Interior would see big funding boost under Biden budget proposal, including tribal programs - Jacob Fishler, States Newsroom
President Joe Biden’s budget request, released Monday, would boost funding for the Interior Department by nearly one-fifth, well above what the administration has proposed for most discretionary spending.
The president’s $5.8 trillion request to Congress for fiscal 2023 proposes a 5% increase for domestic discretionary programs. Interior would see $17.5 billion in discretionary spending, a 19% increase from the current level set in 2020.
The president’s proposal is seen as a starting point for budget negotiations, with the spending bills passed by Congress unlikely to closely resemble the request. Nonetheless, a budget expresses an administration’s priorities.
More than one-third of the total requested for Interior, $5.9 billion, would go toward climate resilience and adaptation programs.
The administration requested $375 million for climate research, including ways to reduce risks caused by the changing climate. The budget also proposes a new climate portal that would provide historical data and projections of climate impacts.
Tribal programs within Interior would receive $4.5 billion, an increase of more than $1 billion, to support public safety, social services, climate and education initiatives. That funding would cover $632 million for public safety and justice programs, including a collaboration with the Justice Department to “address the crisis of Missing and Murdered Indigenous Persons.”
The budget request would also provide $156 million for construction at seven Bureau of Indian Education schools and $7 million for a new program meant to examine “the injustices of past Federal Indian boarding school policy.”
FIREFIGHTER PAY, CLIMATE PROGRAMS
The request would raise federal funding for wildland firefighter pay by more than 37% to $477 million. The spending would help ensure firefighters earn no less than $15 per hour. The $1.9 trillion infrastructure law also increased spending on wildland firefighter pay.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture would also see a $390 million boost in wildland firefighter funding under the proposal. The request also proposes a $285 million increase for forest restoration to help prevent wildfires.
The administration proposed spending $675 million on water resource programs to address ongoing drought in the West.
The request also includes funding for climate programs beyond Interior, in line with the administration’s “all-of-government” approach to the crisis.
The request includes $3.5 billion for climate programs at the Department of Homeland Security, $1.7 billion for the Department of Agriculture and $1 billion for Housing and Urban Development.
The proposal would spend $3 billion on clean energy projects, $502 million to retrofit low-income homes and $100 million for a new program to help low-income households decarbonize.
The budget would provide $100 million in grants to states and tribes to support efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
The proposal would spend $11 billion to help other countries finance climate resilience and clean energy projects. Biden pledged to help developing nations finance climate programs during last year’s United Nations Climate Change Conference.
Biden, who made climate a core part of his presidential campaign in 2020, did not mention climate in a one-page statement on the budget. He focused instead on efforts to reduce the federal deficit, increase police spending and send aid to Ukraine to defend against Russia’s invasion.
The budget itself did prioritize climate action, John Bowman, the managing director for government affairs at the environmental group Natural Resources Defense Council said in a release.
“This budget is a call for assertive action on climate now,” he said.
Prosecutor against probation in cases of aggravated fleeing — Associated Press
Dangerous incidents involving high-speed police pursuits have prompted a northern New Mexico district attorney to adopt a policy to toughen potential plea deals for defendants in those cases.
First Judicial District Attorney Mary Carmack-Altwies said Monday the policy prohibits probation as being the sentence in a plea deal for a case of aggravated fleeing.
In addition, Carmack-Altweis' office will ask judges to order that people charged with aggravated fleeing be jailed until trial, the Santa Fe New Mexican reported.
The 1st Judicial District covers Santa Fe, Rio Arriba and Los Alamos counties.
Recent incidents prompting the policy include two wrong-way cases on Interstate 25, including one that resulted a crashes that killed a Santa Fe police officer and a retired Las Vegas firefighter who was not involved in the chase.
Carmack-Atlweis said she wants to "to send a message to the community that we are trying to keep our streets safe."
State Chief Public Defender Bennett Baur said he's also concerned about chases that endanger lives but that a blanket policy prevents prosecutors from using discretion based on the facts of individual cases.
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The spelling of the district's first name, Mary, has been corrected in this story.
Murder suspect arrested after carjacking — Matthew Reisen and Martin Salazar, The Albuquerque Journal
Police arrested the suspect of a fatal shooting and successive carjacking that came to an end with officers opening fire on him this morning.
The Albuquerque Journal reports 43-year-old Donovan Bookout will be charged with murder, carjacking, aggravated assult with a deadly weapon, and being a felon in possession of a firearm.
Police chief Harold Medina said that Bookout had flashed a gun at officers during the incident and shortly after, during an on foot pursuit, at least two officers shot at him.
Medina said the officers were not injured, and that the officers pulled up to the hotel while the homicide and carjacking was in progress, happening upon the situation during patrol when they were flagged down at about 3:30 in the morning.
The shooting took place at The Ambassador Inn in northeast Albuquerque, and according to the Journal, police recently have been proactively addressing a long-standing criminal problem at the hotel.
City Seeking volunteers to collect trash in April — The Albuquerque Journal
The city of Albuquerque is seeking volunteers to help spring clean itsi streets next month.
