5% for the northwest indian fish commission and the columbia river intertribal treaty commission. you look at chippewa ottawa authority and that's a 67% increase. so in the northwest our two intertribal organizations are at a 5% level but these others are at a substantially higher level. so that's one issue that we noticed in the appropriations. a treaty is a treaty regardless of the geographical scope and our needs and our planning desperately need to have funding levels at a place where we can adequately protect our most precious resources. the second issue that relates to natural resources is the pacific coastal salmon recovery fund. at one point at its height in 2002, our funding level was at $110 million.

in 2011, it was 79 million. a further decrease in '12 to 65 million. this proposal for '13 is 50 million, a $15 million reduction. this fund is essential for us as we work to prepare and preserve, protect our water sheds. and, again, our most precious resources and those natural resources that are subject to the endangered species act, as well as protecting our most critical trust obligations, not only for our generation but for future generations, those funding levels must be at a place where our trust interests are protected. the next issue that we would like to speak to has to do with law enforcement and public safety. in the northwest we have tribes that border international waters.

we have tribes in montana, washington that border canada. we've noticed, too, in this budget that there's a proposed reduction of 2.6 million in the special initiatives project. the special initiatives is designed a component of that to contend with international drug trafficking and border security issues. as president of the nation, i can attest to the gravity of law enforcement issues in indian country where we know that drug trafficking organizations have targeted our lands. the bureau, the justice reports that have been released have noted that. we have 30 miles of international border with 2,000 miles of logging roads from the ocean to highway 101, we have 22 points of entry. we've recovered, invested our own dollars into a drug task force.

$400,000 of our own appropriations this year that resulted in first quarter 48 arrests with 100% conviction rate. we've recovered cocaine, heroin, meth, prescription pills and most recently in this last month our drug task force impounded a vehicle that came off of our logging roads and had an explosive device underneath it. this last fall a young mother with two children were hunting in an area next to our lake and they came across a dead body. she was not so long after discovering that body was surrounded by vehicles on all four corners. so we desperately need help in law enforcement. the bad guys have recognized we're very vulnerable. it's not a time to reduce that critical fund. so on behalf of the affiliated

tribes of the northwest indians we fully support nci's request and their proposal and we thank you for this opportunity. >> thank you. thank you very much president sharp for your testimony. chief hicks, will you please proceed with your testimony. >> chairman akaka, we appreciate the opportunity. it's good to be here today. good to be back in d.c. we're here to testify on behalf of the united south and eastern tribes which we're one of the founding members alongside of the seminoles of florida and the miccosukee and mississippi choctaw. there's 26 member tribes within the organization. i've worked for many, many years on budget and finance issues. of course was elected in 2003 as principle chief of the eastern band. i've served as budget and finance director. of course, i also served in a

capacity as an independent auditor for our tribe for a number of years with a new york-based accounting firm. and i've held my certified public accounting license for 18 years now. and the reason i say that it's not to define myself but i understand how difficult the budgeting process is. the eastern band has adopted a what we call a balanced budget act. the cost of our government does not exceed our daily resources and i know you have to deal with a similar structure. one of the thing that i think we've done a very nice job of is identify through a needs base or critical priorities for government. and of course, you know, remembering what the obligation is to the people of our tribe and the people of our region. of course the 2013 budget should reflect a federal priority of honoring its treaty and trust

obligations to indian people. overall i think we can all say that we share concerns related to inflation, especially medical inflation and declines in allocations or allotments to specific areas that affect many of the tribal programs. and of course, the biggest issue that i think that we're all facing is just simple purchasing power. any time inflation kicks in, any time that you have your minimized resources, purchase power declines and it affects the services that we can put on the ground to the people. again, you know, in the various areas. i've been fortunate to travel throughout the nation, and to visit with many of the tribes that i'm testifying for today and there are a lot of needs in any country that are undone. there's a lot of need out there that we as a federal government we can't -- we can't leave it as it is. a number of priorities that have to be addressed. of course, we all are aware of the history of the cherokee people. it's no secret to anyone, the

travesties that have occurred and in addition to the histories and treatment of all native people and tribes. we can't forget these travesties. we must remind ourselves about our obligation as tribal leaders we have to remind you folks about your obligation in regards to the trust responsibilities to take care of the people. i guess as you look at this land that we're blessed with, there's not one inch of this particular land in our great nation that lies without native peoples blood that's entrenched deeply into this soil. not one inch. our identity and traditions are vibrant. even though we're less than 1% of the population, we're still a strong people and we still have considerable needs that have to be taken care of.

usef believe that indian tribes should be held harmless. these budgeting priorities directly impact lives of our native people. and, you know, we've received, you know, various grants and through contracts and et cetera and just a couple of examples. the ihs -- i know there's been some small increases there this year but we have historically seen where surgeries have been postponed that were not life threatening but were critical and, again, with my travels throughout the nation, there's a lot of need out there that has to be met. our hospital is currently funded at 60% of the current levels that it should have. and luckily and, again, we're blessed by having the resources to supplement that. but, again, you know, today many tribes don't have that same opportunity. and, you know, i hope that as we go through this process that that's part of our evaluation, that's part of our assessment as to 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 of the bia are 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 definitely applies to all of indian country. 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 funds have been cut out. we have serviced 6,000 members over the last 12 years with these funds. 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're ill, preventative maintenance, preventative care is how we address the issues, not only today but more importantly in the future. 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 brothers. 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 please 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 of any region in the united states with over 11 million acres. our tribes have a total population of over 189,000 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 therefore call upon congress to maintain the b.i.e. and ihs funding levels. the only way to achieve sustainable gains in education and public safety is to direct federal agencies to streamline their programming to indian country especially for large land base tribes. with high unemployment rates and poverty rates. we like to see funding streams consolidated, reporting requirements simplified and streamlined. federal agencies, especially the bia and ihs should be directed to stop creation of mass subagencies and cities and to start returning funding and decision-making authority to

the regional 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 nations 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 sisseton wahpeton 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 underfunded per acre. how can we bring parity to tribal natural 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 simply are not eligible to even 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 budgets of tribal government, 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 sector partnership 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're able to 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 its sovereignty base, empower tribal communities to tax, 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 what put the

actual services on the ground. those are the costs, they pay for the surgeries or the dental bills, et cetera. 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 streamlining 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 that are on the

ground, down on the reservations, our nations -- all the money is tied up in administrative costs. so we're stuck getting the leftovers after they pay their wages or administrative costs, we get the leftovers, 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 and/or re-evaluation based on need then you can go places. so that's my recommendation as it relates to streamlining. >> 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 now, 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 country it's a gash in an open wound. the needs are desperate. 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 potentially they're 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