I delivered testimony today in Washington, DC before the House
Appropriations Subcommittee on Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies. It was part of a tribal leader’s panel invited to deliver comments on funding for American Indian/Alaska Native programs.
The testimony in full:
Osiyo.
Chairman Simpson,
Ranking Member Moran, and members of the subcommittee, thank you for the
opportunity to testify before you today. My name is Bill John Baker and I am
the principal chief of the Cherokee Nation.
The Cherokee Nation
is proud of what we’ve accomplished under self-governance. We are proud
partners with the Department of Interior, and are pleased the department and
this administration continue to support tribally-owned businesses.
However, we continue
to be disappointed that the government does meet its obligations, and does not
treat sovereign tribal nations the way it treats other federal partners. The
United States has a legal obligation and trust responsibility to 566 tribes.
This responsibility was established by treaties and agreements – where
sovereign tribal governments agreed to cede land in exchange for federal
commitments.
If the government
would meet its responsibility, or even come close, we could provide even more
effective levels of health care, education, and housing. Policies of
self-determination have worked well for our Nation. Just recently the Nation
and Cherokee Nation Businesses announced the next 100 million dollars of our
business profits will go towards expanding our healthcare system.
The Nation supports
1.2 million patient visits annually. As a comparison, this is slightly more
than Johns Hopkins Community Physicians. We are going to build health clinics
and a hospital – creating jobs in our community – while shortening lines, and
ultimately providing better care for our people. People like Debbie, a Cherokee
citizen who lives in Vinita, OK, who was recently diagnosed with diabetes. She worried about affording treatment for
such an expensive disease, but because of our clinic, she is able to receive
care in her hometown.
If our budgets had
not been reduced because of failure to fully pay contract support costs,
or projected losses due to sequestration, we could do even more.
Because we operate
the largest tribal health care system in the United States, our success depends
on whether we have funding to cover fixed costs. This is more than a trust
issue. It is a civil rights issue.
Indian tribes are
the only federal partners forced to pay these costs up front. When the federal government does not fully
pay contract support costs to tribal partners, it means we have to reduce the
services we provide our people. While I
am thankful that IHS received an increase in the President’s budget, I am
frustrated that the same budget also proposes a cap on IHS and BIA contract
support cost payments. The federal government is not treating us like other
federal partners, and is failing to meet its trust responsibility and fully
fund programs like IHS.
This is only the
backdrop to our current cuts due to sequestration. The Congressional Research Service states
that certain Tribal and Indian trust accounts, all prior legal obligations of
the federal government, and Indian Health Services and facilities should be
exempt from sequestration cuts. Why was Indian Health Services not protected
when Social Security, Medicaid, and numerous other programs were exempt from
sequestration cuts?
The Cherokee Nation
spends a federal dollar better than any federal agency ever could. The Nation’s
audits are clean. Our Treasurer operates our Finance Department with a standard
of excellence in efficiency and effectiveness. This should be rewarded.
Instead, the Cherokee
Nation is forced to cover the shortfall caused by Congress, forcing us to
reduce direct services, quality of care, and funding to our health care
programs. The Cherokee Nation has been successful in providing for our
citizens, but there is so much more we can and will do if the federal
government will honor its legal duty to sovereign tribal governments.
We ask the federal
government to fully fund IHS support costs, support our schools, assist with
safe and affordable housing, and start treating Cherokee Nation the way it
treats other federal partners.
Furthermore, I urge this committee to strongly oppose efforts to impose
a cap on contract support costs. Neither I nor any other tribal leader should
have to stand before this committee, reminding the United States of its
obligations. They are outlined in
agreements, treaty after treaty, and law after law. I urge you to fulfill the trust obligation
owed to the Cherokee Nation and to every other tribe across Indian Country.
Wado.
