The U.S. Senate today adopted a measure authored by U.S. Senators Jon Kyl (R-Ariz.) and John Thune (R-S.D.) that authorizes $2 billion to support Native American public safety and water projects. The measure was adopted as an amendment to a larger foreign aid bill, known as the PEPFAR reauthorization bill.
“Native Americans are facing a public safety and health crisis because of a lack of federal funding. Congress must be mindful of its obligations to American citizens before it funds multi-billion dollar programs abroad. Our amendment starts to address the needs in Indian Country by redirecting $2 billion of the $50 billion PEPFAR reauthorization, to Native American public safety and water projects. At $48 billion, PEPFAR is still authorized at over three times the current amount, and $18 billion over the President’s request.”
A 2004 report by the Department of the Interior Inspector General stated that “some [Indian detention] facilities we visited were egregiously unsafe, unsanitary, and a hazard to both inmates and staff alike. BIA’s detention program is riddled with problems . . . and is a national disgrace.”
A 2008 Interior Department-contracted report, known as the “Shubnum Report,” confirms that tribal jails are still grossly insufficient, stating that: “[o]nly half of the offenders are being incarcerated who should be incarcerated, the remaining are released through a variety of informal practices due to severe overcrowding in existing detention facilities.”
The Shubnum Report recommends that the United States construct or rehabilitate 263 detention facilities throughout Indian Country at an estimated cost of $8.4 billion over the next 10 years. Significant funding is also needed for the operation & maintenance of these facilities as well as tribal law enforcement and tribal judicial systems.
Under the Kyl-Thune amendment, up to $1 billion will go to fund law enforcement and health projects, of which 18.5% will be used for detention facility construction, rehabilitation, and replacement; 15.5% will go the Bureau of Indian Affair’s Public Safety and Justice Account, which funds tribal police and courts; 1.5% will be used for investigations and prosecutions of crimes in Indian country; 1.5% will be used by the Justice Department’s Office of Justice Program for Indian and Alaska Native Programs; and .5% will be used for cross deputization or other cooperative agreements between state or local governments and Indian tribes.
Indian health projects, such as the construction of Indian Health facilities and safe drinking water and sanitation facilities serving members of Indian tribes and Alaska Natives, will receive 12.5% of the total funding authorized.
The measure also provides up to $1 billion for Indian water supply projects approved by Congress. This funding could be very helpful in implementing Indian water settlements in Arizona.
The PEPFAR legislation is expected to be approved by the Senate this week. Though Kyl was able to reduce the authorization of PEPFAR, he remains concerned about the total amount – now $48 billion – and some of the policy changes from current law, which he supported in the past.