on native Hawaiian Home Lands. The Section 184A Loan Guarantee Program should continue to be 

funded at the $1 million level. 

Bureau of Indian Affairs Housing Improvement Program (HIP) 

Fund the Housing Improvement Program at $50 million. We know there is significant Congressional support for this much needed program. HIP grants serve the 

neediest of our communities; our elders and extremely low-income people. HIP provides for modest home acquisition, rehabilitation, renovation, and repair. As waiting 

lists for new homes grow and housing stock ages, this program helps to keep homes 

safe, healthy and habitable. 

55 

U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Rural Housing Programs 

Restore and adequately fund USDA’s primary housing loan programs, particularly 

the Section 502 direct home loan program, the Rural Community Development Initiative, and HUD’s Rural Housing and Economic Development programs. Tribes rely 

upon these programs, and reduction in these programs will harm tribal housing development. 

American Recovery and Reinvestment Act 

Just a few weeks ago, the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 was 

signed into law. Native American housing programs were included in a favorable 

way. Chairman, I want to thank you and this entire Committee for your support. 

This means a great deal to our Native American housing programs and will have 

a lasting impact on the communities we serve. We are working closely with HUD 

to implement our programs as Congress and the President intended: to quickly create jobs for American workers. 

Bay Mills Indian Community 

In my own community, we plan to use our IHBG funding from the ARRA for energy efficiency and to upgrade tribal homes through a weatherization program that 

will reduce operational costs while improving the health of our housing residents. 

We’ve recently had every housing unit tested by the University of Illinois for heat 

leakage and we now have a complete inventory of which homes are in most immediate need. At this point, we do not have a figure for how many jobs this will create, 

but we do have commitments from our contractors and subcontractors to hire local 

tribal members who reside on our reservation, which is currently experiencing an 

unemployment rate of nearly 30 percent. 

Conclusion 

Thank you, Chairman Dorgan, Vice-Chairman Barrasso, and members of this 

committee, for your invitation to share and discuss our Fiscal Year 2010 budgetary 

priorities for Native American housing needs. Your continued support of Native 

American communities is truly appreciated, and the National American Indian 

Housing Council is eager to work with you and your professional staff on any and 

all issues to improve Indian housing programs and living conditions for America’s 

indigenous people. 

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STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER, 

U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA 

Senator TESTER. [Presiding] Thank you, Cheryl. 

I want to thank everybody for your testimony today. 

We definitely have our work cut out for us, and I certainly appreciate you folks here today to talk about the budget, which will give 

us the opportunity, I think, in the end to rally accomplish some 

good things in Indian Country. And you guys know all too well, 

whether it is health care or water or schools, or the list goes on 

and on and on. In fact, when I first got here a little over two years 

ago, I met with a group of tribal leaders and I said, okay, what are 

the issues? And after they listed them off, I said, and which took 

a considerable amount of time, I might add, I said, we need to 

prioritize. So I certainly appreciate you folks talking with expertise 

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I have some questions and will just kind of go down the line. 

Let’s kind of start with Jackie and move along. 

Last Congress, in the 110th, this Committee held eight hearings 

on law enforcement public safety concerns in Indian Country. 

There is a public safety crisis on many reservations. Part of the 

problem is a broken system, and soon Senator Dorgan will introduce a bill to address that system. But a big part of the problem 

is the lack of funding for the justice systems. Tribal justice systems 

are working literally on shoestring budgets, and there is a lack of 

uniformed officers, the crumbling jails, too underfunded tribal 

courts, and ultimately the ones who suffer are the victims of those 

crimes in Indian Country. 

Your testimony, Jackie, indicated that there needs to be an increase in funding for tribal courts. Can you provide some additional 

detail on the need for tribal court funding? 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. Sure. We look at the whole justice systems. 

In fact, we call them public safety intentionally because we know 

that without having, once again, a holistic viewpoint of addressing 

the system that, as we found in the past, we would put additional 

money into tribal cops and then we found out that our tribal courts 

and jails were overloaded, or we didn’t have the capacity to address 

them, and so many times we had to let them, I don’t want to say 

run free, but basically run free. 

So as we looked at this public safety, we are looking for this 

overall funding increase in all of those relevant areas. 

One of the problems that we really have, though, and a lot of attention in the last couple of years has been paid to getting more 

police officers, and now we are getting some attention to detention 

facilities and correctional facilities. But we also know that our 

court systems are severely lagging behind. 

And we see that without the resources to be able to deal, address 

things that even the Supreme Court has sometimes asked us to 

deal with, such as indigent defendants and representation, or facilities with being able to have the tribes being able to develop the ordinances and laws that are important for them, for the justices to 

be able to administer. 

So the tribal court system is not only the facilities, but also the 

other kinds of support to a tribal court system, to elevate the 

standing of our tribal law enforcement systems comparable to the 

other local governments and State systems so that we don’t see 

that, we don’t have news reports that continue to say Indian Country continues to be enclaves of lawlessness. 

