1. Presenters BIA Tribes Diane Rosen, Regional Director
Darrell Seki, Tribal Treasurer, Red Lake Band of Chippewa Indians
Mark Montano, Director of Tribal Operations, Red Cliff Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Indians

2. The Midwest Region serves 35 Tribes in :
Minnesota
Michigan
Iowa
Wisconsin
Indiana

3. Wetlands Acres 4.8 million Stream Miles 15,396
Natural Resources
Midwest Region
(all Indian land including treaty and ceded areas)
Total Acres million
Forest Acres 41 million
Lakes Acres million
Wetlands Acres million
Stream Miles ,396

4. President’s Requested Increases (Decreases) to the 6 Largest Interior Agencies Over the Prior Year Enacted Level.
FY 2012 Budget Request
FY 2013 Budget Request
This chart shows the President’s requested increases/decreases for the FY 2012 and 2013 budget years.
During the last two budget cycles, the trend of favoring other Interior agencies over the BIA has continued.
We showed you the chart on the left last year, after the President’s 2012 budget was rolled out. The budget clearly favored all other Interior agencies over BIA.
The chart on the right is based on the 2013 budget request. It appears a bit better then the chart on the left, but when taken in context with the next slide, perhaps not so.

5. FY 2012 Congressionally Enacted Funding Decreases for the 6 Largest Interior Agencies
This chart shows that in FY 2012, all of the 6 largest Interior agencies received budget cuts, but BIA received the largest cut of all.
The last two years have not been friendly to the Indian Affairs overall budget.
(Note: at some point Larry or someone may bring up the fact that $50 million was provided one-time for College forward funding in FY 2010, and the $50 million was removed in If they bring it up, our response could be that it should not have been removed, because BIA would need about $125 million in new funds to put us on par with the growth in the other Interior agencies over the last 10 years.)

6. Budget Increases for the 6 Largest Interior Agencies FY2004 to FY2013
This chart shows the percentage growth in the budgets of Interior agencies over the last 10 years, including the President’s most recent request.
The BIA budget has obviously grown the least - less than 1% per year on average.
We do want to give credit to Larry and the BIA for rolling out the 2012 and 2013 budgets with tribal priorities in mind, while sacrificing the BIA’s own programs to do so.
But the fact is, the BIA’s funding levels have been constrained compared to other Interior agencies. They continue to outcompete us, and this must stop.
The needs of tribes will continue to go unmet until the Administration and Congress reverse themselves, and provide major increases to the BIA.
The FY 2014 BIA budget should be increased by 25% over FY 2012 levels.

7. Midwest Region Budget Priorities
Public Safety
Human Services
Education & Natural Resources
We’ll now turn to a discussion of the Midwest Region’s top 3 funding priorities

8. Public Safety Funding Levels for BIA Law Enforcement (LE) and Courts, FY 2005-2013.
Funding for Law Enforcement and Detention services have seen substantial increases in recent years. We support these increases and they should continue.
However, as law enforcement increases, the demands on tribal judicial systems also increases.
The Tribal Law and Order Act has also placed additional demands on tribal courts.
However, BIA Courts funding has advanced at less than half the rate of Law Enforcement – 38% vs 82% over last 9 years.
There has been only one increase to tribal Courts in a couple of decades, $10 million back in And only half of this went to tribal court base increases.
A $1 million increase is requested in FY 2013, but that is much too low. It is time to focus greater resources on tribal Courts, and we recommend a $20 million increase in 2014, with $15 million of that for tribal court base increases.
Finally, we thank you for including $500,000 for the Conservation Law Enforcement Officer program (CLEOP) in FY 2013.
This would fund 10 CO’s across the nation. Unfortunately, this amount is woefully inadequate.
The BIA originally justified this program to start in FY 2012 with $5 million, and 50 positions.
In FY 2014, we request the $5 million for the CLEOP be added to the budget.
Note: The FY 2013 amounts represent the President’s request.

9. Human Services
Many human services programs have seen consistent declines over the years.
Road Maintenance performs critical repair and maintenance activities which save lives every year, but it is dramatically under-funded.
The Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA) program performs a range of services designed to keep Indian children with their families, and is severely under-funded.
The Welfare Assistance program is Indian Country’s “Safety Net”. The U.S. government has invested heavily in Unemployment Compensation during these hard times as America’s “Safety Net”, but this program is largely unavailable on reservations, because we have faced far greater unemployment rates for such a long time.
Although the Social Services program has seen some recent increases, these have been targeted, and did not go to most tribes base service programs.
These programs cannot continue to function effectively when, year after year, funding levels are reduced.
We recommend a $5 million increase to each of these programs in FY 2014.

10. Education and Natural Resources
Midwest tribes aren’t alone in frequently citing Scholarships and the Johnson O’Malley programs as priorities for them.
The Scholarships program received a much needed $5 million increase in 2010.
We appreciate the FY 2013 requested increase of $600,000 for Scholarships, but this amount is very small.
The JOM program has seen consistent funding decreases for years, yet JOM provides very important education services that aren’t provided by any other source.
We request a $5 million increase to both of these programs in FY 2014.

11. Education and Natural Resources
As the home to the 6 largest lakes in America, Midwest tribes take resource management seriously.
Most BIA natural resources programs were cut under the previous Administration, but we made some of that up the last two years.
The FY 2013 budget requests an increase of $3.6 million for Rights Protection. $1.6 million of this amount is for the Chippewa-Ottawa Resource Authority, and is a requirement for implementation of the Inland Consent Decree which settled the United States V. Michigan court case.
The FY 2013 budget also includes a much needed $2 million increase for Tribal Management/Development programs, including the award winning Circle of Flight. All tribes and intertribal organizations with TMD programs must share proportionally in any increases, including self governance tribes.
There is a $1 million increase in FY 2013 for TPA Forestry, though decreases are slated for Administrative Cost savings.
Additional increases requested in FY 2013 include $500,000 for Invasive species, and $800,000 for Cooperative Landscape Conservation, and we support these increases.
Most of the tribal TPA base funds which allow tribes to manage our natural resources reside in BIA budget categories including Tribal Management/Development; Natural Resources TPA; Wildlife & Parks TPA; and Forestry TPA. Most of the funding levels in these categories that are designated as tribal base funds have remained flat years.
We again urge that BIA provide an increase to the core tribal base programs within these budget categories by at least $5 million each in FY 2014, as tribal base programs have remained flat for years.