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The Week in Review
ending March 3
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President George W. Bush.
Photo © AP. |
Missed our stories? All the headlines for the week can be found
here.
Trust fund battle continues
The battle over the billion dollar trust fund lawsuit
was back in the news this week as the plaintiffs in the case won a major
victory against the federal government with an appeals
court upholding their claims against the Departments
of Interior and Treasury.
But whether or not the decision will force the
government to fix the historically mismanaged system
is another question. Now that her predecessor is long gone,
Interior Secretary Gale Norton is now the target of
criticism, as lawmakers and pundits urge her to settle
the entire matter.
Meanwhile, the Interior will go along with a very small statistical
sampling of the estimated 300,000 Individual Indian
Money (IIM) accounts. Will it waste $70 million in
taxpayer funds and produce no results? Time will soon tell.
Get the Story:
Landmark trust
fund decision upheld (2/26)
EDITORIAL: Norton
should fix trust funds (2/27)
Norton hit on
trust fund mess (3/1)
EDITORIAL: Pay
Indian account holders (3/1)
Bush makes cuts of his own
President George W. Bush pushed his $1.6 trillion tax
cut before Congress and the American public this week
as he made some cuts of his own in the fiscal year 2002
budget.
Confirming widespread rumors, the budget at the Department of
Interior was cut about 4 percent from $10.2 billion
to $9.8 billion. While the change doesn't guarantee
the budget for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and
the Indian Health Service (IHS) will be cut, Indian
Country certainly won't see the same generous increases
as last year.
Bush and Secretary Norton are still pushing their
tribal school pledge -- although they finally revealed
it will take them 5 years to live up to it, which
includes piggy-backing on the gains advanced by the
Clinton administration.
Get the Story:
POLL: Tax cut
not important to Americans (2/27)
Bush pushes tax
cut, budget (2/28)
What you didn't
see last night (2/28)
Bush cuts
Interior budget (3/1)
The Budget
Overview (3/1)
Indian museum
would benefit from budget (3/1)
Federal employees
might get raise (3/1)
more stories
There's still more to read in the recap
of the top stories.
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