Senator TESTER. There is a great need for both juvenile delinquent prevention, juvenile delinquency prevention and facilities to 

help deal with those that are found delinquent. Your testimony 

also recommends funding for regional juvenile facilities. What feedback from the tribes have you received on that recommendation? 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. There are so many tribes that are ready to 

step up. In the Southwest, we have seen not only the Pueblos and 

the Hopis that have actually worked towards regional facilities, 

recognizing that there is not going to be the resources for every 

tribe to have their own facility, but the willingness of them to come 

together around those facilities. 

70 

There is a hearing that hasn’t happened soon, but there is a commission report having to deal with correctional facilities, and it is 

outside of Indian Country. And one of the challenges that they see 

about Indian Country, because the correctional facilities in their 

findings and investigations is that of the commingling of our offenders, and sometimes juveniles with adults, or women with men, 

other kinds of things that would create challenges. 

Now, we know in our lack of resources that there will be some, 

there may be some commingling of those facilities, but clearly with 

the right kind of barriers or the right kinds of oversight to be able 

to address those issues. 

But juveniles, unfortunately so many places in Indian Country, 

have to go far away from home, where they don’t have the support 

base to be able to reenter back in their community because their 

community and their families haven’t been able to move along with 

them. And so there is a great deal of support for not only juvenile 

facilities. In fact, in every meeting that we have had with Department of Justice that we have been doing a series of consultations 

for the last two years, every single meeting this issue comes up as 

one of the paramount issues with the tribes. 

Senator TESTER. Well, along those lines then, I mean, how extensive has your conversation been with the Department of Justice? 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. We have had extensive conversations with 

Department of Justice, and actually we have brought in all the 

other Federal agencies that have anything to do with it, with HHS, 

with having to do with health care that is provided to those in the 

correctional facilities; at HUD, looking for ways of dealing with 

transitional housing and other ways of providing facilities; Department of Interior, with their responsibilities. 

Senator TESTER. Maybe the better question would be, how open 

are they to your concerns? 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. Once again, it boils down to resources, and 

it is really at this point I have to say prior to this, and we haven’t 

had the support that we needed for the resources. I think the economic stimulus was a good opportunity. We will see. The Byrne 

money and the other money for correctional facilities, the Department of Justice still has the ability to determine how those, what 

are the eligible activities, and we are not so patiently waiting to 

find out what those allocations may be for eligible activities. 

But that is a good example of where Congress can certainly help 

influence with the Department of Justice in their budget, but also 

making sure that report language is really clear what we are intending to do with it. 

Senator TESTER. As we all know, we are facing economic difficulties right now. Unemployment just reached 8 percent nationwide. 

This is nothing new. Unemployment is nothing—oh, did you want 

to address the previous question, Robert? 

Mr. COOK. Yes, sir, if that is okay. 

Senator TESTER. Go ahead. Yes. 

Mr. COOK. Yes, in the testimony that I provided, oral testimony, 

I talked about a term called the school to prison pipeline. And that 

is a real issue that we are finding in many parts of Indian Country 

where a lot of our students, who are placed in juvenile detention 

facilities for truancy, for many different issues. Those facilities 

71 

often lack the resources. There is no teachers. They don’t have the 

books, the supplies. And therefore some of those, the students are 

just written out as dropping out of school because once they are 

placed there, there is no seamless transition for them to come back 

into school. 

So you can imagine walking into a meeting or something and you 

don’t know what is going on, that it is an ugly feeling that you 

have. And our students experience those things because they are 

behind, they are not, there is no chance for them to get back in and 

get caught back up. So a lot of those kids are slipping through the 

cracks and dropping out of school, which leads to further issues 

with problems that they may have. 

In many, in our community in Rapid City, South Dakota, they 

are forming a disproportionate minority contact committee and 

working with the juvenile correction folks and the schools, but 

there is a real, there is a real issue with that. So I think there 

needs to be some funding that has to go to those juvenile detention 

facilities to help the kids to be successful and to be on track when 

they go back into school, and we can’t give up on those students. 

Senator TESTER. Good point. That is a very good point. 

Okay, we will go back to the economy a little bit. Unemployment, 

high in this Country, incredibly high in Indian Country. In a lot 

of the Great Plains, Rocky Mountain region, in my home State, 

many of the reservations are seeing unemployment rates of 60 percent, 70 percent. 

Jackie, your testimony talked about a number of programs for 

economic development in Indian Country. If you were going to 

prioritize, which programs would you say are the most necessary 

and the most effective for creating jobs in Indian Country? 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. Well, of course, if I want to follow the 

mantra of economic recovery, shovel-ready jobs programs are the 

most important, which means a lot of programs for Indian Country. 

Infrastructure programs create jobs. I used to be in the housing 

field, too. We created the most jobs in housing and housing construction, because our own community members had the skill sets 

to be able to do those jobs. 

