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Managing America: Native Americans

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Week Ending March 23, 2006

H.R.545 To amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 to clarify that territories and Indian tribes are eligible to receive grants for confronting the use of methamphetamine.

Congress has been busy trying to deal with a methamphetamine use and manufacturing outbreak and focuses on the problem in Indian tribes.

Grants are authorized to curtail manufacturing of methamphetamine as well as the sale, help children in homes where methamphetamine and other drugs are manufactured, distributed or used and to reduce methamphetamine use by pregnant women.

The funding would come from three 109^th Congress programs that targeted increased police enforcement, a children’s protection program and one for pregnant women offenders.

The bill is justified this way, “In 2005, the Drug Enforcement Administration and State and local law enforcement officials reported 12,484 seizures of illegal methamphetamine laboratories and related chemicals, equipment, and hazardous waste refuse in 48 states. The DEA seized over 2,148 kilograms of methamphetamine, which represents almost a 30% increase from the amount seized in 2004. The threat is even greater in Native American communities, where surveys of past-year methamphetamine use have shown that Native American communities have more than double the methamphetamine use rate of other ethnicities. Additionally, over 70% of Indian tribes surveyed by the Bureau of Indian Affairs identified methamphetamine as the drug that posed the greatest threat to their reservation and also estimated that at least 40% of violent crime cases investigated in Indian Country involve methamphetamine in some capacity.”

A committee amendment prohibiting the use of these funds for abortion was defeated. The amendment was fairly traditional in the 109^th congress when federal funds and pregnant mothers at risk came together. The amendment would have allowed for abortion if the mother’s life was in danger.

Sponsor:  Rep. Tom Udall (D-NM-3^rd)

Vote: Passed House 423 to 0 March 22, 2007 (RC 183)

Cost to the taxpayers: CBO estimates that implementing the bill would result in no significant increase in spending for these grant programs.

Earmark Certification:  “ In accordance with clause 9 of rule XXI of the Rules of the House of Representatives, H.R. 545 does not contain any congressional earmarks, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined in clause 9(d), 9(e), or 9(f) of Rule XXI”

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