National Tribal Environmental Council

NTEC accepted an invitation to testify before the House Appropriations Sub-committee on Interior, Environment & Related Agencies on April 15th about the FY2011 Appropriations bill. Written testimony was prepared in a collaborative effort by Bob Gruenig, NTEC Senior Policy Analyst; Garrit Voggesser, Senior Manager, Tribal Lands Conservation Program, National Wildlife Federation; and Kim Gottchalk, Staff Attorney, Native American Rights Fund.

On April 15th, Executive Director Jerry Pardilla presented the oral testimony.  His testimony highlighted key facts, presented central themes, and focused on three federal agencies and address specific programs.

 Key facts:

There are 564 federally recognized tribes and over 300 reservations. Tribes manage 95 million acres that encompass some of the most pristine habitat in the United States.  Tribal lands contain more than 997,000 acres of lakes, 13,000 miles of rivers, and 18 million acres of forested lands.  Tribes operate 114 fish hatcheries, with many producing threatened or endangered fish species.  Tribal lands provide vital habitat for more than 525 federally listed plants and animals, many of which are both ecologically and culturally significant to tribes.

 Central themes:

1.  Tribes have been historically underfunded for wildlife and natural resources management and conservation.
2. Tribes manage 95 million acres of land, which is 11 million acres more than the National Park Service.
3. Tribes have received disproportionately less funding in new initiatives, are not eligible for certain program funding, and are facing reductions or flat line budget levels.
4. One proposed funding increase is for the Multimedia Tribal Implementation Grants Program.

 Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA):

Climate Change Adaptation Initiative. The Department of Interior began this initiative in September 2009, which tribes support in principle.  However, the FY 2010 funding of $136 million did not include any funding for tribes. The Administration’s FY 2011 funding request calls for an additional $35.4 million, for a total of $171.3 million.  Of this substantial increase, the BIA is slated to receive only $200,000 to involve and assist tribes. This funding level is highly inequitable when considering the disproportionate effect of climate change on tribes and their homelands.

 NTEC requests that the BIA allocation be increased to $8.55 million, or 5 percent of the Climate Change Adaptation Initiative, for tribes to address and adapt to the impacts of climate change.

The justification for this funding request can be made on the basis of land area. Tribal lands (95 million acres) comprise 4 percent of the U.S. land base.  Tribal lands actually represent a much higher percentage when compared to the federal lands (498 million acres) involved in this initiative.

 To achieve an equitable increase for tribes, the funding provided to the various Interior agencies must be reallocated.

 Trust Natural Resources Program. This program represents the largest amount of base federal funding for tribal natural resource management.  Tribes have more than $356 million of unmet annual needs for natural resource management and conservation.  In the last 11 years, the BIA spending on natural resources has been relatively flat when factoring for inflation, and given the historically inadequate annual funding to meet tribal natural resource program needs, the funding needs have multiplied. The annual unmet needs for tribes for natural resource management continue to exist and grow, despite an increase in the FY 2010 funding.

 The Administration’s FY 2011 request is $17.2 million less than the FY 2010 enacted level of $175.62 million.  This proposed reduction is primarily due to an $18.6 million transfer of funding from minerals and mining, in what has been termed “efficiency savings,” and other modest decreases and increases to a variety of tribal programs.

 NTEC requests that the $17.2 million be reinstated and allocated to the BIA Tribal Natural Resource programs, including the: Tribal Management and Development Program; Wildlife and Parks Tribal Priority Allocations; Natural Resource Tribal Priority Allocations; Water Management; Planning and Pre-Development Program; Endangered Species Program; and Rights Protection Implementation.

 The justification for this funding reinstatement and allocation is based on the significant unmet annual needs for tribal natural resource management and the historic underfunding of tribal natural resource programs.  The U.S. Commission on Civil Rights notes, “Native American population needs have increased at a faster rate than inflation, as problems are compounded by years of neglect.”1

 The Administration’s FY 2011 budget request includes $19 million for FBI agents.  While we support additional funding for tribal law enforcement needs, we know that many tribes consider it inappropriate to allocate BIA funding in this manner. This line item does not belong in the BIA budget.  NTEC suggests that the $19 million be redirected specifically for tribal law enforcement programs and to increase funding for tribal climate change adaptation efforts and to make up for the shortfall in tribal natural resources funding.

 U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS):

Tribal Wildlife Grants Program. Tribes are not eligible for funding under federal and fishery restoration programs such as the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act (Pittman-Robertson) or the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act (Dingell-Johnson) that fund activities through an excise tax on hunting and fishing equipment.  Tribal members pay taxes that support this funding, but they remain excluded from receiving the benefits  and only states are allowed to access them.

 In 2002, Congress authorized FWS to provide funding to tribes under the Tribal Wildlife Grant (TWG) and Tribal Landowner Incentive Programs.  Since 2002, tribal proposals have often totaled more than $30 million annually, but no more than $7 million per year has been made available on a competitive basis to all federally recognized tribes. At this low level of funding, very few tribes receive any TWG program funding; those receiving TWG funding typically get very little; and no tribe receives sufficient funding to sustain long-term tribal wildlife and natural resource management efforts.

 From 2002 – 2010, states received 86 times more FWS funding than tribes for fish and wildlife conservation, or $6.25 billion for states compared to $72.2 million for tribes. In FY 2010, states received over $1 billion from the Federal Aid in Wildlife Restoration Act, the Federal Aid in Sport Fish Restoration Act, and State Wildlife Grants programs. In the same period, tribal funding via the TWG Program was allocated $7 million.  In FY 2010, the State and Tribal Wildlife Grant Program received $90 million – a $15 million or 20 percent increase from FY 2009. The Administration’s FY 2011 request for the TWG Program continues at $7 million.  NTEC requests that the TWG Program be increased by at least 20 percent to $8.4 million.

 U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA):

Multimedia Tribal Implementation Grants Program. The Administration’s FY 2011 budget request for the EPA proposes a new Multimedia Tribal Implementation Grants program to support on-the-ground implementation of environmental protection on tribal lands. This program would provide $30 million for tribes to address their most pressing environmental needs. This program would advance negotiated environmental plans and activities on a cooperative basis between tribes and EPA, ensuring that tribal environmental priorities are adequately addressed. In addition, the Administration’s FY 2011 budget request includes $2.9 million for tribal capacity building and implementation of this new grant program.  NTEC requests that these EPA programs be funded at the proposed $32.9 million level.

General Assistance Program. Since 1992, the EPA’s Indian Environmental General Assistance Program (GAP) has served a critical need in providing funding to tribes to build capacity for environmental management. The Administration’s FY 2011 budget request includes a much-needed $8.5 million increase for GAP. This requested increase will help tribal environmental programs to continue to build capacity as well as advance efforts to manage tribal environments. NTEC requests that the EPA GAP Program be funded at the proposed $71.4 million level.

 For more information about this testimony, please contact Jerry Pardilla  (jpardilla@ntec .org) or Bob Gruenig ( This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it ).

 (Footnotes)

1 U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, A Quiet Crisis: Federal Funding and Unmet Needs in Indian Country (Washington, D.C.: U.S. Commission on Civil Rights, July 2003), 11.