finding common ground, honoring the promises presented by: amber ebarb (national congress of...
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Finding Common Ground,Honoring the Promises
Presented by: Amber Ebarb (National Congress of American Indians), Clint Bowers (National Indian Education Association), Caitrin Shuy (National Indian Health Board), and Lacy Horn,
Treasurer (Cherokee Nation)
September 4, 2013
AgendaNational Congress of American Indians• Why now is the time to act.• Budget timeline and recent activity.• Sequester’s impact on funding for tribes.• Treaty Promises are Bipartisan• Analysis of Media Stories about Tribes and SequestrationNational Indian Health Board• Impacts on Indian Health ServiceNational Indian Education Association• Impacts on Indian EducationCherokee Nation• How tribes can develop effective sequester impact reports and stories.
Purpose and Upcoming Events
• Tribal Unity Impact Days, September 11-12, 2013 in DC– Tribal Leader Briefing on 9/11 from 9am-noon.
Register, set up meetings with your delegation.• Also, Native American Caucus to hold a
Sequestration Briefing for Hill Staffers
Now is the Time for Tribal Unity in Urging Congress to Honor Treaty Promises
because we are hearing differently from Indian Country:
Cuts to Native staff are simply increasing an unemployment rate that often exceeds 50 percent in some areas. “Many times these staff are the primary breadwinner in the families. So we are taking an independent family and saying, 'No, you're unemployed, and you've become dependent on this other system [federal unemployment benefits].’”
More media and decision-makers must hear about these effects.
A dangerous narrative,
Where are we? …in desperate need of finding common ground.
• FY2013: Starting to see sequestration impacts• FY2014: Different budget frames
• House Budget Resolution and 302(b)s • Senate Budget Resolution and 302(b)s
– Some bills moved despite budget incongruity
Next Steps:– CR is likely; Democrats may seek sequester replacement
for CR votes• Debt ceiling will need to be raised in mid-October• FY2015: FY15 planning has begun
FY2014: Starkly Different Options• House Appropriations Plan
– It leaves overall sequestration in effect for FY14• The House’s topline discretionary cap would be at the FY14 level after
sequestration as called for in the BCA • $966 billion
– It overrides a key provision of the BCA and shifts billions of dollars from domestic programs to defense and security programs• BCA required equal cuts in Defense and non-Defense• It increases defense funding by $47 billion and reduces domestic spending
by the same.• House plan reduces the pressure on conservatives to replace sequestration
with other deficit reduction
• Senate Plan– FY14 spending cap is at the BCA level before sequester, $1.058
trillion.• The gap is over revenue increases versus entitlement changes.
Percent Cut in non-Defense Discretionary compared to FY10, Inflation Adjusted
-20%
-18%
-16%
-14%
-12%
-10%
-8%
-6%
-4%
-2%
0%
-7%
-12%
-18%
1st Cut, Avoiding Shutdown
2nd Cut, Due to BCACaps
3rd Cut, Sequestration
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
FY2014 House vs. FY2013 excluding sequestration
Financial Services and General Government
Labor, Health and Human Services, Ed
Interior, Environment
State, Foreign Operations
Energy and Water Development
Commerce, Justice, Science
Agriculture
Transportation, HUD*
Legislative Branch
Homeland Security
Defense
Military Construction, Veterans Affairs
-26.1%
-22.2%
-18.5%
-17.9%
-16.0%
-6.5%
-5.9%
-5.3%
-3.6%
-2.1%
-1.0%
2.1%
Source: Center on Budget and Policy Priorities
Sequestration: Tribes Losing Ground Critical Governmental Services
FY 2006 FY 2007 O.P.
FY 2008 FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011 O.P.
FY 2012 FY 2013 CR FY 2014 Options
1,700,000
1,800,000
1,900,000
2,000,000
2,100,000
2,200,000
2,300,000
2,400,000
2,500,000
2,600,000
2,700,000
In 1
,000
s of D
olla
rs
HousePres/
Senate
Nomina
l
House: Δ = -9%, -$210 M vs. Senate
Sen: Δ = -3% vs.
FY10
NCAI Analysis, BIA Budget
FY10 Level
Sequestration: Tribes Losing Ground Critical Governmental Services
FY 2006 FY 2007 O.P.
FY 2008 FY 2009 FY 2010 FY 2011 O.P.
FY 2012 FY 2013 CR FY 2014 Options
1,700,000
1,800,000
1,900,000
2,000,000
2,100,000
2,200,000
2,300,000
2,400,000
2,500,000
2,600,000
2,700,000
In 1
,000
s of D
olla
rs
Pres/Senate
Inflation adjusted
House
Nomina
l
Sen Δ = -11% from FY10
House Δ = -19% from FY10
Adjusting for inflation, even the PB/Senate level is lower than FY06 levels
NCAI Analysis, BIA Budget
FY10 Level
FY14 Appropriations Activities• Interior-Environment Bill
– Very contentious, due to environmental policy riders and wildlife protection programs.– House Subcommittee markup held July 23. Full Cmte July 31 Senate will likely release a
draft but not mark it up.• Transportation HUD
– NAHASDA block grant cut from $650M to $600M• Cole’s office said they will work with the Senate side to restore it towards the end of the approps
season.
