Patty Murray: “Senator Gorton and I have been working with the Puyallup Tribe of Washington to establish base funding in the BIA budget…”

“Senator Gorton and I have been working with the Puyallup Tribe of Washington to establish base funding in the BIA budget for the Medicine Creek Tribal Community College in Tacoma, WA. The Tribe has been working diligently and patiently with the BIA to secure the necessary accreditation to facilitate such base funding. I am happy to report that the tribe has just recently received such accreditation. However, the BIA has recently denied the Puyallup request for funding on the grounds that they had not established their accreditation, even though that was not a requirement of the BIA rules when the initial request for funding was made. On April 8, 1997, I wrote the BIA to express my concern regarding an apparent accreditation 'catch-22'. It seemed that in order to be accredited, the school needed to demonstrate a secure funding base. However, to secure a funding base the college needed to be accredited. I expressed to the BIA my sincere desire to see this apparent conundrum resolved. Over the past several months, it appeared that the BIA was, in fact, moving to address this issue. In a recent meeting the tribe had with Michael Anderson, Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, they were assured they would receive funding for fiscal year 1998. But we now understand that the BIA has changed its mind and indicated that Medicine Creek Tribal College will not receive funding for fiscal year 1998. This is not acceptable.”