Thomas Daschle: “Mr. President, I offer this amendment in the hope that we can find some resolution to what we all understand to be a…”

“Mr. President, I offer this amendment in the hope that we can find some resolution to what we all understand to be a very serious problem on reservations. My amendment would simply change the funding mechanism in the bill to ensure that adequate funding is provided to tribes across the country. It would establish a 3 percent national set-aside, and tribal grants would be allotted from the set-aside based on a formula to be determined by the Secretary. Tribes, in both the pending legislation as well as in this amendment, would receive direct funding from the Federal Government to administer their own programs. The difference between the pending bill and our amendment is that, under the pending legislation, tribes would receive money based on the amount the State spent on them in fiscal year 1994. The State grant would be reduced by the amount of the tribal grant. Under our amendment, tribes would be allocated funds directly from the national set-aside. The funding for the tribes would be taken out of that 3 percent set-aside, even before the money is allocated to the States. So it is simply a different mechanism for ensuring that funds are allocated in an appropriate way. Why 3 percent? Mr. President, the poverty rate for Indian children on reservations is 60.3 percent--three times the national average.”