Once again, Congress did not complete its core task of funding the government. Instead the leadership will continue last year’s funding until March 31, 2017.
Congress has decided not to pass any actual appropriations bills for the fiscal year that began last month (FY 2017). Instead, it will approve a “continuing resolution” for most agencies and programs, which will freeze their funding at FY2016 levels, at least until the end of March, 2017.
Several Native American programs were slated for at least modest in the coming year. The appropriations committees in both the House and the Senate had agreed on similar levels of funding in their separate bills… but none of the bills ever completed the entire process.
A continuing resolution, or “CR,” will mean that
- The Bureau of Indian Education schools will not receive an increase between $22 and $41 million for operations;
- The Indian Health Services will not receive an additional $84 to $154 million boost for clinical and preventive services;
- Indian Health facilities, which committees in the Senate and House closely scrutinized for their poor conditions this year, will not receive an additional $20 to $35 million;
- There will be no generous increase in business loans to tribes, or grants for “shared transportation” programs and infrastructure; and
- Human Services (including programs like youth suicide prevention and supports for children and elders) will make do without the $12 to $15 million addition that the committees in the House and Senate were prepared to allocate.
This failure to appropriate occurred (again) because the 114th Congress was too tied up in partisan power struggles to get their work done. The people who suffer from this squabbling might belong to either party or none, but their health care, their children’s education, and the future of their youth are probably much more important to them than any political points scored by the machinations of congressional leaders.
