President Bush's fiscal year 2008 budget completely eliminates three important Indian health, education and housing programs.
At the Indian Health Service, Bush wants to cut the $33 million Urban Indian Health Program. The program helps fund 34 clinics that provide care to more than 100,000 Native Americans.
At the Bureau of Indian Affairs, Bush is cutting the $16 million Johnson O'Malley program that provides services to Indian students in public schools, and the $23.4 million Indian Housing Improvement Program that helps tribes make improvements on reservation homes. "There's never enough money to go around," Jackie Johnson, the executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, tells The Great Falls Tribune.
Bill Martin, the acting director of the Indian Family Health Clinic in Great Falls, Montana, believes Congress will restore funding to the urban clinics. Last year, lawmakers rejected Bush's cut to the program.
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Bush budget slashes Indian health care, education funding
(The Great Falls Tribune 2/7)
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