TRIBAL/OBAMA SUMMIT SET

President Obama will meet with hundreds of tribal leaders in Washington, D.C. November 5th, 2009.  The President had committed to an annual meeting with tribal leaders during his 2008 campaign and is fulfilling his promise. This historic meeting will coincide with the National Congress of American Indians’ Grand Opening of the Embassy of Tribal Nations on November 3rd and a tribal leaders meeting…

APPROPRIATIONS  FY ‘09

Tribal efforts were successful in the restoration of the Pacific Salmon Treaty funding for FY09 in its entirety ($1.772m)–a significant accomplishment with a coordinated effort from the NWIFC delegation, Columbia River Inter-tribal Fish Commission and Chairman Ron Allen.  A lot of credit for this success goes to Mary Jane Miller of the BIA Central Office who was able to secure these funds and…

APPROPRIATIONS

As Federal Update reported last month, the FY-2009 just passed Tuesday, but now that the main stimulus has been passed and signed, an outline of the Obama FY ‘10 budget has been released with details yet to come.

PRESIDENT OBAMA’S FIRST BUDGET (FY ‘10)

A spate of testimony from Administration officials has hit the hill regarding President Obama’s FY 2010 budget, with OMB Director Peter…

Senate Republicans Collins, Snowe and Specter join Democrats in passing $835 Billion Stimulus Bill (61-37); Conference expected to begin immediately to get bill to President by the end of the week.

Negotiators for Congress and the White House worked to narrow differences on an economic stimulus bill on Wednesday in hopes of clearing a bill for President Barack Obama’s signature by week’s end.

After unofficial talks…

BIA BASE BUDGET FY 2009

The election of a new president, the appointment of a new cabinet and the changing face of Congress are all good news to the tribes, and to everyone else who cares about a healthy environment and sustainable economies. But, for FY 2009, the tribes still face a funding crisis that threatens their ability to support their basic fisheries management responsibilities,…

APPROPRIATIONS

House subcommittees have approved appropriations bills that would provide $27.9 billion in discretionary funding. That would top the current level by 4.9 percent increase, or $1.3 billion and Bush’s request by 8.2 percent, or $2.1 billion. The full committee is set to take up the bill on June 18.

APPROPRIATIONS

The blame game is raging between Bush and Congress as various budget deadlines are essentially ignored. Bush and Congress are accusing each other regularly of failing to listen to proposals and fixes for everything from failing to respond adequately to the energy crisis to the slumping economy. There’s a cut of about $1.8 in the Pacific Salmon Treaty appropriation, similar to last year, and the…

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!! OFF WE GO!
The 2008 Session of the Washington State Legislature convened at noon on Monday, January 14. Again this year, NWIFC will support your efforts to monitor and provide input on natural resource/environment-related bills and issues through the weekly publication of Leg-Com News. Here you will find brief articles intended to provide insight into the going’s on in the State Capitol, and…

APPROPRIATIONS
A hard push by Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-NV to work budget bills through weekends and even Veterans Day floundered, giving way to other pressing schedules, e.g., the presidential campaign, and making another continuing resolution to extend past November 16 very probable. Whether or not the bills will be rolled up into an omnibus remains to be seen. But with no real movement of appropriations…

APPROPRIATIONS
With the August congressional recess ending September 4, there has been no real movement of appropriations bills since last month’s Federal Update report. For example, H.R.2643, the House Interior Appropriations bill, and Senate counterpart S.1696 both still await action on the Senate Calendar. As for natural resource management-related appropriations specific to the Northwest, all NWIFC FY 2008 requests have long since been submitted to Congress…