One of the things I see that is missing in the work that we are 

doing with the economic recovery, particularly for Indian Country, 

has to do with the work readiness skills. The education components 

are sorely missing. But also, other than the money that was directly set aside under the BIA where they get to make an allocation for work development programs, and there was no direct 

amount determined by Congress, but the department I know will 

be investing in that. There wasn’t any money in the Department 

of Labor or any set aside for us having to deal with technical training and skills. 

So this opportunity that we have, I don’t want us to miss this 

opportunity because we haven’t been able to get our job training 

programs in place to take advantage of addressing unemployment. 

And that means unemployment, with having communities of care, 

a continuum of care having to deal with child care facilities; by 

tribal colleges and their ability to help with community education 

and provide some of those things, and preparing us for the workforce of tomorrow, which means having to address dealing with 

72 

skill sets around alternative energy development and some of the 

fields, the technical fields that could be with energy development, 

which I think is going to be, for a lot of places, particularly in your 

area of the Country, are going to be important jobs of the future. 

Senator TESTER. The workforce development issue, in and of 

itself, the funds have been inadequate in the past. Where would 

you flow them through? I mean, would you flow them through tribal colleges? How would you? 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. I would do a couple of things. One is, of 

course, we want the Department of Labor to take some responsibility. The only set-aside that I saw, and I am not an expert at 

looking at this, but the only set-aside I saw was for the older Americans under workforce development. I think that there should be 

some direct funding for tribes out of Department of Labor. 

But besides that, I think the 477 is a good model for tribes, but 

not all the tribes are using that yet because they need the resources. The 477 model for workforce development allows the tribes 

to be able to take dollars from HHS and BIA and others and merge 

it together so that they can have a single workforce development 

program that will cover multiple programs. I think it is a great 

model. It is one that I know we struggle with HHS having acceptable for, which I think we should take a look at. 

But it streamlines the programs locally, which makes a difference, and it is tribally-driven about what makes sense for the 

business of the future that the tribe is choosing to be in, whether 

it be in golf management, or whether it be in alternative energy. 

Tourism is a great opportunity for tribes that we need to take advantage of. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. Thanks, Jackie. Thanks for your testimony. 

Jessica, we will talk about health care for a bit here, a huge 

issue in Indian Country up and down the line. Your written testimony mentioned a concern about the disregard for medical inflation in forming the Indian health care budget. And you also discuss 

Administration rescissions. 

Medical inflation, interestingly enough, is applied to all other 

Health and Human Service programs. So is the issue with IHS 

budget, and the lack of inflation being applied to that, does it stem 

from the Department of Interior? Or is there another reason for it? 

Ms. BURGER. Thank you, Mr. Tester. I will try to answer that 

question as accurately as I can. 

I think it is partially created by the Office of Management and 

Budget. In the budget preparation process, there is no directive to 

look at medical inflation and its impact on the Indian Health Service budget. In the last two years, medical inflation in this Country 

has been at nearly 10 percent. So it has certainly had a negative 

influence on the level of need that the Indian Health Service has 

been funded for. 

I think the other part of the equation is that the Indian Health 

Service budget is discretionary, and that probably has less priority 

than the entitlement programs under Medicare and Medicaid dollars. So if we could at least get medical inflation as part of the 

equation during the budget formulation process, that would make 

73 

it certainly accurately reflect the costs that we are incurring in Indian Country to provide care. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. Has the National Indian Housing Board 

addressed the issue of rescissions to the Administration? And if you 

have, how have they responded? 

Ms. BURGER. Yes, we have. And I think that the response has 

been somewhat tempered. Rescissions over the last couple of years 

that were put forth by the previous Administration kind of hit us 

on a two-fold front. It happened at the Indian Health Service level, 

and then at the Interior level. 

So what I would like to recommend is that we really do need 

some protective language that keeps the rescissions out of Indian 

Health Service delivery dollars, period. When we are talking about 

a 60 percent level of need funding, and then as you look at that 

nationally across the board, area to area, that level of need really 

drops off. I will just give you an example. My tribe is funded at just 

about 40 percent level of need for the population that I serve. 

I think the answer is help us get some language that protects 

that action from occurring to Indian Health Service dollars. And I 

think that the Administration, I know during the transition team 

discussions, they were very receptive to embracing that notion, so 

I would like to see that move forward. 

Senator TESTER. All right. Prevention, it has been shown to be 

the most cost-effective effort in health care. Indian Health Service 

has a prevention task force initiative that is focused on health promotion and disease prevention efforts in all IHS and tribally controlled facilities. 

The work group recommends recommendations to identify 

progress in the IHS prevention programs. It is important to note 

that 22,000 Indians are living with cancer and 45 percent were not 

identified until late stages. The work group prioritized disease 

management ahead of prevention efforts in the recommendations, 

and you emphasized in your testimony the importance of fully 

funding the hospitals and clinics. 

Do you think prevention efforts deserve more funding and more 

attention? 

