[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 36 (Friday, March 25, 1994)]
[House]
[Page H]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: March 25, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
 AN AMENDMENT TO SENATE CONCURRENT RESOLUTION 63 REGARDING THE INDIAN 
                             HEALTH SERVICE

 Mr. BINGAMAN. Mr. President, I rise today to offer an 
amendment addressing the administration's proposed budget for the 
Indian Health Service. I thank the distinguished chairman of the Senate 
Budget Committee, Senator Sasser, and the distinguished ranking member 
of the committee, Senator Domenici, for their assistance and support 
for this amendment.
  I am offering this amendment because I am apprehensive about the 
ability of the Indian Health Service to fully meet the health care 
needs of American Indians in my home State of New Mexico and throughout 
the country. Rather than cutting the IHS budget as the administration 
has proposed, I believe the Congress and the administration should work 
together to ensure that all IHS facilities are fully staffed and 
capable of meeting the health care needs of the American Indians and 
Alaska Natives who depend on the IHS. In addition, this amendment 
states that the IHS should have funding sufficient to ensure that basic 
public health and safety and sanitation requirements on Indian lands 
can be met through timely and proper water infrastructure construction 
and upgrades.
  Over the past few months, many Indian tribal leaders have contacted 
me to express their grave concerns about the administration's decision 
to cut 460 positions [FTE's] from the Indian Health Service's staff 
over the next 2 fiscal years. Pueblo governors and tribal leaders from 
New Mexico have told me that a cut of this magnitude--nearly 8 percent 
of all IHS employees--could irrevocably harm an already inadequate 
system of health care for American Indians unless adequate safeguards 
are in place. As a Senator from New Mexico, I am particularly 
apprehensive about the newly constructed IHS hospital in Shiprock, NM, 
which is scheduled to open this summer. We need to ensure that this 
facility does not open underequipped and understaffed.
  Mr. President, I fully understand the need to bring Federal spending 
under control. But I also share President Clinton's commitment to 
health security for all Americans. It is for this reason that I am 
offering this amendment. My amendment does not guarantee funding, but 
it puts the administration on notice that people are concerned about 
this issue and it represents a commitment by the Congress to properly 
and effectively address IHS funding and staffing matters.
  Too often in the past, the Federal Government has overlooked the 
healthcare needs of American Indians. As a result, the Indian Health 
service currently meets only 45 percent of the total estimated health 
care need of our Nation's 1.3 million American Indians and Alaska 
Natives. Of those Indian people who do have access to care through the 
Indian Health Service, many still lack adequate access to the type of 
comprehensive health care embodied in the President's Health Security 
Act, particularly with respect to preventive care.
  Now is not the time to propose cuts in the budget of the Indian 
Health Service. We simply must not let our zeal to lower the Federal 
budget deficit and cut waste from the system do harm to Indian children 
and families. Instead, we should be working to ensure that American 
Indians have access to the basic health services they need. We need to 
be working with Indian people to develop better strategies for 
implementing preventive health programs, including vitally needed 
alcohol abuse prevention programs and programs aimed at reducing 
diabetes and other chronic diseases among American Indians.
  Mr. President, we know that when access to preventive health care 
services is limited, the consequences in terms of health status and 
economics are significant. Already, American Indians suffer higher 
rates of fetal alcohol syndrome [FAS] and diabetes than any other 
population in the United States. Each year in New Mexico, more than 36 
babies are born with FAS, compared to the national average of 2 FAS 
births per 1,000 births. Even more significant, New Mexico health 
officials estimate that the combined FAS rate for our State's 22 Indian 
tribes is 2 to 5 times that of the national average. Statistics on 
diabetes are also grim. In New Mexico, the rate of diabetes is nearly 
twice the national rate; and nationally, Native Americans are 10 times 
more likely to have diabetes than the non-Hispanic white population.
  In closing, I will reiterate my belief that this is not the time to 
be threatening direct health services and eliminating preventive care 
programs for American Indians. A wiser course of action would be to 
streamline administrative services, eliminate bureaucratic waste, and 
maximize existing resources through the thoughtful, mandatory 
redistribution of personnel and equipment from areas of lesser need and 
low productivity to areas of greater need and potential.
  I believe this amendment will help us achieve these goals. I urge my 
colleagues to support it and to make a commitment to working together 
with Indian people toward a revitalized and efficient Indian Health 
Service truly capable of meeting the health care needs of those it was 
created to service.

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