NCUIH Budget and Policies Priorities:
Full funding of the request for the Urban line item
Full funding of Indian Country's request for all IHS Programs
Reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act including Title V
Reauthorization of the Special Diabetes Program for Indians
Budget Requests FY 2008 to 2010
NCUIH's anticipated FY 2008 Enacted Budget $34.547 million
NCUIH's FY 2009 Budget Request is $40 million
NCUIH's FY 2010 Budget Request is $44 million
Urban Indian Health Programs zeroed out again in 2009!!!
Please click here or on the "Support Letter" link in the sidebar to go to the NCUIH Support Letter page.
February 26, 2008 was a historic day for Indian Country!!!
The Indian Health Care Improvement Act has successfully passed the Senate by an overwhelming majority (83-10), with Title V intact and no regression from current law on the definition of Urban Indians. In fact, not a single amendment on Urban Indians was offered during the month long debate on S.1200. NCUIH is pleased to report that Senator Enzi came to the Senate floor last night to announce that he had no remaining concerns with S.1200 and urged the Senate to pass the bill. Not a single amendment on Urban Indians was offered during the month long debate on S.1200.
NCUIH wants to particularly thank all of the individuals and organizations that have stood by us during this difficult and arduous process. It is with your help that we are able to celebrate this step towards better health Care for all Indian people.
Where do we go from here?
We must now move forward in the House of Representatives in order to have the Indian Health Care Improvement Act sent to the President this year. If we do not get the bill reported out of the House this year we will have to begin anew in 2009. It is imperative that we do not rest on our laurels, but use our incredible momentum and energy to move the bill forward in the House.
Currently there are two versions of IHCIA in the House of Representatives. One version is the Resources Committee’s version which has already been reported out of committee. The second version is the Energy and Commerce Committee’s version which is currently pending mark-up in full committee. Unfortunately, we have two different versions of IHCIA due to differences between the E&C version and the Resources version. Which means, once E&C reports out their version of the bill IHCIA will have to go to the Rules committee. Before IHCIA can go to the Rules committee, however, it must first go through Ways & Means Committee. After the bill goes through W&M it will go to the Rules committee where a final version of the bill will be agreed upon. Once Rules reports out IHCIA it goes to the House floor. After it gets through the House it will have to go to conference with the Senate as it is highly likely that the House version and the Senate version of the IHCIA will be radically different.
For a simple map of the bills progress: Energy & Commerce TO Ways & Means TO Rules TO House Floor TO Conference TO President’s Desk.
As you can see we have a lot of work still before us in the House. NCUIH is currently working with NIHB and NCAI to formulate a plan for moving forward in the House so that we can get this bill passed and to the President this year. This afternoon we will collectively be meeting with several labor Unions that have agreed to sign on and support the bill in the House. We will also be meeting with House leadership on Wednesday. We will be contacting you soon with more information on how to get this bill passed this year!
Thank you for all of your hard work. We have made amazing progress on this bill, getting further then we have in 10 years! We are not done and need to continue to use our political resources to move the IHCIA this year!
Click here for a press release on the passage of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act