Ms. BURGER. Oh, absolutely. When you look at the way that the 

Contract Health Service system that provides necessary dollars to 

purchase medical care is structured, the system is very flawed. We 

are paying for care at the most extraordinary levels of cost, life or 

limb situations. 

Most of the disease processes, and I am speaking from the health 

director’s point of view, that we deal with, if we were able to redirect funding to health promotion and disease prevention, we would 

see a significant downturn in those rates of significant disease 

process, especially with regard to things like diabetes and cancer 

that by the time a cancerous patient is presented to an Indian 

Health Service clinic, they are in stage four. I mean, that is nationally. That is the most expensive care. And at that point, speaking 

as a registered nurse, the likelihood of a desirable outcome is not 

very likely. 

I would really like to see, if I could make a respectful recommendation, the Contract Health Service system needs a revamp 

to look at the priority system of payment for life and limb issues, 

74 

to focus those dollars on health promotion, disease prevention first, 

and restructure that entire priority system. 

One of the largest costs that my tribe incurs is for maintenance 

medications for our elders, their pharmacy bills. We are spending 

almost $750,000 just in helping them retain the ability to take 

their blood pressure medications, their cardiac medications, their 

oral glycemics. But if you look at the priority system in CHS, that 

is a level 2(b) priority, maintenance medications that the rest of us 

in the population take for granted. 

I think, as a health director, if that Contract Health Service system were evaluated for effectiveness of preventive dollars compared 

to life and limb payments, I think that you would see the preventive dollars, the small amounts that are spent now on granted programs, have far more effect on the long-term health care status 

and improvement of health care status of Indian people than paying for those end-stage disease processes. 

Senator TESTER. How would you currently rate the prevention efforts by IHS? 

Ms. BURGER. I believe that that prevention initiative, in looking 

at it from a granted perspective, doesn’t go far enough. The dollars 

are competitive in nature, it is not across the board funding, and 

I think that, again it goes back to Contract Health Services, if we 

looked at maybe a combination of health promotion and disease 

prevention dollars and Contract Health Service dollars that change 

that priority focus, that would be a real God-send to those of us 

providing care. If I had to rate it on a scale of one to ten, four. 

Senator TESTER. That is not bad. It is better than I thought you 

were going to say. 

[Laughter.] 

Senator TESTER. But I should say, no, it is, you folks know this, 

as I said in my opening, better than I ever will know, but Indian 

health care is a disaster right now, from my perspective. It is in 

dire need of some serious attention. I don’t think the money we are 

spending is being spent in the right way, and I think it has been 

chronically under-funded. 

Thank you for your testimony and thank you for your questions. 

Ms. BURGER. Thank you. 

Senator TESTER. Robert? 

Mr. COOK. I would just like to say in my home community in 

Pine Ridge, during the winter time, the ambulances have to run 24 

hours a day because it is so cold if they shut them off, they may 

not start, which would be critical for people that need ambulance 

service. So just infrastructure facilities like buildings where we 

could store ambulances, just those basic needs are unmet in Indian 

Country. Thank you. 

Senator TESTER. Yes, thank you. 

In education, I was encouraged in the President’s recent speech 

on education that he emphasized the need to raise the quality of 

our early learning programs. I know the Head Start program is 

vital in Indian Country, with over 23,000 children participating in 

the program and more than 35,000 volunteers. 

In what way would you see funding being used to better serve 

the Indian children who participate in Head Start and Early Head 

Start? 

75 

Mr. COOK. Well, both my wife’s and my children are Indian Head 

Start school graduates. And as parents, we have seen first-hand 

how important these programs are, not only for our children, but 

for many children because they provide those services to help our 

kids have that transition into school and to kindergarten. 

On our reservation in Pine Ridge, our Lakota language is in a 

real critical situation where we are losing many of our language, 

our fluent language-speakers. Recently, there was a survey that 

showed out of 600 kids entering kindergarten, only six were able 

to speak conversational Lakota. So Oglala Lakota College was able 

to work with the Head Start program. They oversee our Head Start 

program on Pine Ridge. And they are implementing a Lakota language program within the Head Start, but yet they really struggle 

because they don’t have a lot of the funding and the dollars that 

is critical for the success and the scope of that program. 

You look at many of our reservations, half the population of our 

people are under 25, so there is a tremendous need for programs 

in early childhood education, our Head Start program’s funding. 

I wanted to just bring attention. I brought my eagle feather with 

me, and I received this feather when I graduated with my master’s 

degree from Oglala Lakota College. Our tribal colleges are so important to us. But you know, a long time ago when you look in this 

room and you see these beautiful pictures that George Catlin documented of the Mandan people in the early 1800s, our feathers for 

many of our tribes were given for supreme acts of bravery, where 

you put your life on the line for your people. 

Today, many of our communities give eagle feathers to our young 

people because they graduate from high school. That is a great 

honor, but yet it shows how hard it is today to do that, to step up, 

to stay in school when you have so many of these issues and problems that you have to overcome. 

