Priations for Fiscal Year 2017

DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR, ENVIRON- MENT, AND RELATED AGENCIES APPRO- PRIATIONS FOR FISCAL YEAR 2017 U.S. SENATE, SUBCOMMITTEE OF THE COMMITTEE ON APPROPRIATIONS, Washington, DC. NONDEPARTMENTAL WITNESSES [CLERK’S NOTE.—The subcommittee was unable to hold hearings on nondepartmental witnesses. The statements and letters of those submitting written testimony are as follows:] PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE 1854 TREATY AUTHORITY 1854 TREATY AUTHORITY The 1854 Treaty Authority (Authority) is a tribal organization funded by a Public Law 93–638 contract with the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) under its Trust-Nat- ural Resources Management-Rights Protection Implementation (RPI) budget. —The Authority supports the administration’s proposed $40,161,000 for BIA Rights Protection Implementation (an increase of 2,500,000) and a proportionate share for the Authority. However, while the Authority supports the 2,500,000 increase to RPI funding, we do not agree that the increase should be open to a ‘‘competitive proposal-based process’’ as outlined in the BIA fiscal year 2017 Justifications (a.k.a. BIA Greenbook), but any increase should be allocated in the same proportions as it has historically been distributed. —The Authority supports the full finding of contract support for its Public Law 93–638, Self-Determination contract at no less than the administrations proposed $278,000,000. —The Authority supports maintaining funding for the EPA Great Lakes Restora- tion budget at least at its current level of $300,000,000. The Authority is a tribal organization responsible for protecting, preserving, and regulating the treaty-reserved hunting, fishing and gathering rights in the territory ceded to the United States by the Chippewa in the Treaty of September 30, 1854, 10 Stat. 1109. The Bois Forte Band and the Grand Portage Band created the authority following Federal court affirmation of the rights in 1988. As part of a court- approved agreement with the State of Minnesota, the Bands have obligations to preserve the natural resources in the five (5) million acre ceded territory and to regu- late the activities of Band members through a conservation code, enforcement offi- cers, and a court. The Authority has also been involved with a variety of inter-agen- cy efforts to study the effect of invasive species, climate change, and activities that impact treaty resources. Although it has significant responsibilities in a geographic area the size of Massa- chusetts, the Authority has only fifteen (15) full-time employees. With those limited resources, the Authority has been able to collaborate with State, tribal and Federal agencies to become a prominent presence in the conservation of resources critical to the subsistence hunting, fishing and gathering activities of the Chippewa. However, the successes of the Authority are overshadowed by the challenges fac- ing the trust resources that are at the heart of the treaty rights. The Minnesota moose population has declined precipitously in just a few years and for reasons un- known, invasive species and climate change threaten the treaty fishing and wild rice (1) 2 production areas across the ceded territory, and human activities continue to de- plete or displace wildlife populations. The Authority urges the subcommittee and the Congress to acknowledge that the resources we seek to protect are trust resources, reserved in treaties that the United States has a legal obligation to protect and preserve. PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE ALEUTIAN PRIBILOF ISLANDS ASSOCIATION The requests of the Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA) for the fiscal year 2017 Indian Health Service (IHS) budget are as follows: —Funding for a health facility replacement project in Atka, Alaska. —Provide or require the IHS to allocate an additional $12.5 million to fully fund Village Built Clinic Leases and make it a line item in the budget. —Place IHS funding on an advance appropriations basis. —Continue with indefinite funding for Contract Support Costs (CSC) but without the fiscal year 2016 proviso limiting carry-over authority, and make indefinite CSC funding permanent and mandatory. The Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association (APIA) is a regional non-profit tribal organization with members consisting of the 13 federally recognized tribes of the Aleu- tian Chain and Pribilof Islands Region. APIA provides healthcare services to the Alaska Natives in four of the tribal communities of this Region through funding re- ceived from IHS under Title V of the Indian Self-Determination and Education As- sistance Act (ISDEAA). We also provide health-related services through various non- IHS grants and agreements. ATKA CLINIC REPLACEMENT We are requesting $2.9 million for a health facility replacement in Atka, Alaska. —During World War II, Atka Health Clinic was also destroyed along with the en- tire community by the United States Navy to keep our enemies from using the area. —In Atka the APIA is working with and helping the City of Atka on a grant and funding package. —In Unalaska a Joint