The Albuquerque Journal reports the city will be providing free bags and gloves, as well as providing a central trash drop off point for each quadrant of the city on 4 separate days In April.
Those days are April ninth for the southeast, April 16 for the Northeast, April 23rd for the southwest and April 30th for the Northwest.
This is the second year the City has used the monthlong clean up scheme, collecting nearly 95 thousand pounds of trash with 732 volunteers last April, according to the journal.
Albuquerque Solid waster director Matthew Whelan said the city works with neighborhood associations and community organizations to help spread the word and to get a plan together for teams to hit certain parts of their areas.
He said the city also provides manpower, sending litter crews into areas of known illegal dumping, or just sending them to specific areas to clean whatever they can find.
For more information or for those dates again, visit us online at KUNM.org
BCSO: 2 Women arrested after manhunt for shooting suspects — Matthew Reisen, The Albuquerque Journal
After an hours long manhunt through a vast swath of Albuquerque’s south Valley, two women were arrested and accused of shooting at deputies of the Bernalillo County Sheriff’s Office.
The Albuquerque Journal reports sometime before 10:45 this morning multiple people feld a vehicle after shooting at deputies in the area.
At that point BCSO locked down a large part of the south valley, issuing shelter in place orders for nearby schools nearby, while they searched for the suspects.
Two Pueblos sign a deal with N.M. to begin selling legal marijuana. Will it keep feds at bay? - Shaun Griswold, Source New Mexico
Legal recreational cannabis sales begin in New Mexico this week, and two tribal communities are ready to jump into the industry.
The Pueblos of Picuris and Pojoaque signed an intergovernmental agreement with New Mexico that allows them to regulate their own marijuana enterprises operating within their communities and apply for state licenses for any business they would conduct outside tribal lands.
Cannabis is still an illegal substance under federal law, and federal law enforcement operate on tribal lands. So two Obama-era directives for how the Department of Justice prioritizes prosecuting marijuana related crimes are, “very important,” for allowing the Pueblos to enter the market, Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham said in an interview.
“Our intergovernmental agreements create the kind of transparency and give direct knowledge to the feds that we intend to protect our sovereign nations, that they are actively engaged in our medical and recreational cannabis programs, that these are their rights under those agreements,” Lujan Grisham said.
Pojoaque and Picuris are two of the 23 tribal nations in New Mexico and the only ones who have publicly pursued regulating cannabis sales and production.
Recreational sales of cannabis begin in New Mexico April 1.
Pueblo of Pojoaque Gov. Jenelle Roybal expects the collaboration between her community and the state Regulatory and Licensing Department, which oversees the Cannabis Control Division, to lead to a supportive regulatory environment since the tribal directives in the agreement nearly mirror the state law.
“Cannabis is an exciting new opportunity to diversify our economic development, and revenues from a Pueblo cannabis enterprise will support tribal governmental programs and the surrounding community,” Roybal said.
Still, if the federal government decides to act on cannabis enforcement, the state might not have much protection for the Tribes if Congress does not act on decriminalization.
“I can’t prevent the Feds or the DOJ from acting any number of ways,” Lujan Grisham said. “We’re actively working on getting them to reinstate their memos, which is basically guidance telling the DOJ that the sovereign nations’ independence on these issues, related to state law, should prevail.”
The Cole Memorandum was issued in 2013 in response to state decriminalization efforts. It offers guidance to U.S. district attorneys on which marijuana-related crimes to prioritize. These include prohibiting sales to minors, preventing revenue from going to criminal enterprises and prohibiting distribution to states that have not decriminalized cannabis.
The Cole Memo does give the federal government the right to challenge state marijuana laws, “if that state does not implement strong and effective regulatory and enforcement systems that will address the threat that state law could pose to public safety, public health and other law enforcement interests.”
The Wilkinson Memo was issued in 2014 to address how to handle tribal communities that want to take advantage of the new state marijuana laws. It reinforces the priorities issued the year before. It also adds that “nothing in the Cole Memorandum alters the authority or jurisdiction of the United States to enforce federal law in Indian Country.”
The two Pueblos and the state say the intergovernmental agreement is a strong basis to prevent prosecution from the U.S. attorney, who is advised under the Wilkinson Memo to “consult with the affected tribes on a government-to-government basis.”
Of course, if the federal law criminalizing marijuana remains in effect, other administrations could direct the Department of Justice to handle these cases differently. The DOJ under the Trump Administration did rescind the memos in 2018, but struck a deal to protect states that ended cannabis prohibition. U.S. Attorneys are also still following the guidelines under the Cole and Wilkinson memos, which is why New Mexico leaders are cautiously optimistic in the new agreements.
How that affects tribal sovereignty remains top of mind.
Picuris allowed for tribal citizens to access medical marijuana in 2015. However, that didn’t stop a Bureau of Indian Affairs officer in September from confiscating nine plants from the home of a non-Picuris citizen who lived in the community since childhood. According to the Associated Press, Charles Farden’s home was raided by federal officers even though he is enrolled in the state’s medical cannabis program.
“We as a tribe can end up investing a million dollars into a project, thinking it’s OK. And because of a rogue officer or somebody that doesn’t believe something is right, it could be stopped,” Picuris Governor Craig Quanchello told the AP after the raid.