So we give, we honor our kids and our students by giving them 

an eagle feather, and the young women, plumes with a medicine 

wheel. We have a real crisis with our dropout situation, and the 

National Indian Education Association partnered with the Campaign for High School Equity to partner with other civil rights organizations to address that issue. 

But it really goes back to the early childhood education, to be 

able to help funding and programs to help those parents and those 

young children to stay in school and to value their education so 

they can earn their eagle feather. 

Senator TESTER. So the groups that you work with, you are saying that they had found that in Indian Country, that Early Head 

Start and Head Start, and the implementation of those programs, 

were critically important as far as increasing the graduation rate 

at the other end? 

Mr. COOK. Absolutely. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. 

Currently, tribes are eligible for funding through three different 

agencies for education: the Bureau of Indian Education, the Department of Education, and Health and Human Services. Can you 

comment on the need for coordination among the agencies to help 

tribes effectively plan their educational programs? 

76 

Mr. COOK. When you look back a long time ago, all of our education programs were coordinated through the Bureau of Indian Affairs. And now today, a lot of those, our programs are divided 

among the intergovernmental agencies, HHS and Department of 

Education. 

When I started teaching 20 years ago, you looked at the number 

of students that went to BIE schools or tribal schools, and the 

number of kids that went to public schools, it is so much higher 

today. Ninety-three percent of all our Indian students do go to public school. 

And so I think today we are really seeing a disconnect because 

those programs are contracted out between so many different agencies within those departments, and there is no collaboration or 

communication. I think that one of the things that NIEA has requested, along with NCAI and others, is we were asking for an elevation of the Director of Indian Education programs, that Department of Education, to an Assistant Secretary level. 

We are also asking for, within the Bureau of Indian Affairs and 

the DOE, to work together to place perhaps someone within the 

Department of Education that could be a liaison for tribal education programs. The Department of Education is the expert on 

education. They have a lot of resources, a lot of funding. The Bureau of Indian Education and BIA are expert on tribes. There has 

to be a connection with those departments. They have to work together. 

So we really believe that if we have somebody in there that could 

really advocate for our programs, not just the funding, but the resources. Teacher development is really important, being able to 

have our tribal colleges have graduate high school teachers. Seventy-five percent of our teachers on Pine Ridge are graduates from 

OLC, but in elementary education. Our tribes don’t have the funding to produce secondary education teachers, so we have to go off 

to State schools, and it is real hard. Our of 9,000 teachers in South 

Dakota, less than 1 percent are American Indian that serve in the 

public schools, but yet they service a lot of our Indian students. 

So I believe that there has to be more collaboration, more cooperation between those, and that is one of our highest priorities. 

Senator TESTER. From your position, do you see any coordination 

right now? 

Mr. COOK. Well, I don’t. I see that there is, just because of the 

high mobility of our students going from the reservation schools 

into the urban schools, when they are there for the count, it is important. But when they drop out or when they leave, there is a disconnect and it becomes an us versus them kind of territory. Well, 

they are not in our schools so they are no longer our problem anymore. So it leads to a lot of a lack of resources for our students. 

And so I think that is a really high priority, is the cooperation between those, especially those two. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. 

As has been suggested already, Indian students have a graduation rate that could be a lot better. Let’s just put it that way. There 

are many reasons for this. Some we have already talked about. Another one that I think contributes to it is that the schools that 

77 

American Indian students are forced to attend, well, they need 

some repair. 

We really can’t expect our students to go to an unhealthy environment or an unsafe environment, as far as that goes. We are expecting a GAO report to be released later this year that will highlight some of the conditions in school facilities in Indian Country. 

What do you think needs to be done to improve the backlog at 

BIE for school construction, repair and improvements, as well as 

the backlog in construction for public schools in Indian reservations 

that rely on Impact Aid? 

Mr. COOK. Thank you, Senator, for that question. 

I spent 14 years in my teaching career working in the BIE 

schools at Crow Creek, Lower Brule, Little Wound. We were really 

excited when we were able to get Indian school construction on to 

the Recovery Act, and be able to address some of the backlog needs 

facing our schools. 

Although we were disappointed that Impact Aid schools, we have 

a lot of Impact Aid schools on our reservations, for example, Todd 

County School District in Pine Ridge, Shannon County School District, I mean, and then Todd County in Rosebud, are examples of 

schools that are Impact Aid schools that weren’t able to address 

their construction needs because of that, because they are public 

schools, but they are on our tribal reservations. 

I think one of the things that needs to be done is there has to 

be a transparency with the Bureau of Indian Affairs and BIE to be 

more transparent. There is a list of schools that are on this priority 

list for construction, but nobody knows, the schools themselves 

don’t know where they are as far as being on that list. If there was 

transparency and communication, if that list was made public, then 

those schools would be more ready. They would be more shovelready to get going on their construction needs. 

And that is what we are asking for from the Bureau is to make 

sure that list is available so the tribes know where they stand as 

far as their construction needs. Some of these schools are, most average 60 years old. 

