that's part of our evaluation, that's part of our assessment how do we deal with that. dealing with the b.i.a. and i know there's so many responsibilities that affect education or landing a trust, law enforcement, federal acknowledgment and many other critical programs, and, you know, the chart -- there was a chart up here earlier, it's rather scary where the resource the b.i.e. or going. unfortunately, the responsibilities continue to grow that affect how do we put leases on the ground to promote economic development. how do we get people in homes? you know by having adequate resources for surveys and appraisals. and so there's concern across the board in these various areas. one of the other critical points i think is definitely applies to all. the eastern band has a disturbing health issue and it's called diabetes. 25% of our current population

have some form of the disease. and, again, it's critical. in 2011 the first lady, miss obama, first lady obama identified what we call cherokee choices as a model program for reducing childhood obesity. if you look in the budget this year and this is identified under the centers for disease control and prevention these services have been cut out. we have 6,000 members in the last 12 years with these fun. i know many tribes are affected. if you think about it. you think about the health care of our people, addressing health care is not once we have a disease or once we are ill. preventative maintenance, preventative care is how we address the issues, not only today but more importantly in the future and so i ask that in

consideration of the budget this year, you guys go back and look at this particular area. again, being able to educate our people, being able to promote again the preventative maintenance i think is so important and it's no different for indian people than it is for any other members of the united states. so, again, please focus on this. in closing, you know, i would like to say that the budget identifies a fix and i hope through this congress that that can be addressed because, you know, i believe there's a severe injustice to our indian people. eastern band cherokee is not affected by it but we stand beside our proers. all 565 of them to address this issue. to give us the economic opportunities to give us the land base, to continue to protect our sovereignty and give us that right. i appreciate my time today. and, again, it's good to be back in d.c. may god bless you and the

decision of the committee and this great united states. thank you. >> thank you very much, chief, for your testimony. now chairman shepherd will proceed with your testimony. >> thank you. [ speaking foreign language ] good afternoon, chairman akaka. i'm honored to be here and represent this testimony on behalf of the great plains tribes and consisting of 16 sovereign nations. the great plains tribes have the largest geographical land base with over 11 million acres. our tribes have a total population of over 890,000 people second only to the navajo nation. although we're not adequately

funded. no unit of government can or should ever be asked to operate essential services on competitive grants. these grants are short term funding solutions to long term problems. and now have requirements that some tribes aren't able to meet and this results in limited services. we have, therefore, call upon congress to maintain the b.i.e. and ihs budget. the only way to achieve sustainable games in education and public safety is to direct federal agencies to stream line their programming to indian country especially for large land base tribes. we like to see funding streams consolidated, reporting requirement simplified.

and to start returning funding and decision-making authority to the regional a and reservation level. i would like to remind you today until the united states returns to its contractual treaty obligations, improvements will be limited and our problems will increase. tribal nations know what the problems are. we know what our needs are. and we can solve these problems but it requires restoration of the base funding levels necessary to exercise self-determination. and restoration of control with line authority from reservation and agencies to d.c. and not top down. the written testimony describes the needs in areas of education, the tribal priority programs, housing, trust and national resources, economic development, welfare assistance, indian health care, office of adjusted services, law enforcement, travel courts and transportation. i would like to again remind the

committee as tribal nation we know what our needs are and will continue to satisfy our needs with every resource available. without the necessary funding levels for governmental services as obligated in our signed treaties our needs will not be fully met. on behalf of the great plains, i thank you for your time and consideration of our needs and recommendations. thank you. >> thank you very much for your testimony, mr. chairman. president sharp, you mentioned tribes are ineligible for dozens of natural resource programs across federal agencies and are disproportionately under-funded per acre. how can we bring parity to

tribal resource funding? >> that's an excellent question. thank you, chairman. there's a couple of things come to mind. the first would be to look at the eligibility of tribes to participate in the many opportunities throughout the federal agencies to contend with natural resource areas. we estimate there are millions of dollars available to state and local governments to contend with natural resources that tribes are not eligible to compete. so, it seems if tribes can be included in many other opportunities, it shouldn't matter where geographically, good public policy across the united states means, there aren't those type of barriers. so we have some of the most pristine areas in our travel communities but relative to state and local governments our funding is incredibly short of

