THE WHITE HOUSE

Office of the Press Secretary

               President Clinton and Vice President Gore:
                          Honoring Commitments
                to Native Americans In the FY2001 Budget
                            February 7, 2000

Updated February 6, 2000

"I also . . . [want] to make special efforts to address the areas of our nation with the highest rates of poverty -- our Native American reservations and the Mississippi Delta. My budget includes . . . a billion dollars to increase economic opportunity, health care, education and law enforcement for our Native American communities. In this new century -- we should begin this new century by honoring our historic responsibility to empower the first Americans. And I want to thank tonight the leaders and the members from both parties who've expressed to me an interest in working with us on these efforts. They are profoundly important."

                                                  President Bill Clinton
                                                  State of the Union
                                                  January 27, 2000

In order to better serve Native American communities and to honor the federal government's trust responsibility to tribes, the President's budget includes a total of $9.4 billion for key new and existing programs that assist Native Americans and Indian reservations. This total is an increase of $1.2 billion over Fiscal Year 2000 - the largest increase ever. This initiative brings together several agencies in order to address the needs of Native American communities comprehensively. Some of the highlights include: $300 million for Bureau of Indian Affairs school construction and repair; $349 million through the Department of Transportation for roads in Indian Country; and $2.6 billion for the Indian Health Service. Other key components of the Native American initiative are:

Budget Initiatives for Native Americans:

Investing in Education and Training.

• Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) School Construction and Repair. The President has proposed $300 million, more than double the FY 2000 enacted level of $133 million, to replace and repair BIA-funded schools on reservations. This is the largest investment ever in a single year for BIA school construction and repair. Of these funds, $126 million would be used to assist in replacing at least six of the 185 BIA-funded schools on reservations. The remaining $174 million would provide for much-needed health and safety-related repairs and improvements that together comprise a roughly $700 million backlog. Within the BIA's school construction funds, up to $30 million may used to assist tribes or tribal consortia in issuing the bonds described below by using these funds to ensure principal repayment.
• Hiring well-prepared teachers to reduce class size in the early grades. As part of President Clinton's national initiative to hire 100,000 teachers to reduce class size in grades 1-3 to a national average of 18, the budget will provide $6 million for BIA-funded schools. These funds will enable local schools to recruit, hire, and train more teachers. Studies show that smaller classes enable teachers to give personal attention to students, which leads to their getting a stronger foundation in the basic skills. The studies also show that minority and disadvantaged students show the greatest achievement gains as a result of reducing class size in the early grades.
• Training and Recruiting New Native American Teachers. Only two-thirds of Native American students successfully complete high school --far fewer than other students. In addition, schools with high populations of American Indian students are typically plagued by high teacher turn-over. To address these challenges, the budget provides $10 million for the Education Department to continue the second year of the Administration's initiative to begin training and recruiting 1,000 new teachers for areas with high concentrations of American Indian and Alaska Native students.
• New American Indian Administrator Corps. The President and the Vice President propose $5 million for a new Department of Education initiative, the American Indian Administrator Corps, that will support the recruitment, training, and in-service professional development of 500 American Indians and Alaska Natives to become effective school administrators in schools with high populations of Native American students. As in the Native American teacher initiative, higher-education institutions are encouraged to form consortia with the tribal colleges in order to develop this program.
• Native American School Modernization Bonds. In addition to the $24.8 billion of School Modernization Tax Credit Bonds authorized in his budget for the construction and renovation of public schools, the President's budget includes a component for Native American schools. The Secretary of Interior would be authorized to allocate $400 million bonding authority ($200 million in 2001 and $200 million in 2002) to tribes or tribal consortia for the construction and renovation of BIA-funded schools. In addition to providing tax credits to the bondholders in lieu of interest payments, the President's budget includes $30 million to help ensure principal repayment for tribal issuers.
• New School Renovation Loan and Grant Program. This new $1.3 billion initiative leverages nearly $7 billion of (approximately 8,300) renovation projects in high-need school districts with little or no capacity to fund urgent repairs. Within this program, the President has allocated $50 million for grants to public schools with high concentrations of Native American students. The $1.3 billion initiative also includes a loan program targeted to those districts unable to finance the interest cost associated with facilities renovation and a smaller grant program to provide direct funding to needy school districts unable to finance the capital expenditures associated with school renovation.
• New Therapeutic Pilots at BIA Boarding Schools. The President and the Vice President propose $8.2 million for a new initiative to establish Therapeutic Residential Treatment Programs (TRTP) at 5-7 of the BIA boarding schools and dormitories. According to the Centers for Disease Control, American Indian students attending BIA schools are at a very high risk for severe problems associated with substance abuse, depression, poverty, neglect, homelessness, and physical abuse. Through the addition of appropriate professionals at each pilot site, necessary intervention treatments will be provided to students in a holistic manner, ranging from education to mental health to substance abuse treatment.
• Doubling the Family and Child Education (FACE) Program. The budget includes $12.8 million, a more than 100 percent increase over the FY 2000 level of $6 million, to double the FACE program at BIA from 22 to 44 sites. The FACE program is a two-generation education program that provides services such as early childhood educational programs to young children and provides training to parents to enhance their parenting skills, education, and literacy.
• Strengthening BIA-Funded Schools and Colleges Serving Tribes. The budget provides $562 million for the operation of elementary and secondary schools, tribally controlled community colleges, and assistance to Indian children attending public schools. This represents an increase of $43 million over the enacted 2000 level.
• Increased Funding for Tribal Colleges. The budget proposes increased funding for the Nation's tribal colleges. At the Department of Education, the budget provides for $9 million - a 50 percent increase over 2000 enacted - in order to improve and expand the capacity of the tribal colleges to serve Native American students in several ways, including developing academic programs. With this increase at the Education Department, 24 tribal colleges will receive funding. At the Department of the Interior, the budget proposes a $3 million increase to $38 million in order to fund the operations of the tribal colleges. Including these funds at Interior and Education, the budget includes a total of $77 million for support to tribal colleges through funding at the National Science Foundation, and the Departments of the Interior, Education, Agriculture, Housing and Urban Development, and Transportation.
• Tribal College Endowment Fund. The President's budget proposes to increase the authorized level from $4.6 million to $7.1 million, a 54 percent increase over 2000, for the Native American Institutions Endowment Fund at the Department of Agriculture in order to build educational capacity through student recruitment and retention; curricula development; faculty preparation; instruction delivery systems; and scientific instrumentation for teaching.
• Head Start. The President's budget boosts funding for Head Start by $1 billion - the largest funding increase ever - to provide Head Start and Early Head Start to approximately 950,000 children, nearing the President's goal of serving one million children in 2002. Since the President took office, funding for Head Start has risen by nearly 90 percent, enabling 160,000 more low-income children to participate in the program.
• Indian Head Start. The budget provides $175 million for Indian Head Start -- a $30 million increase over FY 2000.

