Native Nations desperately need school construction funding. The Administration and Congress have long documented that our Bureau of Indian Education Schools are crumbling, unsafe and unfit to operate as schools. When BIE proposes school replacement the bureaucratic red tape means that Native American schools today have less capacity than our schools did in 1960. The lack of funding for BIE and Tribal Schools is robbing our children of an equal education opportunity. Keep our funding for BIE and Tribal schools in the Reconciliation Bill. Similarly, Indian Health Service (IHS) hospitals and health clinics are have long been neglected. The Pandemic has brought these issues to a crisis level, as Tribal hospitals lose staffing, funding, and soon the functionality of our health care facilities. Congress must maintain and increase the $2 Billion in Hospital facility funding to $5 Billion. The House proposal of $2 Billion for IHS Hospitals and Health Clinics only brings us forward to 1993. The poor health care and poor status of our facilities has been laid bare by Covid-19: Native Americans suffer the highest rates of any people in America in terms of serious injury, hospitalization and death from COVID-19— a rate 2.5 times that of all ethnic groups in America. Finally, Congress must fund Indian Hospitals and Health Clinics because Indian Health Care is a Treaty Right and Trust Responsibility of the Federal Government. While we understand that compromises must be made to advance the Build Back Better plan, we urge Congress and the White House to ensure that each of these crucial components of the plan include robust and direct funding to help Tribal Governments address the significant unmet needs of our communities.
Sincerely, [Tribal Leader/Representative]
CC: [Your Tribe’s Congressional Delegation]
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