COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2020; Congressional Record Vol. 165, No. 107
(Extensions of Remarks - June 25, 2019)
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[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]
COMMERCE, JUSTICE, SCIENCE, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT,
2020
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speech of
HON. DEBRA A. HAALAND
of new mexico
in the house of representatives
Thursday, June 20, 2019
The House in Committee of the Whole House on the state of
the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 3055) making
appropriations for the Departments of Commerce and Justice,
Science, and Related Agencies for the fiscal year ending
September 30, 2020, and for other purposes:
Ms. HAALAND. Mr. Chair, I rise in support of my two amendments to the
Interior and Environment Appropriations bill for FY20, which were
included in en bloc amendment No. 5.
I thank my friend Chairwoman Betty McCollum for supporting these
amendments, and for the work she and Ranking Member Joyce have done to
increase funding for programs that are vitally important to Indian
Country. Despite their good efforts, due to budget constraints, there
is still work to be done to meet the needs of our Tribal Nations.
The United States Constitution defines the unique government-to-
government relationship between the federal government and Tribal
Nations. The federal trust responsibility originates from the days when
Native Americans were forced to surrender tribal land and suffered loss
of life and the removal/resettlement of one-fifth of Tribes from their
original homelands. The United States signed 375 treaties, passed laws,
and instituted policies that promised to safeguard Native Americans'
right to self-governance and to enable delivery of essential services
in Indian Country.
One of these services is health care. During the latter part of the
nineteenth century, the federal government expanded health care for
Native Americans due to overcrowding at boarding schools and the spread
of disease. It was only in 1968, when Indian health care lagged behind
the rest of the country, was the Indian Health Service (IHS) designated
in an effort to fulfill the trust responsibility. Over the last two
centuries, the failure of the federal government to adequately address
American Indian/Alaskan Native (AI/AN) wellbeing led to this population
being ranked in the bottom of health, education, and employment.
Congress has continued to inadequately fund Indian Country at
disproportionately lower levels than funding for services for any other
population. IHS is currently only funded at 40 percent of the need, and
the average per capita spending for an IHS patient is only about $3,800
compared to the national average of $9,523. During fiscal year 2019,
IHS' budgetary need was $30 billion, but the enacted level only
amounted to $5 billion, which is $25 billion less than the amount
needed to properly administer health care in Indian Country for 2.2
million AI/ANs across 573 federally recognized Tribes.
Urban Indian health care is an area of particular need. Approximately
70 percent of AI/ANs live in urban areas, but they lack access to
adequate health care services because only 1 percent of the chronically
underfunded IHS budget has been allocated to urban Indian health care.
Currently urban Indian health is estimated to only meet 22 percent of
the need of the roughly one million urban Al/ANs who live in urban
Indian health care services areas.
My amendment seeks to draw attention to this area of serious need.
While we are making strides with this bill, an additional $35,000,000
would help provide resources for health care services needed by the
urban Indian population.
Tribes are also in desperate need of resources for tribal courts and
law enforcement. AI/AN suffer from one of the highest rates of crime
and victimization of any group of people in the United States. Although
overall funding for public safety in Indian Country has increased, it
does not come close to meeting the public safety needs in Indian
Country or the needs to police and protect Indian Country, especially
related to tribal courts and law enforcement. My amendment highlights
that an additional $63 million is needed for tribal courts and $113
million for law enforcement to give AI/ANs living on tribal lands
access to basic public safety services that are readily available for
other Americans living outside of Indian Country.
I appreciate the good work done by Chairwoman McCollum and Ranking
Member Joyce to begin to address these pressing needs in Indian
Country, and I thank them for their support of my amendments. I look
forward to continuing to work with them and Chairwoman Lowey and
Ranking Member Granger to ensure that the federal government fulfills
its trust obligation to Tribes and that Tribes have the resources they
need to provide services and opportunity to their members.
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