Senator TESTER. Who has the list? BIA or BIE or who? 

Mr. COOK. The BIA. 

Senator TESTER. BIE? 

Mr. COOK. BIE. 

Senator TESTER. BIE has the list. Have you made a request for 

it? 

Mr. COOK. Yes, sir. 

Senator TESTER. And you have been turned down, or just not respond? 

Mr. COOK. Yes, and it changes all the time. A school maybe 10 

years ago could be number two on the list, and 10 years later, they 

could be 25. There is a shuffling of the list. 

Senator TESTER. But you never know that, do you? 

Mr. COOK. You never know that. 

Senator TESTER. That might be interesting to follow up on. 

Mr. COOK. Thank you. 

Senator TESTER. Thank you very much for your testimony and 

the answers to the questions. 

78 

We will go to housing. Cheryl, Indian housing needs, it would 

probably be a compliment if I said it was astronomical. It is absolutely, we have some difficulty: overcrowded situations, sometimes 

10 to 20 people living in a three-bedroom home. 

To address this need, Congress has provided a significant 

amount of money through the Indian Block Grant program in both 

the American Recovery Act last February and the Fiscal Year 2009 

spending bill that we just recently passed. 

Can you tell the Committee what the National Housing Council 

is doing to ensure that these funds will get out to needy families 

in a timely manner? 

Ms. PARISH. The first thing we did, actually, is meet with several 

of the people in this room. I went and saw them about two weeks 

ago, and I asked: How do we do this? And how do we do this correctly? 

Senator TESTER. Yes. 

Ms. PARISH. The whole tribal, well, the whole tribal, the whole 

NAIHC board of directors did that, and we canvassed the Hill. We 

have been working with HUD. Heidi was actually with us during 

our meeting with Mr. Boyd. We urged him to please, please help 

us do this, give us some heads up so we do it right. 

We want to spend this money. This is, it is not enough. Like you 

said, it is a drop in the bucket, but we would like to be able to 

show you our true need, that we can spend it, we can spend it well. 

We will spend it fast, and please give us more if you hand out any. 

That is the message that we are going to come out with, and we 

are going to come out with hard. 

The money that NAIHC receives, its technical assistance and its 

training, will be invaluable. We also try to work with Mr. Boyd and 

the rest of HUD as much as we can to make sure that all of our 

housing authorities receive the proper training we need. Right now, 

the first thing I did is I went home and I called my regional office, 

and I said, we have to have a meeting and we have to have all the 

housing authorities that I represent, 31 of them, come together, 

and we are doing it next week, so you can tell us how we are going 

to report on this money, so we do it, so it is transparent, and we 

don’t get into any trouble. 

That would be basically be my answer there. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. Have you done, have you thought about 

or are you doing anything in regards to utilizing those funds to 

stimulate jobs for Indian people in Indian Country? 

Ms. PARISH. Yes, very much so. Actually, when we even got the 

whiff that we might possibly get that money, and it was a tremendous gift to us, we started preparing throughout Indian Country. 

And when I put out things for a request for proposal or for bid, I 

tell them, you are going to get a higher priority, but you are going 

to hire some of my people and you are going to employ them. 

I have done that in the past when I do projects. You have to hire 

this many, and I want them to be carpenters at the end. And that 

actually gives them a trade-set. Sometimes it takes them off the 

reservation, but it will give them a job and it will give them a talent. 

79 

Senator TESTER. That is good. And maybe we can even go back 

to Jackie’s point on job training and try to get them to be a carpenter going in, too. That would be good. 

Ms. PARISH. Yes. 

Senator TESTER. I want to ask you, all four, and thank you very 

much, Cheryl. I want to ask you all four more of a global question, 

actually a couple of them. 

We continually hear, and it just isn’t in Indian Country, it is 

throughout many of the agencies, that the funds that are being appropriated by Congress somehow are not making it to the community level. Could you share your perspective on that, if you think 

that there is a problem there? Or do you think it is okay? 

Jackie? 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. I would like to go ahead and start, if that 

is all right. 

We work really hard to provide technical support to a couple of 

Federal agencies around budget development and provide technical 

support to the tribe, BIA tribal leaders, TBAC is what it is called. 

And that challenge comes up on a regular basis. 

And I think part of that is, the tribes come up with their priorities and then they get to the negotiations with OMB and then the 

department continues to have their negotiations, and the budget 

never really looks like we thought it did from the very beginning. 

I think we have done better about, as tribal leaders, being able 

to show where our budget priorities are and try to get those increases in those priorities. But then it comes back to any reallocation of funds, or as you heard, where they hold back funds for 

HUD, those kinds of things. Any reallocation, it makes it very difficult for tribes to plan when they are not sure exactly what they 

are going to be getting. 

And we have been trying to work with ways with the Department of Interior for tribal leaders to be involved with any recapture 

or reallocation from one region to another, or re-shifting of funds. 

