1986-02-06 Char-Koosta News

              THE COLDEST MONTH
VOLUME 14 NUMBER 20
Tribes respond to two FIIP reports
Interior's FIIP transfer order breaks the law, says Council
The federal government may have broken two of its own laws when one of its employees approved transfer of part of the Flathead Indian Irrigation Project (FIIP) away from the BIA.
Interior Secretary Donald Hodel's November 29 decision to have the Bureau of Reclamation take over management of FIIPs irrigation division "constitutes an arbitrary and ca-
pricious action under the federal Administrative Procedures Act", Tribal leaders believe.
Ordering thé transfer before preparing an environmental impact statement "violated the National Environmental Protection Act" too, the Council further believes.
And they're miffed that the transfer order was given before they were able to digest and comment on last Oc-
tober's three-volume multi-agency comprehensive FIIP review study.
Those statements and other strong opinions appear in a 66-page position paper delivered January 25 to Hodel and eleven other federal officials.
FIIP "is a subject of great interest and importance to the Tribes," Chairman Ron Therriault wrote in a cover letter. "We hope our views will be (Continues on page two)
Planning begins on Gramm- Rudman cuts
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When the Gramm- Rudman budget cuts kick in next month, how bad is it going to hurt here on the Flathead?
Thafs the question the Tribal Council asked the BIA's Flathead Agency at a half-day session Jan. 28.
Lacking formal direction from D.C. about specifics, beyond a proposed across-the-board application, no one was able to do much more than quote tentative figures and discuss ways of coping with them: four-day workweeks, furloughs at year's end, combining jobs, leaving less-essential jobs unstaffed, and "borrowing" from other activities within a branch.
Everyone was able to agree, however, that FY86's 5% slice was a minor problem compared to FY87's expectations: an I8-to-25'o cut off whatever FY86 ends up with
Government budget cuts always get a lot of attention every year, but they're getting special coverage these days, thanks to the Gramm-Rudman
legislation that demands a balanced federal budget by 1991. Most of the programs financed by federal funds will lose at least 4.3% in March of what they had requested for FY86.
On the Flathead, besides the local BIA agency and its eight branches, federal dollars help support a dozen Tribal programs: Tribal Health, Housing and Community Services, Law and Order, Social Services, Tribal Court, Head Start, Two Eagle River School, Salish Kootenai College EDA ANA, Kicking Horse Job Corps, and Manpower.
The Tribal government receives a percentage of each grant to help pay for administering it so Tribal income will also be affected to a small degree
Implementing the 5% cut is made complicated by the BIA's unorthodox budget process, where amounts are determined a year or two in advance but official word on the actual amount (Concludes on page three)