where they are at. so that would be one recommendation. on the other it seems that when you look at national goings of tribal governments, the revenue stream that comes in from grants and the federal government is just one revenue stream. there are many others that if congress were to look at one increasing private-sector development within our tribal communities there are some initiatives in the sba and others but by increasing a private sector that allows us to increase our tax base in that those dollars would go to meet things like natural resources. incentivizing private partnerships with tribal communities. if you look at the low-income housing tax credits we can sell those allowing corporations to defer their tax liabilities for ten years we can build housing infrastructure. there's the indian tax credit but effectively it's not working

because we don't have the infrastructure for businesses to locate to take advantage of those tax credits. if tribes were able to sell the tax credit for indian employment, the tax availability, we did the math and if we can sell those just for the employees at our businesses not counting our government but our businesses it would increase our national budget by 25%. so there's a lot of tax policy, there's a lot of economic policy that is separate and apart from the federal funding and appropriations that could increase our national treasuries and it's sovereignty base. insulate us from the intrusion of state and local taxes. that's another drain on our economy. many, many dollars are taken -- i live on the reservation. my house is on the reservation. twice a year i write a tax check to the county. so those are just a few ideas of how we might be able to increase

the parity for natural resources. thank you. >> thank you very much, president sharp. principal chief hicks, in your testimony you state that insufficient funding for contract support costs requires tribes to divert millions of dollars from health care services to fixed administrative expenses. please discuss the impact this has on you said member tribes. and i'm asking this because you three represent different parts of our country, the western, the plain area and you, of course, the south and eastern areas as

well. >> yes, sir. within any organization, of course, there are various costs. you have direct costs and indirect costs. direct costs are those that put services on the ground. they pay for the surgeries or the dental bills, et cetera. but you also have to have the administrative staff to be able to support, you know, the i.t. systems, your human resource systems, the overall management of the operation. so there has to be a balance there. and, again, through defining where the priorities are, they are both priorities. and so in regards to, you know, the contract support cost, they are very important to the operation itself. and we are a compact hospital. we took over our hospital a few years ago. so we manage it ourselves. so those support cost dollars are extremely important to us. of course, you know, between as i mentioned in my testimony, eastern band has, is required to supplement because we're only

funded at about 60% of what our operation needs to service the 15,000 eastern band members that we have in the area. so, again, it's extremely important and i hope that, you know, any restoration of these funds, you know, can be further defined in this budget process. thank you. >> thank you, principal chief. this next question is for the panel. one of the ways that the department of the interior anticipates achieving savings in the president's budget and has been discussed is by stream lining services, reviewing personnel and functions at the region and agency level based on the needs of the tribes. my question to the panel is how

would you like to see the department involve tribes in that effort? what do you think the department should take into account during this review? and let me start by asking chairman shepherd to respond to that and we'll have president sharp next. >> okay. thank you. by stream lining the money i think that would really would get more direct services. the money would be utilized for the services. i know when you have different tiers of administrative offices, a lot of that money isn't being used for the purpose or its intend purposes. so the services down on the

ground down on the reservations, our nations, all the money is tied up in administrative costs. so we're stuck getting the left overs after they pay their wages or administrative costs, we get the left overs, and that's not enough. it's not enough for any of our regions. and through consultation i think is the way to do it and timing is, is important. having the conversation before they make their decision is where we should be having the conversations. a lot of times we get involved when it's too late and we don't really -- we're not very effective when we're too late. so the timing is critical when we get involved with the consultation. thank you. >> president sharp? >> thank you, chairman. i would agree with my colleague direct consultation with any tribe on any proposal is absolutely vital. many times when we had to with stand across the board cuts

there are those unintended consequences that look good on paper but if there's not a connection between that decision and how it's going to be implemented on the ground within indian country some of the impacts are devastating. so as soon as those recommendations are formulated in real-time, consultation, direct engagement with tribal leadership with subject matter experts in health, in all the different areas would be necessary. to your second point at what criteria we would look at, it seems you would look at various personnel. if that personnel, if their work involves procession, administrative functions that are time sensitive those are some things that we've experienced in the past where personnel are cut but that results in a six month delay in getting an appraisal, those sort of things. it seems that the criteria that we would look at is the function that those, that personnel,