Quanchello changed his tone after the intergovernmental agreements were announced last Friday, again leaning on the agreements to protect members and potentially new businesses in the community.
“This creates a meaningful opportunity for the Pueblo to engage in well-regulated and coordinated legal cannabis markets for the benefit and protection of our community, including a framework for ongoing collaboration with the state to protect our shared interests.”
The agreement also creates an opportunity for the Tribes to run their own cannabis divisions. The intergovernmental deal does not require the communities to have state licenses if they sell exclusively on their Pueblo, said Heather Brewer, spokesperson with New Mexico’s Cannabis Control Division.
That changes, she said, if Pueblos want to sell cannabis or open a retail dispensary off tribal land because they would need a state license to operate those enterprises.
She noted that the intergovernmental agreement is based on an understanding that tribal rules will align with the state’s Cannabis Control Act.
But ultimately, Brewer said, tribal sovereignty will guide the direction of any marijuana business.
Chaves County deputies involved in fatal shooting at dairy - KOB-TV, Associated Press
An investigation is underway after a disorderly conduct call at a dairy in Chaves County ended with a man fatally shot.
KOB-TV in Albuquerque reports Sheriff Mike Herrington issued a video statement regarding the Sunday night shooting.
Herrington confirmed two deputies were involved.
The deputies tried to detain a suspect by first using tasers on him several times. He was then shot and killed.
Authorities have not released any further details.
Investigators from Chaves County Sheriff's Office, Roswell Police and New Mexico State Police are all looking at the shooting.
Oregon ends residency rule for medically assisted suicide - By Gene Johnson Associated Press
Oregon will no longer require people to be residents of the state to use its law allowing terminally ill people to receive lethal medication, after a lawsuit challenged the requirement as unconstitutional.
In a settlement filed in U.S. District Court in Portland on Monday, the Oregon Health Authority and the Oregon Medical Board agreed to stop enforcing the residency requirement and to ask the Legislature to remove it from the law.
Advocates said they would use the settlement to press the eight other states and Washington, D.C., with medically assisted suicide laws to drop their residency requirements as well.
"This requirement was both discriminatory and profoundly unfair to dying patients at the most critical time of their life," said Kevin Diaz, an attorney with Compassion & Choices, the national advocacy group that sued over Oregon's requirement.
Laura Echevarria, a spokeswoman for National Right to Life, which opposes such laws, warned that without a residency requirement, Oregon risked becoming the nation's "assisted suicide tourism capital."
But Diaz said that was unlikely, given safeguards in the law, such as the requirement that physicians determine whether patients are mentally capable; that it is extremely difficult for terminally ill people to make extended trips to another state; and that many people want to die in the presence of loved ones near home — not across the country.
"There's no tourism going on," Diaz said.
Compassion & Choices sued on behalf of Dr. Nicholas Gideonse, a Portland family practice physician and associate professor of family medicine at Oregon Health and Science University. A longtime supporter of medical aid-in-dying laws, Gideonse had been unable to write terminal prescriptions for patients who live just across the Columbia River in Washington state.
While Washington has such a law, providers can be difficult to find in the southwestern part of the state, where many hospital beds are in religiously affiliated health care facilities that prohibit it. Requiring his patients to find other doctors to provide assistance in ending their own lives can compound their suffering, Gideonse said.
"Any restriction on medical aid in dying that doesn't serve a specific medical purpose is difficult," Gideonse said Monday. "In no other way is my practice restricted to Oregon residents, whether that's delivering babies in the past or other care that I provide."
The lawsuit argued that the residency requirement violated the U.S. Constitution's Commerce Clause, which gives Congress the right to regulate interstate commerce, and the Privileges and Immunities Clause, which forbids states from discriminating against citizens from other states in favor of its own citizens.
The Oregon Health Authority and the medical board declined to comment on why they settled the case. The state attorney general's office did not immediately respond to an interview request.
Enacted in 1997, Oregon's first-in-the-nation law allows terminally ill people deemed to have less than six months to live to end their lives by voluntarily taking lethal medications prescribed by a physician for that purpose.
Patients must make two verbal requests to their doctor for the medication, at least 15 days apart, as well as a written request signed in the presence of two witnesses. The attending physician and a consulting physician must confirm the patient's diagnosis and prognosis, and determine whether the patient is capable of making health care decisions; if either doctor believes the patient to be suffering from depression or another mental disorder, they can refer the patient for a psychological exam.
Some 2,159 people have died after ingesting terminal drugs under the law since it took effect, according to data published last month by the Oregon Health Authority.
California, Colorado, Hawaii, Maine, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, Washington state and Washington, D.C., have approved similar laws, all with residency requirements. Montana's Supreme Court has ruled that state law does not prohibit medical aid in dying.
National Right to Life is concerned that people might be able to travel to Oregon without having much of a relationship with a doctor in the state, thus chipping away at guardrails limiting the use of the law, Echevarria said.
"The hope is that doctors will continue to evaluate patients, but it certainly creates a situation where there could be more abuse of that law," she said.