• House Appropriations Chairman Harold Rogers (R-KY) commented that, "With this action [pulling the T-HUD bill from the floor], the House has declined to proceed on the implementation of the very budget it adopted just three months ago," referring to the House budget resolution written by Congressman Paul Ryan (R-WI). He added, "The House, Senate and White House must come together as soon as possible on a comprehensive compromise that repeals sequestration, takes the nation off this lurching path from fiscal crisis to fiscal crisis, reduces our deficits and debt, and provides a realistic top-line discretionary spending level to fund the government in a responsible and attainable way."
House vs. Senate on Contract Support Costs
• Significantly, the House bill does not include the contract support costs cap language that has been in the bill for about a decade.
• The bill rejects the Administration’s proposal for individually capping contract support costs.
• The bill also does not include the separate account for contract support costs.
Common Ground: Upholding Treaty Promises is Bipartisan• Congressman Simpson (R-ID), Interior Subcommittee Chair: "This bill makes critical investments in Indian County-an area of
strong interest to the bipartisan Members of this subcommittee. Members on both sides of the aisle agree that sequester is having a negative impact on these health accounts, affecting some of the most vulnerable of our Native American brothers and sisters. We're not able to turn off sequester in our bill but we must work together to carry that message to the Budget Committee and hopefully get this resolved.“
• Congressman Don Young (R AK): “I believe very strongly that if you read the Constitution and our agreement with the ‐American Indians and Alaska Natives, we have an obligation…And I don't want to see us balancing the budget on the backs of those we have an obligation to.“
• Congresswoman McCollum (D-MN): While Medicare, Medicaid, etc are protected from sequestration, IHS will be cut. "When it's the morally right thing to do and when the federal government has a legal responsibility through treaties to provide this, to tell Indian Country, ‘you're affected by sequestration, the rest of the United States population is not.' That's morally wrong. A bipartisan group of House members wants to protect Indian Health Services from sequestration . But House leaders say other programs will need to be cut if money is restored to Indian Health Services.
• Senator Murkowski (Appropriations and SCIA): "Self-determined contracts are the core of our nation's federal trust relationship with Indian tribes. …tribes operate the federal programs promised to Indians for the removal of their lands. This is a federal responsibility that exists in strong budget times and, most importantly, in difficult budget times as well .“
• Senator Franken (D-MN): “The severe cuts made to programs that benefit Native American students are a distressing reminder of why we need to replace the entire sequester…. Children in Indian Country are hurting because of the sequester, and it’s only going to get worse if we don’t get something done.”
• Congressman Cole (R-OK): “The cuts in the BIA the Office of Special Trustee are well below the 19% in the entire budget. And I have no doubt if our allocation gets better that those things will be addressed in appropriate fashion as well . So this bill does prioritize and continues in a bipartisan way to prioritize funding in Indian Country and fulfilling our treaty obligations and trust obligations to Native American nations and I’m proud of that and again that wouldn’t have happened without my friend the chairman but it wouldn’t have happened without my friends on the other side of the aisle, who I know care as deeply about this issue as certainly I do.”
Analysis of Media Stories of Tribes and Sequester
NCAI Reviewed 38 Recent News Articles, Radio Segments, and Blogs The stories and articles covered impacts to
tribes in the states below.
News paper71%
Public radio13%
Blog16%
AZ MN SD MT NM OR ND WA WY UT OK ID AK MI SC
9
8
7
5
4 4 4 4
3
2 2 2
1 1 1
Impact Aid/Title
Head Start
Tribal Colleges
BIE
scholarships
IHS
Behav/Mental
Public safety
BIA
Social services
Natural res
child welfare
Housing
Infrastructure
Educ
ation
Hea
lthBI
A/G
over
nmen
tal S
ervi
ces
Infr
astr
18
10
5
2
1
15
5
7
5
4
2
1
4
2
Prog
ram
s/Ar
eas
Themes in StoriesDetailed budget data
Disproportionate federal revenue
General Disparities
Trust/Treaty Promises
Exempting tribal programs
20
16
14
12
7
Programs and Themes Addressed in News Stories
How Tribes Are Implementing Sequester So Far, according to news stories (March-Sept. 2013)
Layoffs
Cutting days/courses
Stopped hiring
Delay Maintenance
Cut Prof Dev or Ex Cur. Activities
Pay cuts/furloughs
Delayed purchases
Used reserves
Closures/ consolidate
Raised deductibles on insurance
11
9
7
7
6
5
5
4
4
3
We walked past the Tuba City High School gym where sun shines through the holes in the ceiling. At the nearby primary school one wing and a cafeteria have already been condemned. That building is in desperate need of new bathrooms and safe playground equipment. But those upgrades will have to wait.
Clearinghouse: http://www.ncai.org/policy-issues/tribal-governance/budget-and-approprations/sequestration
Email aebarb@ncai.org if you would like to add to this.
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