On the heels of the largest budget increases in history for Indian Affairs at Interior during the second term of the Obama Adminsitration, the Trump Administration has proposed major cuts of more than 10 percent to the Interior Indian Affairs budget. At a requested amount of $2.488 billion, Trump's proposal represents a $300 million cut from the current (Obama) budget. The detail is available here: http://bit.ly/BIABudget.

Where is President Trump proposing cuts? Trump would cut Indian Education by $64 million. He would cut $21 million from tribal law enforcement and public safety. He would cut $27 million from tribal natural resources management programs. He would cut $23 million from human services, which includes Indian child welfare. Though he says that he claims to support infrastructure, he would cut $50 million from the construction budget. Trump's budget would zero out the tribal housing budget at Interior and cut the Native American Housing Block Grant program at HUD by $48 million.

For those who know the importance of tribal self-governance, President Trump's proposed cuts are focused disproportionately on Tribal Priority Allocations and he is proposing to cut Contract Support Costs by $35 million. In taking more than a half million acres of land into trust, President Obama seems to spurred a Trump backlash -- Trump's budget proposes a $15 million cut to real estate services (even though there is a lot more tribal land to manage today).

It will be up to Congressional appropriators to save tribes.

[UPDATE: For a more detailed treatment of these issues, click here for my op ed on the Indian Country Today Media Network site.]

[FURTHER UPDATE: The full (600+ page) green book for Trump's FY 2018 budget request for Indian affairs is here. It fully details where the cuts are.]