WASHINGTON — Behind the modest funding increases in President George Bush’s proposed 2008 budget for American Indian programs lie glaring cuts in funding for health care for those who live off the reservation and educational opportunities for Indian children who attend public schools.

In the budget plan he rolled out Monday, Bush proposes to eliminate the $33 million Urban Indian Health Program, a system of 34 health clinics around the country, including five in Montana, that provide low-cost health care to Indians who live in urban areas.

This is the second year that Bush has proposed eliminating the program, and also for a second year supporters are gearing up for a fight to save it. Both houses of the then-Republican-controlled Congress last year refused to go along with the proposal.

On Monday, Bush asked Congress for $99.6 billion to continue paying for the wars this year and for another $145 billion next year.

“Most of us are not in favor of the continued aggression and we’d like the money to be poured into social programs in the United States (instead),” Martin said, expressing his personal view. “We’re watching (domestic) programs suffer terribly financially while billions are going overseas.”

Martin’s Great Falls clinic serves about 1,300 people.
In a statement, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., said he will fight the proposed cuts.
“There are basic needs that are not being met, such as clean drinking water and quality affordable health care, and that’s not right,” Baucus said. “We need to be investing in Native American programs.”

Bush’s budget proposes to give Indian tribes $16 million next year to hire and train more police officers to fight the “methamphetamine invasion” on reservations. It also proposes to give the Bureau of Indian Education an additional $15 million to help students achieve the goals established by the No Child Left Behind Act. BIE educates 50,000 children in 184 federal Indian schools. Bush’s budget requests $562 million for the agency.

But 350,000 Indian students attending state public schools could see their educational opportunities shrink if Congress approves Bush’s plan to eliminate the Johnson-O’Malley program. That program, which received $16 million this year, provides tutoring and other services to help Indian children succeed in public schools.

“Being a parent whose children relied heavily on the Johnson-O’Malley program, I can tell you it was essential to their academic success,” said Jacqueline Johnson, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians. “(The school) had a person there on staff who was able to identify those students who needed a little extra attention, a little bit of help in navigating the system a little bit better.”

Bush also wants to eliminate the $23.4 million Indian Housing Improvement Program. Tribes use the money primarily to help members deal with emergency housing problems, Johnson said.

“It can help build a handicapped assistance ramp, put in a boiler or fix wind infiltration, those kinds of things,” Johnson said. “There’s never enough money to go around.”

Contact Faith Bremner at fbremner@gns.gannett.com

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