·         Congress Introduces Bill to Reauthorize Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act

·         Join Native Vote Action Week

·         Education Budget News

o   President Releases Sequester Budget Report

o   NCAI Presses Congress to Honor the Trust Responsibility in the Federal Budget

o   New Survey: Impact Aid and Sequestration - The Impact of the Budget Control Act on Federally Impacted Schools

o   Video of Webinar on Sequestration and Education Funding Available

·         Department of Education Awards $3.3 Million under Indian Education Professional Development Program

·         Register for NIEA’s Upcoming National Conference in Oklahoma City  (October 18-21)

·         Other News and Commentary

·         Trends, Data, and Reports

Last week on September 13, both chambers of Congress introduced bills to reauthorize the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Preservation Act. In the House, Representative Heinrich introduced H.R. 6399, which is co-sponsored by Representatives Lujan and Pearce. In the Senate, Senator Johnson (D-SD) introduced S. 3546, which is co-sponsored by Senators Akaka, Franken, Tester, and Udall. Both bills are a straight reauthorization and do not include any substantive changes to the law. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs approved the bill at its business meeting yesterday, Thursday, September 20.

NCAI is working with Congress to move the bill forward and ensure that it is enacted into law before the end of the year.

1.       Wear your Native Vote button to EVERY MEETING!

2.       Review our list of events (available at: http://www.nativevote.org/page/native-vote-action-week) and ask these three questions:

a.       Are there events nearby that I could attend? (Please let us know, we’d be happy to connect you with the local coordinators)

b.      Is my tribe hosting an event?

c.       Are there other tribes in my region I could encourage to participate?

3.       If your tribe, school, or youth organization hasn’t signed up yet, it’s not too late to host your own event! If you are interested, visithttp://www.nativevote.org/page/native-vote-action-week for a great list of resources and information.

With the federal Fiscal Year (FY) 2013 set to begin on October 1 and Congress yet to pass any of the twelve annual spending bills, the House of Representatives passed a stopgap spending bill, also known as a continuing resolution (CR), on September 13 that will keep the government funded through March 27, 2013, and avoid a government shutdown. The bill is expected to gain approval in the Senate and President Obama has indicated that he will sign it.

The CR includes an across-the-board increase in funding of 0.612 percent, which translates into a $416.8 million increase in overall funding for the Department of Education. This increase is less than the $1.7 billion increase recommended by President Obama in his FY 2013 budget, but it is larger than the $400 million increase included in the Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education appropriations bill that the Senate Appropriations Committee passed on June 14. It is $1.5 billion higher than the amount included in the Labor-HHS-Education appropriations bill that passed the House Labor-HHS-Education Appropriations Subcommittee on July 18, which would have cut funding for the U.S. Department of Education by $1.1 billion compared to FY 2012.

Embedded within the House's CR is a provision that allows teachers participating in alternative-certification programs to continue to be considered "highly qualified" through the 2013-2014 school year. Read more about this issue on the Politics K-12 blog.

Despite Congress's progress in working to extend government funding and functions through the CR, sequestration—the set of automatic, across-the-board budget cuts triggered by last summer's budget deal—will go into effect for on January 2, 2013, unless Congress acts to stop it. Learn more about sequestration and its potential impact on Indian education below.

Last Friday, the White House released a report estimating how much would be cut from each federal account at the program, project, and activity levels if sequestration, or $109 billion in automatic spending cuts, is implemented. The report warns that sequestration would be "deeply destructive" to national security, domestic investments, and core government functions. The 394-page report estimated the reductions would reduce discretionary defense spending by 9.4 percent and domestic discretionary spending by 8.2 percent. Click here to read the report.

According to the White House report, Indian education programs would be hard hit. The following table shows the percentage reduction for each program compared to FY 2010 funding levels, adjusted for inflation (in FY 2013 dollars).

·         The first columns—FY 2010, FY 2011, and FY 2012—show the amount appropriated for each program in each respective fiscal year.

·         The FY 2013 presidential budget column shows how much the Obama Administration requested for each program in FY 2013.

·         The next two columns show how much sequestration would cut from each program.

·         The final column shows the percentage reduction for each program compared to FY 2010 funding levels, adjusted for inflation (in FY2013 dollars).