Fighting Crime in Indian Country. The President's budget included key increases for law enforcement:

• Improves Law Enforcement in Indian Country. The budget proposes $439 million, an increase of $103 million over FY 2000, for the Departments of Justice and Interior for the third year of the President's Indian Country Law Enforcement Initiative. The initiative will improve public safety for the over 1.4 million residents on the approximately 56 million acres of Indian lands. This funding will increase the number of law enforcement officers on Indian lands, provide more equipment, expand detention facilities, enhance juvenile crime prevention, and improve the effectiveness of tribal courts. This initiative also includes increased funding for the unique needs of Indian Country such as legal assistance to indigent Native Americans; funding to support curriculum development at tribal colleges for law enforcement and legal studies; an alcohol and substance abuse diversion program; and sexual assault units to help prosecute sexual offenders. Although violent crime has been declining nationally for several years, it has been on the rise in Indian country. According to the Department of Justice, American Indians are the victims of violent crimes at more than twice the rate of all U.S. residents. Recognizing this, the President made a major commitment to improve law enforcement in Indian country.
• Law Enforcement Housing Opportunities. The budget proposes to permit, through HUD's Indian Housing Block Grant, tribes or tribally-designated housing entities to provide housing or housing assistance for qualified law enforcement officers.

Providing Health Care and Promoting Safety. President Clinton and Vice President Gore are committed to providing health care to the Native American population. This budget moves forward on their vision to help realize this goal.

