Budget Continued

By U.S. Senator Jon Kyl In a recent column I discussed the President's proposed budget for 2009 and examined how the proposed funding for the U.S. Forest Service affects Arizona. I'd like to look this week at the budget as it relates to some other initiatives impacting the state. Indian Detention Facilities The U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs and the Justice Department operates and funds detention facilities throughout Indian Country as part of the nation's trust responsibilities to Native Americans. According to a Justice Department study, American Indians experience violent crime at a rate more than twice the national average, yet tribal detention facilities have been grossly under-funded and are in an appalling state of disrepair. Understanding the urgent need for increased funding, I joined with 10 senators, including Senator Byron Dorgan, who chairs the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, to request that the President at least double the amount of funds allocated for the construction, operation, maintenance, and facility improvement and repair of Indian detention facilities. Unfortunately, the proposed budget essentially eliminates the funding for tribal prison construction. Instead, it consolidates the Indian detention construction grant program into a larger, comprehensive grant program that forces tribes to compete with state and local law enforcement for federal funding. In an upcoming Senate Indian Affairs Committee field hearing in Phoenix relating to Indian law enforcement, I plan to highlight the lack of funding in this area. I will also work with Chairman Dorgan to find ways to increase funding within the confines of the budget. Nogales Channel In late August 2007, severe storms in Nogales and Sonora flooded the underground drainage system that connects the two cities. The flooding resulted in severe damage to the concrete floor of the Nogales Wash Channel and compromised the integrity of the International Outfall Interceptor (IOI), which lies underneath the channel. The IOI carries approximately 10 million gallons a day of raw sewage from Mexico to the Nogales International Wastewater Treatment Plant in southern Arizona. The City of Nogales and the U.S. government, through the International Boundary and Water Commission, jointly operate the plant pursuant to an international treaty between the United States and Mexico. In the days immediately following the flooding, Nogales took several short-term emergency measures to repair and mitigate the damage to the channel and IOI. These repairs, however, only provided a short-term fix and will be insufficient to fully protect the residents and environment of southern Arizona from future flooding and a potential public health crisis. Consequently, long-term repairs to the channel are needed. The Army Corps of Engineers and the Environmental Protection Agency estimate that the cost to fix the damaged stretch of the Nogales Channel and IOI would be approximately $10,000,000. Since the flows that caused the damage to the channel originated in Mexico, it is the federal government's responsibility to make the necessary repairs to the channel and the IOI. Although I was able to secure approximately $400,000 in the State Department and Foreign Operations Act of 2008 to begin repair on the channel and IOI, the President's proposed budget does not include any money for these repairs. As a result, I will request that this funding be included as part of the Energy and Water appropriations bill, and within the overall confines of the budget. Conclusion There clearly are shortfalls with the proposed budget like the ones I've outlined and I look forward to working with my Senate colleagues to correct these deficiencies as funding bills move through the congressional appropriations process.