Thank you, Congressman Simpson, for your friendship and commitment to make sure the federal government fulfills its trust responsibility.

The proposed reductions are unacceptable as far as I am concerned, but we will see how the Committee reacts...

We need a good educational program within Congress to educate Members to the amount of money we spent on health care in Indian Country versus the rest of whatever government does.

We believe funding for this program should be restored.

I suspect this year we will also have to again fight off some amendments from some people that would like to do away with a lot of the arts.

So I know that is not on your topic and not your responsibility but I would just ask, as you do have the opportunity to interact with a lot of members and influence a lot of people, just get them to think about the big problems and have…

I will be the first to admit it would be nice if we had some more money.

Thank you. I thank all the panelists for being here today, and look forward to working with you as we develop this upcoming budget.

It is really surprising. I had never really thought about it before...

Simplifying that would be a huge step forward.

Would we all not be better off if those resources--or at least a majority of those resources--were used in managing public lands rather than in courts?

When you look at the rate of crimes against women on reservations, it is appalling.

We are going to have to have a lot more revenue for that.

I am one of those who happens to believe you have got to do everything to reform entitlement programs.

We tried to make sure that NASA did not send over the Landsat Satellite without the money, which, unfortunately, the budget was proposing to do.

Several of us have been trying to figure out how we are going to fund these systems.

I am going to have to go get a Bartlett's quotation book.

it is just stupid to build facilities and not put the staff in there for them.

I appreciate that very much.

the biggest threat really is the deficit that we are facing.

America needs to get involved in this budget discussion because it is ordering priorities but it is also recognizing that there is a finite set of resources.

we are going to need some help in trying to push that through, because, you know, everybody throughout Congress has different priorities.

I am just trying to fund it, and to fully fund it.

I am a big fan of historic preservation, and, as a country, we are still a young country compared to, you know--

We are also concerned about the reduction of $12.4 million from the Alaska Conveyance Program.