those administrative functions, procedures, how that directly relates to our implementation. so i commend the department for looking at stream lining in indian country. we've lived that. we've had to be very efficient and very lean in our operations, and we all should be looking at how dollars, precious dollars could be used to directly benefit indian people. >> thank you. principal chief hicks. >> i think first of all, each system that and within each tribe is unique. i think the first -- one of the most important things i think we can do, instead of talking first and i'm speaking from an agency perspective, i think listen first is -- and then we can get to the point we need to be. you know stream lining is simply not cutting a percentage out of

the budget and say we fixed it. we have to under what the process are. we have to under what the goal is. of course setting those priorities to make sure that, you know, the system is working to its best interest on behalf of each tribe and progressing the tribe. i think as we look at this entire process it obviously involves the parties and in this case the tribes, but, you know, to make sure that, again we listen first and not just dictate this is how we'll do things. i've never believed in across the board cuts but do i believe in if you base, you know, in this case realignment or re-evaluation based on need then you can go place. so that's my recommendation as it relates to stream lining. >> this next question is to the entire panel again.

unless congress acts the federal budget faces sequestration measures which could mean across the board cuts in many indian programs. can you describe the impact this could have on your members? president sharp? >> sure. the impact would be devastating. right the funding for basic services, as i mentioned with our natural resources and law enforcement, basic governmental services are already in desperate need and for some areas the level of cuts that we're facing may seem to be a sliver but for indian needs it's a gash. going back to the first question i would encourage this committee

to seriously consider an overall financial fiscal strategy for indian country that includes those things outside of federal appropriations. i think there's an affirmative duty on this, this congress knowing that those cuts are imminent. knowing that those cuts will run deep into its trust obligations to indian tribes. there is a duty to look at alternative sources of increasing revenue into tribal budget, into our treasuries and there are many, many other creative ways strategic ways to garner precious dollars and resources outside of federal appropriations with the private-sector, with small business development investment. so to answer the question it would be devastating and that want requires a positive duty to look at other approaches to funding our most basic services. >> again, i go back to my comments about the principal

foundation is, you know, before you cut the programs, understand what the needs of the service are, and, again, i don't believe in across the board cuts. i think that, you know, potentially they are detrimental whether it's a large and or small service that's being provided. so you know, i believe that as this budget process rolls out, again, that's my recommendation. let's look at the needs of the people and again, native peoples needs are just as important as anybody in this great united states. and you know, as tribal leaders, i know that we're going to fight for every dime that we can get. and you know, cutting funding for programs that are already underfunded is just simply you know, not the right solution. i mean, native -- we're also survivors. i mean, you know, as we've gone through our histories and you know, with the land takings and again, not receiving our due share, we're going to survive.

but we definitely need help with these services and programs. thank you. >> thank you. mr. chairman shepherd. >> thank you. i agree that it would be devastating to our tribe to our region to indian country as a whole and again, i agree that across the board cuts aren't the way to go. historically, tribes have been underfunded for -- since the beginning. and also, in the beginning, too, tribes were predominant lit self-sufficient prior to the everything that's been happening and us assimilating to the new way of life that we're attempting to still live. and to cut budgets even further, i mean, the treaties, the treaties have been around for a long time. the trust responsibility has been around a long time. and it's never been fully met

financially. a and -- the services i guess is what it comes back to, the services from the government. we're trying to run our own tribal governments. we have our own services. we provide the best we can, and you start cutting the dollars, it's going to take away from the people and it will be devastating for us to continue to cut over the years. thank you. >> well, i want to thank you very much for your patience here and we, i thank you very much for your responses through the questions and your testimony. and i want to again express mahalo, thank you to the witnesses at today's hearing. >> ma ha low. >> the testimony we have heard

today makes it evident that the president's budget request for native programs reflects a concerted effort to fulfill the trust responsibility. however, we urge significant concerns about the potential impacts of streamlining sequestration and balancing fiscal responsibility windchill the trust responsibility. i look forward to continuing these conversations with administration, tribal leaders, like you and tribal organizations. finally, i would like to once again express the importance of hearing from all interested stakeholders on these matters. the hearing record will remain open for written testimony for

two weeks from today. so mahalo, thank you very much. and thank you for being here to help us work together with you to help indian country and the indinl news people of our country. so thank you very much. this hearing is adjourned. >> thank you, chairman. >> thank you. >> mahalo.

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