Is President Bush
willing to sacrifice the health and welfare of Native Americans in
order to pursue one of his administration’s pet peeves? It
sounds as if he is.
The White House recently warned that
the president may veto long-overdue legislation to improve health
care for Native Americans if the bill includes a provision calling
for paying workers hired to build new facilities prevailing wages
and benefits. The bill in question is the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act Amendments of 2008. The provision in dispute
involves a 77-year-old labor law known as the Davis-Bacon Act.
This health-care bill rightly topped the Senate’s
list of priorities when it returned to work Jan. 22. It is no
secret that Indian Country is in the grip of a health-care crisis.
It is one made worse by poor access to doctors and clinics,
outdated facilities and services that are inadequate to deal with
rates of disease, and death rates that far exceed those of the
overall U.S. population.
Co-authored by Sen. Byron
Dorgan, D-N.D., and the late Sen. Craig Thomas, R-Wyo., the bill
enjoys bipartisan support for its comprehensive approach to a
health care crisis throughout Indian Country. The measure
authorizes $1 billion worth of desperately needed health care
facilities, along with another $1 billion in projects to improve
sanitation in tribal communities. The bill also aims to improve
mental health services, tackles high rates of teen suicides, makes
it easier for tribal members to enroll in Medicaid and Medicare,
and encourages Native Americans to pursue careers in health care.
Although the White House Office of Management and Budget
says it has some objections to various aspects of the bill,
it’s the so-called Davis-Bacon provision that triggered
Bush’s veto threat. That provision extends requirements of
Davis-Bacon Act to the Indian Health Service. The White House
isn’t objecting to the facilities themselves or disputing the
urgent need for them. It simply doesn’t want to pay full
price for the labor.
It’s worth noting that the
Davis-Bacon Act already applies to nearly all government agencies
and federal contracts. Why prevailing-wage requirements don’t
already apply to Indian Health Service contracts is an interesting
question that raises the issue of discrimination. However,
extending the requirement is consistent with overall federal
practice. Signing Davis-Bacon into law in 1931 was perhaps the most
constructive thing President Herbert Hoover did during the Great
Depression. By effectively setting minimum pay scales for workers
on federal construction projects, Davis-Bacon was designed to
ensure that skilled, local workers aren’t aced out of jobs by
low-balling contractors bringing in unskilled workers at
substandard wages.
It was Republicans in Congress who
sponsored Davis-Bacon and a Republican president who signed it into
law. In recent years, however, political conservatives have taken
to attacking prevailing-wage requirements as an undeserved leg-up
for organized labor. In a statement issued Jan. 22, the White House
said that “expansion of Davis-Bacon Act prevailing wage
requirements … would violate a longstanding administration
policy.”
Fair enough. If the president and his
administration want to fight for lower construction-worker wages,
nothing’s stopping them. This is an election year. Let them
argue for Davis-Bacon repeal, and see where that gets them.
Well, no. Instead comes the threatened veto casting
Native Americans desperate for better health care as pawns in the
administration’s ideological tussle over a long-settled
aspect of federal law. Better health care for Native Americans
isn’t a favor or just a good idea. It’s an explicit
legal obligation. Health care for Native Americans is among the
federal government’s clearest but least-fulfilled
responsibilities. It’s been promised by treaties and
guaranteed by law in exchange for lands ceded to the government.
Failing to live up to this responsibility is bad.
What’s even worse is arguing that the promised care
shouldn’t be provided if it means creating a level playing
field.
Jennifer Perez Cole and Steve Woodruff
are contributors to Writers on the Range, a service of
High Country News (hcn.org). She is coordinator
of Indian affairs for Montana Gov. Brian Schweitzer; he is deputy
director of the northern region for Western Progress in Missoula,
Montana.
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