• Indian Health Service. The President's budget proposes $2.6 billion, an increase for the Indian Health Service (IHS) of $230 million or 10 percent over the FY 2000 enacted level. This increase would enable IHS to continue expanding accessible and high-quality health care to its approximately 1.5 million Native American service users to: improve preventive services designed to reduce the need for acute medical care; expand patient access to clinical services to help improve health status; improve emergency medical services in remote locations on American Indian and Alaska Native reservations; address the health and environmental conditions in American Indian and Alaska Native homes and communities by constructing safe water and waste disposal facilities; expand programs that provide substance abuse treatment and prevention and mental health services; strengthen existing disease surveillance capabilities; target additional assessment and treatment of diabetes and other chronic diseases; and provide preventive and corrective dental care to prevent disease and reduce tooth loss, such as water fluoridation.
• IHS Medicaid and Medicare Reimbursements. IHS will collect a total of $365 million in Medicaid and Medicare reimbursements in FY2001, helping to bring the total IHS program level to $3.1 billion.
• Indian Health Service (IHS) Contract Support Costs. Within the overall IHS increase, the budget continues to support Tribal self-determination by proposing a $40 million (+18%) increase for contract support costs, to cover the costs of new and existing tribal contracts and compacts.
• Helping to Reduce Racial Disparities in Health Status. Despite improvements in the Nation's overall health, continuing disparities remain in the burden of death and illness that certain minority groups experience. For example, American Indian and Alaska Natives are about three times as likely to die from diabetes as other Americans. Working with minority public health providers, advocates, and other consumer representatives, $35 million is provided for Centers for Disease Control to continue demonstration programs to enable select communities to develop innovative and effective approaches to address these disparities.
• Treatment for Substance Abuse. The Targeted Treatment Capacity Expansion Grant program at the Department of Health and Human Services provides funds to help communities address emerging substance abuse problems and unmet treatment needs. The President's budget proposes $163 million for Targeted Treatment Capacity Expansion grants, which is $49 million over the FY 2000 level of $114 million and will provide treatment for nearly 10,000 additional individuals. Last year, over fifteen percent of these competitive grants focused on substance abuse treatment for Native American youth and adults.
• Providing Care for Native American Seniors. The budget proposes $23.5 million, an increase of $5 million, to expand core nutrition and supportive services as well as caregiver services such as respite care and adult day care to Native American seniors.
• Highway Safety Grants. Because highway safety is a major problem on Indian reservations, the budget will double the amount to $2 million for highway safety grants in Indian Country. These grants are used for problem identification, planning, and implementation to address highway safety problems related to human factors and roadway environment in order to reduce crashes, deaths, and injuries.
• Elevating the Position of the Director of IHS. The President will also continue his efforts to elevate the Director of IHS to the position of Assistant Secretary.

Providing Infrastructure for Native American Communities. President Clinton and Vice President Gore are providing solid investments to build infrastructure in Native American communities.

• Building Roads and Bridges in Indian Country. The Transportation Department (DOT) will expand its program to improve roads and bridges on Indian reservations. The President's budget proposes to give the Indian Reservations Roads program the full authorization amount of $275 million with an additional $74 million from a highway receipts account for a total of $349 million, which is an increase of $117 million over the previous year. This will allow Tribes to address the estimated backlog of $4 billion in needs on these roads and bridges.
• Tribal Infrastructure Projects. The President and the Vice President propose $49 million, an increase of $46 million over FY 2000, for the Department of Commerce's Economic Development Administration (EDA) to fund infrastructure, planning, and public works projects. These projects will focus on technology, business development, and tribal economic development activities. EDA will give priority to projects that emphasize the attraction of outside capital to, and the location of basic commercial business operations in, Native American communities.
• USDA Rural Development Programs. The FY2001 budget proposes $26 million, an increase of $14 million over 2000 enacted to provide loans and grants through the Department of Agriculture's (USDA) rural development programs to construct and improve Native Americans' water and wastewater systems; community facilities such as health clinics and child care centers; and diversify and expand economic opportunities.
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Wastewater and Drinking Water Infrastructure Investments. The FY2001 budget increases the Tribal share of the Clean Water State Revolving Fund appropriation from 0.5 to 1.5 percent. The percentage increase will add more than $5 million for Tribal wastewater infrastructure spending over FY 2000. The Administration also continues to request an additional $15 million for drinking water and wastewater infrastructure needs of Alaska Native villages.
• Construction Skills Training. Currently, Transportation funds $10 million per year for a construction skills training program targeted to all minorities. Last year, only $9 million was obligated because overall highway funding was less than authorized levels. The President's budget proposes to ensure this program is funded at its authorized levels thereby providing the full $10 million in FY2001 and setting aside $1 million for Native Americans.

