Proposed IHS and BIA Budgets Include Contract Support Increases

The recently released proposed Indian Health Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs budgets show increases for contract support. IHS will have a 13 percent increase. The BIA’s increase is not yet known because it has not been finalized.

Tribes that will for the first time be negotiating 2 and 3 rate agreements should be aware of these increases as it will impact the approach that they decide to take when establishing these new rates. Careful planning and strategizing is imperative in order to maximize recoveries.

For additional information, contact Richard Phelps at 1-800 992 4489, ext. 101.

Echo Hawk Approved for Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Post

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee yesterday approved by voice vote the nomination of Larry Echo Hawk for the Department of Interior’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs post, the Associated Press reported.

In this post, Echo Hawk will develop DOI policy on Indian affairs-related issues and make budget recommendations that affect Indian education, public safety, social health and welfare, economic development, energy development, federal recognition of tribes and other issues.

He will oversee the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), the Bureau of Indian Education (BIE), the Office of Indian Gaming, the Office of Self-Governance, the Office of Indian Energy and Economic Development (OIEED), the Office of Federal Acknowledgement, the Office of Budget Management and other offices at the Department of the Interior related to tribes, individual Indians and Indian lands.

Nominated by President Obama in April, Echo Hawk said economic development, education and public safety in Indian Country will be among his top priorities. He also said Indian health is an area that requires special attention.

Echo Hawk, Pawnee, is a law professor at Brigham Young University. He served as Idaho Attorney General from 1991 to 1995.

Interior Internet Security Remains an Issue

The Washington Post reported yesterday that despite warnings that its computer network was vulnerable to hackers, the Interior Department “persistently failed to meet minimum standards in information security.”

The information was disclosed in a report written last spring by then-Inspector General Earl Devaney. The report was made public last week when it was filed with a federal appeals court as part of the Cobell lawsuit.

The Bureau of Indian Affairs was reconnected to the Internet last year after several years of a court ordered disconnection because of security concerns.