Venture application with the Indian Health Service is approved, which also includes Atka. —The Current Atka Health Clinic is inadequate to provide the care the community deserves, it is beyond repair and even a simple window replacement cannot be supported with the existing structure. It is vulnerable to weather & the life safety code. —The Atka IRA Council, the City, APIA & APIDCA have taken the first steps to finance the design in the amount of $128,000. —Site-work plans, foundation design, floor plans & draft RFP for a modular build- ing is completed. —The Atka Health Clinic is a newly designated Community Health Center that serves everyone regardless of race or ability to pay; it is a Veterans service site, as well as an Indian Health Service site. —We are ready to take this project to the next level & begin the construction phase. —We are specifically requesting support for construction funding in the amount of $2,923,100. FUNDING FOR VILLAGE BUILT CLINICS IN ALASKA The Village Built Clinics (VBCs) continue to face a significant funding crisis. We thank you for the $2 million appropriated in fiscal year 2016 to supplement what was being spent on clinic leases and are heartened by the administration’s request of $11 million in fiscal year 2017 ($9 million increase plus $2 million from fiscal year 2016) for this same purpose. VBCs are leased by the IHS from other entities and are a vital component of the provision of basic healthcare services in rural Alaska, as they serve as the clinic space for the Community Health Aide Program (CHAP). The CHAP utilizes a net- work of community health aides and practitioners to provide primary healthcare services in otherwise unserved rural and isolated areas. Rental amounts for the VBCs have failed to keep pace with costs—the majority of the leases for VBCs have not increased since 1989. As a result, many of the VBCs are unsafe or have had to be closed, leaving some villages in Alaska without a local healthcare facility. 3 In addition, the President’s proposed fiscal year 2017 clinic lease bill language may need some clarification, depending on IHS’s interpretation of the reference that healthcare be delivered in a space acquired through a ‘‘full service lease’’. In some cases tribes receive VBC funding as part of their recurring base, and so the IHS no longer has ‘‘full service leases’’ in place for those clinics. We know that the Ap- propriations Committees do not intend to limit VBC eligibility based on unclear ter- minology. In sum, these amounts are a step in the right direction but the 2105 ANHB study that analyzed the funding deficiency statewide for these facilities identified an increased need of $12.5 million increase. We urge that the full amount needed be appropriated. We also support maintaining this funding as a line item in the bill. IHS ADVANCE APPROPRIATIONS & MANDATORY CONTRACT SUPPORT COSTS We continue to support placing the IHS budget on an advance appropriations basis, as Congress has done with the Veterans Administration (VA) health accounts. The fiscal year 2016 budget justification for the VA said advance appropriation is necessary to ‘‘fulfill the administration’s commitment to provide reliable and timely resources to support the delivery of accessible and high-quality medical services for veterans.’’ Advance appropriations for the IHS is equally important to the predict- able and timely funding of healthcare for Alaska Natives and American Indians, and for us to more effectively use our resources in what is otherwise a difficult fiscal environment. We wish to extend our appreciation to the subcommittee for its support for full funding of CSC. We support the President’s proposal for an appropriation in fiscal year 2017 of ‘‘such sums as may be necessary,’’ with an estimated $800 million for CSC for the IHS in a separate accounts within the IHS’s discretionary budget. We join with others in Indian Country, however, in asking that the proviso from the fiscal year 2016 appropriations language (‘‘amounts obligated but not expended by a tribe or tribal organization for contract support costs for such agreements for the current fiscal year shall be applied to contract support costs otherwise due for such agreements for subsequent fiscal years’’) be removed in 2017 and thereafter. We also believe that indefinite CSC funding should ultimately be made permanent and mandatory, beginning no later than fiscal year 2018. We appreciate your consideration of our request outlined in this testimony. On be- half of APIA and the people we serve, I am happy to provide any other additional information desired by the subcommittee. [This statement was submitted by Dimitri Philemonof, President and CEO.] PREPARED STATEMENT OF THE AMERICA’S GREAT WATERS COALITION Albemarle-Pamlico Sound • Apalachicola-Chattahoochee-Flint River Basin Chesapeake Bay • Coastal Louisiana • Colorado River • Delaware River Everglades • Galveston Bay • Great Lakes • Gulf of Maine • Lake Champlain Long Island Sound • Mississippi River • Missouri River • Narragansett Bay New York/New Jersey Harbor and Hudson Estuary • Ohio River Puget Sound • Rio Grande • San Francisco Bay St.

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