Empowering Communities and Moving People from Welfare to Work.

• Addressing the Digital Divide. The Administration proposes this new initiative to encourage Native Americans to pursue information technology and other science and technology fields as areas of study as well as to increase the capacity of tribal colleges to offer courses in these areas. The budget provides $10 million, to be administered by the National Science Foundation, for grants to tribal colleges for networking and access; course development; student assistance; and capacity building.
• Extending Welfare-to-Work Grants. To help more long-term welfare recipients and low-income fathers go to work and support their families, the Administration's budget will give state, local, tribal, and community- and faith-based grantees an additional two years to spend Welfare-to-Work funds, ensuring that roughly $2 billion in existing resources continues to help those most in need. This will give grantees an opportunity to fully implement both the $3 billion Welfare-to Work initiative the Administration fought to include in the 1997 Balanced Budget Act, which included $30 million in tribal grants, and the program eligibility improvements enacted last year with the Administration's support.
• Helping Low-Income Fathers and Working Families Support Their Children. The Administration's budget proposes $255 million for the first year of a new "Fathers Work/Families Win" initiative to help low-income non-custodial parents (mainly fathers) and low-income families work and support their children. Within these funds, $10 million will be set aside for applicants from Native American workforce agencies.
• New Housing Vouchers for Hard-Pressed Working Families. The Clinton-Gore budget includes $690 million for 120,000 new rental housing vouchers to help America's hard-pressed working families. Of the 120,000 new housing vouchers, 32,000 will be targeted to families moving from welfare to work, 18,000 to homeless individuals and families, and 10,000 to low-income families moving to new housing constructed through the Low Income Housing Tax Credit, with the remaining 60,000 vouchers allocated to local areas to help address the large unmet need for affordable housing. These new vouchers build on the 110,000 new housing vouchers secured through the President's leadership in the past two years. As part of the FY 1999 competition, HUD awarded nearly 800 welfare to work housing vouchers to two tribes, and assuming Congress approves new welfare to work vouchers, the Administration will maintain a similar policy in FY 2001.
• Access to Jobs Program. The Transportation Equity Act for the 21st Century (TEA-21) authorized $750 million over five years for the President's Job Access initiative and reverse commute grants to develop flexible transportation solutions, such as van services, to help welfare recipients and other low-income workers (up to 150% of poverty) travel to job opportunities and employment-related services. The President's budget proposes to double funding for this initiative to $150 million in FY2001. To increase mobility and access to employment opportunities for Native American families moving from welfare to work and other low-income workers, DOT will set aside $5 million for Indian tribes under the FY2001 DOT Job Access grant program and propose, through appropriations language, allowing tribes to apply directly to the Federal Transit Administration for these grants.
• Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Expansion. The Administration requested a major expansion of the CDFI program to continue building a national network of community development banks. The final budget increases CDFI funding from $95 million in FY2000 to $125 million in FY2001 -- a $30 million increase. In order to increase access to capital in Indian Country, the budget proposes, for the first time, a $5 million set-aside within the CDFI Fund to establish a training and technical assistance program focused on eliminating barriers to capital access.
• Housing Improvement Program. The budget provides $32 million at BIA - a doubling of the $16 million in 2000 - to repair or replace dilapidated homes across Indian Country.
• Indian Housing. The budget provides $650 million in block grants for Indian housing, an increase of $30 million over FY 2000.
• Indian Homeownership Intermediaries. The budget proposes to set aside $5 million within the Indian Housing Block Grant to create non-profit homeownership intermediaries in Indian Country. They will serve as a catalyst for the creation of a private homeownership market in Indian Country and will support local capacity-building intermediaries or "one-stop mortgage centers."
• Economic Development Planning Grants. The President's budget expands language within the Native American set-aside of the Community Development Block Grant to allow for stand-alone economic development planning grants.
• Strengthening Tribal Environmental Programs. The President's budget increases funding for the EPA's General Assistance Program (GAP) by $10 million for a total of $53 million. GAP grants fund tribal institutional capacity building for implementing environmental programs on Indian lands. GAP grants have increased from $8 million in 1993 to the FY 2001 proposed level of $53 million.
• Tribal/EPA Cooperative Agreements to Implement Federal Environmental Programs. The President's budget proposes appropriations language authorizing the Administrator of the EPA to enter into cooperative agreements with tribes or tribal consortia so that they may assist EPA in implementing Federal environmental programs. EPA will also provide grants to tribes and tribal consortia for this work.
• Remove Cap on Nonpoint Source Water Pollution Grants to Tribes. Appropriations language is proposed that permanently removes the one-third of one percent cap on the tribal share of the EPA Clean Water Act nonpoint source grants to tribes. These additional resources will help protect water quality on Indian lands.
• Agricultural Extension Program. This Initiative provides extension agents on large Indian reservations. These extension agents, employees of the State Cooperative Extension System, work with tribal advisory committees to develop educational programs in agriculture or agriculture-related youth programs that respond to tribal priorities. Since funding began in 1990, it has remained at $1.7 million, supporting about 26 projects in 15 states. This year the President proposes to increase funding to $5 million - the first increase since 1990.
• Promoting Self-Sufficiency. The FY2001 budget proposes $44 million, an increase of $9 million over 2000, for the Administration of Native Americans (ANA) at the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS). ANA funds projects that are expected to result in sustained improvements in the social and economic conditions of Native Americans within their communities. ANA will set-aside $2 million for tribal energy development projects and another $2 million to continue its work on developing tribal codes in order to promote business development in Indian Country.
