Department of the interior, Environment, and Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 2016

Floor Speech

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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Chairman, I rise today to offer a straightforward amendment to ensure local schools within the Bureau of Indian Education have the resources necessary to provide gainful education in quality facilities at a level on par with their peers in other non-Bureau funded schools.

This amendment is also offered and supported by a bipartisan group of my colleagues, including Representatives Cramer, Rokita, Noem, Kirkpatrick, and Sinema.

Our amendment redirects funds from administrative accounts within the EPA to the Operation of Indian Programs account with the intent of those funds going to the BIE and evenly allocated between the education construction, replacement facilities construction account and the elementary and secondary programs, facilities operations account.

Currently, more than one-third of Bureau-funded facilities are in substandard or poor condition. A sizable volume of research, including investigations by the Government Accountability Office, have established a direct correlation between facility conditions and poor student outcomes within the BIE.

The United States Government has trust responsibilities to Indian tribes and Indian education. This amendment supports the trust responsibility by helping to provide high-quality education in an environment that is safe, healthy, and conducive for learning.

I urge my colleagues to adopt this amendment. I thank the supporters of the amendment, and I thank the chairman and ranking member for their great work on this bill.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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