If you understand our history with the govt, the Indian Affairs budget is “termination by appropriation”. It is not commensurate with actual needs nor does support and defend the the trust responsibility theory. IA budget is just DOI leftovers so Indians make your needs fit within that amount.
Any substantial increases is not new money but comes from elsewhere in current budget. Any overall increases are annual salary increases, cost of living allowances (COLA), new positions etc. but its not new money.
In Cobell, we learned that OST is a failure and total waste of money. If settlement is approved why have them around. that money could be used in BIA but then we still have to fix BIA.
A national tribal/Indian Affairs budget/finance Watchdog committee must be created to monitor and correct govt performance. But we must also install the correct federal employees. Corrupt federal employees has been documented as an historical problem in many reports, our and theirs.
As of 1995, there are 1,050 investigate reports why BIA,BIE,IHS,MMS,BLM, etc. doesn’t work. After 1995, there are more of the same type of investigative reports now to include why OST is broken. In sum, the U.S. doesn’t want any Indian Affairs org to work for Indians. The question is what is Tribes willing to do to make them work for us?
Expect Indian Affairs budgets to stagger, with the cost of inflation, we are getting less.
We must convince Congress that their Indian problem can be fixed and that we can do it our way. We never should have been a burden to this Country if we were allowed to do things the right way. Its our money, our land, our natural resoruces and now our Casinos. We have the ability to be great financial independent powerful force and truly a country within a country.

Thomas M. Wabnum
Prairie Band Potawatomi
BIA/OST retired