• Tribal Energy Program. The budget proposes $5 million, an increase of $1 million, for the Tribal Energy Program at the Department of Energy which assists tribal governments in implementing energy programs, including with renewable energy resources such as wind energy.
• Business Assistance at the Small Business Administration. The budget proposes new funding to create Small Business Development Centers (SBDCs) in Indian Country to provide business and technical assistance to Native American entrepreneurs. These new tribal SBDCs will work in tandem with the seventeen existing Tribal Business Information Centers. A total of $4.5 million is provided for this initiative. The Administration will propose authorizing legislation to establish the tribal SBDCs. This legislation will ensure that SBDCs will be available to all parts of Indian Country, including the poorest areas.
• Expanding Business LINC to Indian Country. For the first time, the budget proposes $1.25 million to expand the Vice President's successful BusinessLINC program to Indian Country. BusinessLINC establishes mentor-protege relationships between large and small businesses. The goal of BusinessLINC is to encourage large firms to provide technical assistance, business advice, networking, investment, and joint venturing opportunities for locally-owned smaller firms.
• Tribal Colleges Initiative. The budget proposes to set-aside $5 million within the HUD Community Development Block Grant program for competitive grants awarded to tribal colleges to assist their communities with neighborhood revitalization, housing, and economic development. These colleges will provide technical assistance and capacity building support to their surrounding communities through assistance in the creation of community development corporations; assistance in the development and coordination of supportive services for welfare-to-work initiatives; coordination and support for the rehabilitation of housing for low- to moderate-income families; and assistance in the promotion of economic development through small business incubators and job training programs.
• Native American Economic Development Access Center. The President's budget proposes an additional $2 million at the Department of Housing and Urban Development to establish a Native American Economic Development Access Center. This Access Center will, for the first time, link over twelve agencies through a single toll-free number so that Native American callers can receive access to information about federal programs for economic development. The purpose of the Access Center will be to answer questions in a problem-solving manner rather than requiring callers to be familiar with specific federal programs. The Access Center will also have a website.
• Technical Assistance Funding for the Tribal Colleges. The budget proposes to set aside $1 million out of the Revenue Aligned Budget Authority for the tribal colleges to do outreach to help Native Americans access federal funds.
• New Markets Investments Initiative. The United States is currently in the midst of the longest peacetime expansion in its history. The strength and duration of this expansion has helped bring economic opportunity to millions of people once cut off from the economic mainstream. But too many urban and rural areas, and Native American reservations, have not participated in this growth. These areas have tremendous potential as New Markets. The President's expanded New Markets initiative will spur $22 billion in new capital investment in businesses in these economically distressed areas through a package of tax credits and loan guarantees. The package includes the following components:
• More Than Doubling the New Markets Tax Credit - The President proposes to more than double the New Markets tax credit to spur $15 billion dollars in new investment in community development in economically distressed areas. An entity making new equity investments in a selected community development project would be eligible for a tax credit worth 25 percent of the cost of the investment. A variety of vehicles providing equity and credit to businesses in underserved areas would be eligible. The total cost of the tax credits amounts to about $5 billion over 10 years.
• Expanded Empowerment Zones - The proposed expanded wage credits, tax incentives, and new round of urban and rural EZs will extend and improve economic growth in the 31 existing urban and rural Empowerment Zones, administered by HUD and USDA, and support the proposed third round of 10 new empowerment zones to be designated in 2001. The total cost of these proposals will be $4.4 billion over 10 years.
• America's Private Investment Companies (APICs) - Modeled after the Overseas Private Investment Corporation's (OPIC) successful investment fund program, APICs would provide guaranteed debt to private investment companies, licensed by HUD, to help leverage private equity capital and lower the cost of capital for investments in low- and moderate-income communities. For every dollar that private investors provide, the government will guarantee two dollars in debt to expand the APIC's pool of capital available for making investments and enhance the return on those investments to the private investors. APICs will make equity investments in larger businesses that are expanding or relocating in inner cities and rural areas.
• New Market Venture Capital Firms (NMVCs) - The President is asking for $51.7 million in his 2001 budget to allow SBA to match equity investment and technical assistance funds to finance 10-20 new investment partnerships - New Markets Venture Capital Firms -- selected to provide both long-term growth capital and expert guidance to entrepreneurs who need both in order to transform their small businesses and great ideas into thriving companies.
• Other Elements of New Markets - Other elements include: increasing the funding for SBA's microenterprise lending program; creating PRIME--a program providing technical assistance to low-income entrepreneurs; boosting CDFI funding; expanding support for BusinessLINC to encourage large businesses to work with small businesses in new markets; and establishing a New Markets University Partnerships pilot project which, under the auspices of HUD, would provide universities with funding to develop local community partnerships, assistance to intermediaries, and technical and business development assistance to new and existing firms. In addition, to better serve Native American communities, the President proposes additional funding to expand the New Markets initiative to Indian Country, which are described herein.

