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PRESIDENT CLINTON CALLS FOR PASSAGE OF
HIS HISTORIC FY2001 NATIVE AMERICAN INITIATIVE
February 25, 2000
The President today, joined by tribal and congressional leaders, will
call for passage of his $9.4 billion Native American FY2001 budget
initiative, an increase in funding of $1.2 billion over FY 2000 -- the
largest increase ever. Prior to the President's statement, tribal
leaders will meet at the White House today with senior Administration
officials to discuss the Native American initiative. This initiative
recognizes that the entire federal government has a trust responsibility
for Native American tribes. Accordingly, it provides funding across
many agencies, rather than simply at the Department of the Interior's
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and the Department of Health and Human
Service's Indian Health Service (IHS), both of which traditionally have
provided the bulk of funding for Native American communities. This
initiative makes critical investments in education, health care, law
enforcement, infrastructure, and economic development in Indian Country.
SELECTED FY2001 BUDGET HIGHLIGHTS
OF THE CLINTON-GORE NATIVE AMERICAN INITIATIVE
Educational Opportunities, School Construction and Repair
-- More than double funding to $300 million for the Bureau of Indian
Affairs (BIA) School Construction and Repair.
-- $10 Million for Training and Recruiting New Native American
Teachers.
-- $5 Million for the new American Indian Administrator Corps.
-- $50 Million in funding from the new School Renovation Loan and
Grant Program.
-- $77 Million, an Increase of $25 Million, for Tribal Colleges.
Community Empowerment, New Markets and Digital Divide Initiatives
-- $10 Million to Address the Digital Divide.
-- $5 Million for Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI)
Expansion.
-- $4.5 Million for Business Assistance at the Small Business
Administration.
-- $1.25 Million to Expand Business LINC to Indian Country.
-- $650 Million, an Increase of $30 Million, in Block Grants for
Indian Housing.
-- $10 Million Increase to $53 Million to Strengthen Tribal
Environmental Programs.
Public Safety
-- $439 Million, an Increase of $103 Million, to Improve Law
Enforcement in Indian Country.
Health Care
-- $2.6 Billion, an Increase of $230 Million, for the Indian Health
Service.
Building and Repairing Infrastructure
-- $349 Million, an Increase of $117 Million, to Build Roads and
Bridges in Indian Country.
-- $49 Million, an Increase of $46 Million, for Tribal
Infrastructure Projects.
Details of the initiative include:
Providing for Educational Opportunities, School Construction and Repair
Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) School Construction and Repair. The
President proposes $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.
Training and Recruiting New Native American Teachers. 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 budget proposes $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.
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.
Increased Funding for Tribal Colleges. The budget proposes a total
of $77 million, an increase of $25 million over FY2000, 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.
Empowering Communities, Expanding New Markets Initiatives
Addressing the Digital Divide. The Administration proposes this new
initiative to encourage Native Americans to pursue as a course of study
information technology and other science and technology fields 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.
Community Development Financial Institution (CDFI) Expansion. The
Administration requested an increase over last year's funding of the
CDFI program to continue building a national network of community
development banks. 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.
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.
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.
Indian Housing. The budget provides $650 million in block grants for
the Indian Housing Block Grant program at the Department of Housing and
Urban Development, an increase of $30 million over FY 2000. Within BIA,
$32 million, a doubling over the 2000 level, will be used to repair or
replace dilapidated homes across Indian Country.
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 FY2001 proposed level of $53 million.
Promoting Public Safety
Improving Law Enforcement in Indian Country. The budget includes
$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. 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.
Providing Health Care
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.
Helping to Build Infrastructure
Building Roads and Bridges in Indian Country. The President's budget
proposes to give the Indian Reservations Roads program at the Department
of Transportation 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. Within the BIA, $32
million will be used to maintain BIA and tribal roads on reservations.
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.