Department Of The Interior, Environment, And Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2010--Continued

Floor Speech

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRONMENTAL, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 2010--Continued -- (Senate - September 22, 2009)

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Mr. THUNE. Madam President, last summer President Bush signed into law a $50 billion foreign aid--HIV/AIDS--bill. Included as part of the PEPFAR bill was a $2 billion authorization that I, and a bipartisan group of Senators, worked to include that focused on the critical public safety, health care, and water needs in Indian country. All of the Senators who worked to include this provision in the final package, including now Vice President Biden and Secretary of State Clinton, recognized that there are great needs internationally, but that we have equal or maybe even greater needs here at home on our Nation's reservations.

The final PEPFAR bill created a $2 billion 5-year authorization, beginning
in fiscal year 2009, for the emergency fund for Indian safety and health. Over the 5-year authorization, $750 million could be spent on public safety, $250 million on health care, and $1 billion for water settlements. The need for increased funding in these three areas cannot be underestimated.

Nationwide, 1 percent of the U.S. population does not have safe and adequate water for drinking and sanitation needs. On our Nation's reservations this number climbs to an average of 11 percent and in the worst parts of Indian country to 35 percent. The Indian Health Service estimates that in order to provide all Native Americans with safe drinking water and sewage systems in their home they would need over $2.3 billion.

The heath care statistics are just as startling. Nationally, Native Americans are three times as likely to die from diabetes compared to the rest of the population. In South Dakota, 13 percent of Native Americans suffer from diabetes. This is more than twice the rate of the general population, where only 6 percent suffer from diabetes. On the Oglala Sioux Reservation in my home State of South Dakota, the average life expectancy for males is 56 years old. In Iraq it is 58, in Haiti it is 59, and in Ghana it is 60--all higher than right here in America. In South Dakota, from 2000 to 2005, Native American infants were more than twice as likely to die as non-Native infants.

Tragically, there are also great needs in the area of public safety and justice. One out of every three Native American women will be raped in their lifetime. According to a recent Department of Interior report, tribal jails are so grossly insufficient when it comes to cell space, only half of the offenders who should be incarcerated are being put in jail. That same report found that constructing or rehabilitating only those detention centers that are most in need will cost $8.4 billion.

The South Dakota attorney general released a study last year on tribal criminal justice statistics and found homicide rates on South Dakota reservations are almost 10 times higher than those found in the rest of South Dakota. Also, forcible rapes on South Dakota's reservations are seven times higher than those found in the rest of South Dakota.

There is no better example of these public safety issues as Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, which is located on the North and South Dakota border. In early 2008, the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation had six police officers to patrol a reservation the size of Connecticut. This meant that during any given shift there was only one officer on duty. One day, the only dispatcher on the reservation was out sick. This left only one police officer to act both as a first responder and also as the dispatcher. This directly impacted the officer's ability to patrol and respond to emergencies, and prevented him from appearing in tribal court to testify at a criminal trial.

Later in the year, I was able to work with my Senate colleagues and the Bureau of Indian Affairs to bring additional police officers to the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation through Operation Dakota Peacekeeper. This effort increased the number of officers working on the reservation from 12 to 37. This operation, which was a success, was only possible because the Bureau of Indian Affairs was able to dramatically increase the number of law enforcement officials on the reservation during the surge. And this dramatic increase in officers was only possible because the Bureau had been given additional public safety and justice funds in 2008.

Since its enactment last year, I have been working with my colleagues to ensure that the emergency fund for Indian safety and health is funded as quickly as possible. Earlier this spring, 13 of us sent a letter to the chairman and vice chairman of the Appropriations Committee asking that the committee increase the allocations in three different bills, including the Interior appropriations bill that we are debating today. As a result of that letter, the allocations in both the Energy and Water Development and Interior appropriations bills were increased by $50 million each, for a total of $100 million.

While this funding increase is a positive sign, neither subcommittee directed this additional funding into the emergency fund as requested. Instead, the Energy and Water Development Subcommittee divided the additional funding up between a variety of water settlement projects, and the Interior Subcommittee provided $25 million for public safety construction and $25 million for ``public safety and justice programs as authorized by the PEPFAR Emergency Fund.''

While I am pleased to see that there has been a $100 million increase in funding for Native American public safety and water projects, I think more could be done if we deposited funds directly into the emergency fund, which would be allocated to the areas of greatest need. The emergency fund, unlike general appropriations, is needed because the fund allows the relevant Federal agencies to spend the additional resources in those places where there are actual emergencies. It would allow agencies, like the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to begin additional operations, like Operation Dakota Peacekeeper, and bring immediate solutions to parts of our nation that are most in need.

That is why I filed my amendment, amendment No. 2503, today. I have filed an amendment that would simply transfer the $50 million increase in public safety and public safety construction funding into the emergency fund. While I do not intend to seek a vote on this amendment today, I am committed to continuing to work in a bipartisan manner for the much needed funding for the emergency fund. Toward that end, I am encouraged by the discussions I have had with several of my colleagues who are willing to continue this effort.

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