Protecting Sovereignty and Promoting Self-Determination.

• Tribal Contracting and Self-Governance. BIA and IHS will continue to promote Tribal self-determination through local decision-making. Tribal contracting and self-governance compact agreements now represent 41 percent of BIA's operations budget, and forty-two percent of IHS' budget. The self-governance agreements give Tribes greater flexibility to administer Federal programs on reservations.
• Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Contract Support Costs. Within the overall BIA increase, the budget continues to support Tribal self-determination by proposing $134 million, a $9 million or 7 percent increase over 2000 for contract support costs. This funding provides $5 million for new and expanded contracts and $129 million for existing contracts.
• Trust Services. The Administration is committed to improving trust services and management through its trust reform efforts at the Interior Department. The budget proposes $108 million, a 48 percent increase over 2000, for improved trust services in the BIA for activities such as probate, real estate appraisals, and other services.
• Indian Trust Fund Balances. The Administration is committed to resolving disputed Indian trust fund account balances through informal dispute resolution and supports the unique government-to-government relationship that exists in Indian trust land management issues. After Tribal consultations, BIA submitted its "Recommendations of the Secretary of the Interior for Settlement of Disputed Tribal Accounts" to Congress in November 1997. Legislation reflecting these recommendations was proposed in 1998, but not enacted. The Department will continue efforts to resolve trust fund account balances.
• Trust Land Management. As part of BIA's commitment to resolving trust land management issues, Interior worked with Congress in 1999 to repropose legislation (S. 1586) to establish an Indian Land Consolidation program to address the ownership fractionation of Indian land. Interior began implementing three pilot projects in Wisconsin, in cooperation with Tribes, to purchase small ownership interests in highly fractionated tracts of land from willing sellers. In the nine months of this effort, more than 8,000 small ownership interests have been consolidated. The budget proposes $13 million in 2001 for this program, and Interior will work with Congress to get legislation enacted in the 106th Congress, limiting future fractionation.
• Trust Management Improvement Project. In addition to the $13 million for the Indian Land Consolidation program, the budget provides $83 million for DOI's Office of Special Trustee, including the trust management improvement project. Current activities include verifying individual Indian's account data and converting these data to a commercial-grade accounting system. Ownership, lease, and royalty information related to the underlying trust assets will also be verified and converted to a recently acquired commercial asset management system.

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