Bush budget beefs up BIA checkbook
Proposal includes water money

By Kathy Helms
Diné Bureau

FORT DEFIANCE — President Bush's $2.2 billion budget request for the Bureau of Indian Affairs for Fiscal Year 2006 proposes a $16.7 million increase for the bureau's detention facilities and $24.8 million for land and water settlements.

According to David Anderson, assistant secretary for Indian Affairs, $8.1 million would be set aside for the Colorado Ute/Animas-La Plata water settlement and $5.4 million for the Zuni water settlement in New Mexico.

The FY 2006 budget request also would provide $521.6 million to support 184 BIA-funded schools and dormitories, including $173.9 million for Indian school construction for replacement schools and major facility improvement and repair projects.

On the priority list for replacement is Crownpoint Community School in New Mexico and Porcupine Day School in South Dakota. The 2006 request would fund Phase I of the Crownpoint project and allow replacement of the South Dakota day school.

Anderson said the proposed increase for BIA detention facilities addresses issues raised by the Interior Office of the Inspector General in its September 2004 report that documented poor conditions at BIA detention facilities.

An interim report issued by the Inspector General in April 2004 put the Bureau on notice that it needed to take immediate action to alleviate potentially life-threatening situations at its detention facilities. The report also discussed deaths, suicides, attempted suicides, escapes of inmates and officer safety issues.

An inmate escape at the Shiprock Adult Detention Center and the hanging death of a 15-year-old female at Zuni Adult and Juvenile Detention Facility were specifically referenced in the report.

The proposed 2006 increase includes $4.1 million to support detention operations at four new centers currently under construction with Department of Justice (DOJ) funds, and $3.2 million for facility operations and maintenance at 19 detention centers built with DOJ grants since 2001.

The increase also would add $4.4 million for detention center improvement and repair construction projects, and would include $5 million to lease bed space for individuals in jurisdictions where BIA facilities do not comply with national standards.

Together with a request of $304 million for the Office of the Special Trustee for American Indians, the Fiscal Year 2006 budget proposes an investment of $2.5 billion in Indian programs and $1.9 billion for Operation of Indian Programs.

The National American Indian Training Center in Albuquerque, established to provided standardized trust and program-related training, would receive $1.5 million for lease costs, while $500,000 would be earmarked to establish an Economic Development Commission to increase tribal business opportunities and reduce unemployment on Indian lands. The commission will investigate impediments to tribal business development and develop an operational model for tribal business.

Anderson said the BIA and the Department of Education continue to work together to ensure that BIA-funded schools meet performance and accountability requirements under the No Child Left Behind Act of 2001.

The FY 2006 request proposes a $2 million increase to implement pilot leadership academies at four BIA schools. The budget proposal seeks $60.9 million for post-secondary education to fund operating grants to 26 tribal colleges and universities and the BIA-operated institutions of Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kan., and Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque.

The request also includes a $500,000 increase to expand the BIA student loan repayment program, implemented in FY 2005, to improve the bureau's ability to recruit qualified new employees.

The BIA budget request reflects reductions in funding levels for programs that lack performance accountability, duplicate other federal or state programs, or have shown poor management.

Program reductions include a $6.4 million cut for welfare assistance; $8.8 million sliced from Johnson O'Malley grants, and a $1.2 million cut for community fire protection.

Among numerous other cuts proposed for BIA is a reduction of $.4 million in energy development grants, a proposed $2 million cut in water management and planning, and a $2.4 million reduction in water rights negotiations and litigation.