And I think that is where a lot of the money becomes more discretionary, for some reason, and there seems to be more flexibility at 

the department and less goes to the tribes. 

I think the other thing that is frustrating as the tribes meet on 

these issues is that when we deal with what we were talking 

about, cost of living increase and inflationary factors, they are 

mandatory off the top for the department and the department staff, 

so they become mandatory expenses out of the allocation that is the 

amount that is appropriated for Indian Country. 

But we don’t get the same treatment because we don’t get mandatory cost of living increases or personnel requirements. And so 

what ends up happening is that the Federal Government is able to 

maintain their staffing levels because they get those cost of living 

factors mandatorily considered, but when the money is left to go to 

the tribes, the tribes have to decide how many members of their 

team that they are going to have to release from employment because they don’t also have the same ability. So all of those are factors. 

I also want to bring up something that when we were talking 

about the school construction, and this would go for a number of 

other pieces here. But one of the things that we at the TBAC have 

80 

asked for school construction from Jack Weaver, the list for a 

while, and have not been able, for years, I have to say, years, because OMB measures the success. OMB kept saying, well, the rule, 

one of the reasons they weren’t putting more money for school construction is because we haven’t spent out that school construction 

dollars. 

We said, give us the list, let us look at that from the tribal perspective, and decide to see what the problem is. Is this an issue 

with land title, and that is why we aren’t able to construct the 

building? Or are there other issues that we can address as tribal 

leaders? Without having that information, we as tribal leaders 

can’t help find the solution. 

An example of what I think would be a good model is the State 

of Virginia. When they are doing a construction project or roads 

project, they have it right on their website. This is the projects that 

we are doing. And if there is a hold on a project, they put a yellow 

sign that says, this has been temporarily halted for this reason, or, 

this project has been stopped for this reason. 

So we all know, in talking about the transparency, so we all 

know, because I think that is the other thing that holds back 

money from Indian Country. It gets obligated, appropriated, but 

then there are these other reasons that we are not aware of that 

it doesn’t come back to our home communities. 

Senator TESTER. I have a follow-up on that, but I will let these 

others talk about, if they have anything they would like to say 

about the money getting to the ground, and if there is problems in 

that, and you think they are serious enough to comment on them. 

Ms. BURGER. Thank you, Senator. I think I would like to make 

just a brief comment. 

One of the issues is sometimes the formula for the way that the 

appropriation is coming through does not fit the formula that is required in Indian Country. It is pretty simple. If we are allowed to 

be on the ground floor through a consultation process to frame 

some of those program requirements and frame up those priorities 

from the beginning, I think that you would see a far better utilization of the resources. 

One of the other things that comes to mind just in discussing facilities dollars,there is a 25-year waiting list on facilities dollars for 

new construction. My tribe purchased our own tribal health clinic 

because there was no way we were ever going to get on that list. 

So we have to wonder where the disconnect occurs, and I think 

that the disconnect really occurs sometimes at the Office of Management and Budget. We need some individuals in that office that 

understand Indian issues, that can listen as we articulate our problems and make some sense of why perhaps a program doesn’t work. 

And I think that would be a good place to start. 

Senator TESTER. From your perspective, OMB does not have that 

now? 

Ms. BURGER. No, they don’t. 

Senator TESTER. Good. 

Would anybody else like to comment on that, on the money that 

is getting to the ground, if it is a problem? You don’t have to if you 

don’t want to. 

Mr. COOK. Yes, I would. Thank you. 

81 

Senator TESTER. Sure. 

Mr. COOK. I just also wanted to mention, when you were talking 

about the construction list for schools. IHS has a real good model. 

They call it the five-year plan and it lets people know what facilities are going to be built within the next coming years. Maybe that 

might be a good way to, or a good start to look at. 

Senator TESTER. Good point. 

Mr. COOK. One of the things that NIEA has requested to the new 

Administration and to our colleagues is to establish a Native American budget, a Native American Budget Task Force, to be able to 

look at HHS, DOE, Department of Education. Who better knows 

the needs of funding and issues than our own people, being able 

to put together their plans and recommendations to the different 

agencies? 

Currently, there is no coordination among these agencies, as we 

discussed, on education funding. And so especially within the Department of Education, where 93 percent of our Indian kids do go 

to public schools, there is no tribal input whatsoever. 

The San Carlos Apache Tribe met with the Department of Education Office of Indian Education. And when they asked them different questions on budgets and funding and programs, they had 

no information to give the tribe on the stimulus, the recovery funding. So I think there needs to be somebody in there within that department to help them to understand what the needs are in Indian 

Country as far as academic success for our students and for our 

schools. 

Thank you. 

Senator TESTER. Cheryl? 

Ms. PARISH. Thank you. 

Our problem seems to lie a lot with HUD and OMB. Unlike the 

money that we just received, and we got it within 30 days, which 

was just a shock to Indian Country as far as housing went. It is 

four and five months from the time there is an appropriation until 

we see the money. The littler tribes are barely making it at that 

point, and we have to help the lowest of income with that small 

bit of funds as it is. 

