Health and Human Services Budget
The federal discretionary budget process for the Indian Health Service and the Urban Indian Health Program begins one year prior to the Congressional process with the annual HHS Tribal Budget Consultation. IHS and HHS begin the consultation process with regional consultation meetings with area Tribes, Tribal Organizations, and Urban Indian Health Programs. NCUIH supports the individual programs during the regional meetings by providing a national level view of the other the needs of the Urban Indian Health Program as well as any individual technical assistance that the programs may require.
After IHS and HHS complete their regional consultations, IHS convenes the IHS budget workgroup composed of Tribal Leaders and technical staff who draft the Indian recommendations for the IHS budget. NCUIH supports this workgroup by providing recommendations drafted through consultation with the NCUIH board and with information from the programs gleaned during the regional consultations. After the IHS budget workgroup convenes, HHS holds the annual Tribal Consultation often held during the first week of March. HHS provides Tribes, Tribal Organizations and Urban Indian Health Organizations the opportunity to provide recommendations directly to HHS as well as offering a range of breakout sessions designed to facilitate relationships between Indian health providers and the myriad of HHS departments. This consultation process forms the basis of Indian recommendations that Tribes, Tribal Organizations, Urban Indian Health Organizations, and the national Indian organizations (NCUIH, NIHB, and NCAI) then take to Congress during the Congressional appropriations process the following year.
For a list of Urban Indian-related HHS and IHS budget documents, click here.
Once both the House and
Senate have had final votes on the budget resolutions the appropriators can
begin their work. The appropriators begin the process of developing the
'302(b) allocations' which sets the amount of money each appropriations
subcommittee can spend in their respective bills based upon the set by the
budget resolutions. Once the 302(b) allocations are set and the subcommittees
have finished their hearings the appropriators decide upon the final amount of
funds each federal agency may spend during that fiscal year.
If these bills are not
finished through the regular legislative process Congress has two options: 1)
to pass what is called a 'Continuing Resolution' which funds the federal
government at the level of the previous fiscal year until the necessary
appropriations bills are completed, or 2) to compile all of the outstanding
appropriations into a single 'Omnibus' package and attempt to pass all of the
bills at once.
NCUIH educates Congress about the tremendous need of funding services for Urban
Indians and Urban Indian Health Organizations at each point during the budget
and appropriations process. NCUIH works with the Budget Committees to ensure
the appropriate inflation and need calculations are applied to the overall IHS
budget to attempt to ensure that IHS comes as close to full funding as
possible. Once the process moves to the appropriators, NCUIH provides testimony
to the committees' of jurisdiction, helps prepare individual UIOs to provide
their own testimony, and provides analysis of the appropriations bills and
process.
LATEST UPDATES in 2011:
Click here for NCUIH's testimony submitted to the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee for Native American Witness Day.
Click here for NCUIH's testimony on Urban Indian Health Programs presented at the HHS Tribal Budget Consultation in February, 2011
FY2011 Urban Indian Health Recommendations
NCUIH FY2012 HHS Budget Consultation Testimony
Previous years'
appropriations bills, Presidential Proposed Budgets, NCUIH testimony, NCUIH
budget recommendations, and other budget and appropriations related materials
can be found at the Knowledge Resource Center
