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- By Levi Rickert
LAS VEGAS — On Thursday, Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Bryan Newland (Bay Mills Indian Community) spoke at the Reservation Economic Summit (RES 2024) to tribal leaders, tribal econmic leaders, and corporate executives in Las Vegas.
Newland's remarks were aimed to share with the audience the commitment President Joe Biden has demonstrated to tribal communities across Indian Country by providing unprecedented funding.
In his remarks, Newland spoke in terms of dollar amounts - large amounts duing the first three years Biden has been in office.
$45 Billion
The amount of funding that President Biden has invested in Indian Country in three years.
“That is above the annual budget throughout all the federal through all the agencies for Indian Country. For perspective, the record amount of funding for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA), it would take 15 years of BIA funding to equal $45 billion in Indian Country,” Newland said. "That's money that went into all of our communities. And they see it when I go home to my community. And they tell us what that does for their communities."
$3.5 Billion
The amount of funding that President Biden's administration has worked to invest in settling Indian water rights claims with tribas.
"As all of you know, water is an essential to our very life and it's essential to growing our economies in our communities," Newland said.
$1.4 Billion
That is how much money the Department of the Interior spent on goods and services from Indian businesses this last fiscal year.
"For perspective, five years ago, that number was less than $400. So with the development of providing the enact regulations at the Department of the Interior, we have increased the purchasing power of goods and services of the department in your goods and services by a billion dollars," Newland told the audience.
$4.6 Billion
The amount President Biden has put into the Fiscal Year 2025 federal budget requests for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior. In the budget, there is a $71.5 million increase in public safety in Indian Country.
"A lot of that funding will be used to respond to the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women," Newland said.
$200 Million
The amount of funding in the last month that the Department of the Interior has announced that are being distributed to tribes across the country
- $10 million to repair and replace fish hatcheries
- $72 million to hook up homes to electricity that don't have 9000 homes all across Indian country.
- $120 million to find more than 100 trends across the country to help address the impacts of climate change in their communities $200 million in a month.
Newland emphasized the spending in Indian Country is a big deal.
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