If there was a way that you could help us perhaps work with 

OMB and HUD to get our money within 30 to 60 days after it was 

appropriated, it would help us tremendously. By the time we get 

it, it is October or November, and where I live, I can’t build until 

May now. So I am a year behind schedule, right off the get-go. So 

that is where I would look to this Committee if you could possibly 

help us there. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. 

Robert may have answered my question I was going to ask you, 

Jackie, as far as prioritization. I mean, I am sure this list is a national list, right, of schools? 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. Yes. 

Senator TESTER. And you have a lot of sovereign nations here, 

and seeing the appropriation process work at this level, how would 

you stop, just because in some of the schools I have seen, they all 

have merit to be rebuilt at some level. 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. That is a problem. When there is limited resources is everybody is scrambling to be able to want members of 

82 

Congress to deliver for their constituents, but also, tribes who are 

just desperately needing that. And I know we tried, like in, for example, in the development of NAHASDA initially, was to de-politicize the formula so that it really was based upon a need allocation. 

Senator TESTER. Yes. 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. I think that there are some worthy conversations that could be had about the distribution models of IHS. I see 

Staci shaking her head. That might be helpful for the future. 

But I want to follow up on the OMB issue, because OMB is critical at this point. And we have identified that that is a place for 

us to have to make some changes as far as responsiveness and understanding the uniqueness about tribal delivery systems. 

NCAI put forward a recommendation that is supported by all 

these organizations here, that we think that there needs to be a 

person designated at OMB that will shepherd the tribal outreach 

or the tribal review. We proposed it to the transition team and to 

the White House. I think that we seem to be getting some traction 

on the idea. We were hoping for a new person that would be like 

a deputy underneath the director, but that may not be possible. 

However, I think that they are seeing a need to have an Indian 

team within the OMB that has a greater understanding. 

And one of the reasons that came about was because of the selfgovernance compacts and contracts on economic recovery, the fact 

that those contracts don’t necessarily mesh with the requirement 

that Congress put forward. So it is an opportunity. You guys could 

help us with that a little bit, too, to push this agenda forward as 

far as the uniqueness of Indian Country, and get OMB to have an 

Indian person. 

Senator TESTER. I personally think it would be smart. I think it 

would be smart for everybody. 

Yes, Robert? 

Mr. COOK. Earlier you mentioned about examples or the need for 

the full funding to get to the schools. I have three real quick examples. Wounded Knee School District, for example, along with many 

others, only gets 43 percent of the total dollars that is supposed to 

be allocated. When I talked to the superintendent from the school, 

she said, imagine having a $100 light bill and only having $43 to 

pay it. 

Senator TESTER. So where did the other $57 go? 

Mr. COOK. They are only operating on 43 percent of the promised 

budget. 

Senator TESTER. Okay. So the money may be appropriated, but 

it is only at a 43 percent level. 

Mr. COOK. Right. Exactly. 

Senator TESTER. Well, that is a different concern. Okay. 

Mr. COOK. Another example is when we had the high gas prices, 

Little Wound School, with their tremendous number of students 

that bus into the facilities, they actually had to tap into their ISEP 

funds, $168,000 just to offset the cost of the rising fuel costs and 

transportation of students. So that directly affects the academic 

needs of those students because they have no emergency funds, 

nothing to draw money from in case something does come up, for 

example, those high costs of fuel. 

83 

Another example is when a new school is built, for example, Porcupine School on Pine Ridge just recently built a new school. However, they are really concerned because there is no maintenance 

dollars. And so they have this beautiful school, but a concern is 

how do they keep that school beautiful for the next 20 years. 

Senator TESTER. Yes, O&M, a big, big issue. 

Well, once again I want to thank you all for being here, Whether 

you are talking about the myriad of issues, of challenges, the good 

part about this is, we are early in the process, so we will be continuing to gather information. The difficult part about this process 

is your issues are difficult. They are real, and they are extensive. 

So I want to thank you all for being here. I appreciate it, and 

have a great day, and we look forward to continuing the contact. 

Thank you. 

We are adjourned. 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. And Senator, if I could, I just want to invite 

you or any of your staff or any of the other staff here. NCAI is 

hosting a trip to Indian Country during the spring break to Tohono 

O’odham. We are going to deal with border issues, but all the other 

issues, too. 

Senator TESTER. That is good. 

Ms. JOHNSON-PATA. So a good learning education time. 

Senator TESTER. Thank you for the invite. Thank you. 

We are adjourned. 

[Whereupon, at 1:58 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.] 

(85) 

A P P E N D I X 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE NAVAJO NATION


312g1.eps
86 


312g2.eps
87 


312g3.eps
88 


312g4.eps
89 


312g5.eps
90 

PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE UNITED TRIBES TECHNICAL COLLEGE


312g6.eps
91 


312g7.eps
92 


312g8.eps
93 

Æ 


312g9.eps