 The Safe Indian Communities and Improving Indian Education initiatives, major efforts launched in FY 2008, are continued in the FY 2009 budget to protect the lives and property of Indian Country residents and to improve the academic performance of students attending BIE-funded schools. Because of their rural, isolated nature and limited law enforcement, tribal communities have been subjected to attack by organized crime and foreign drug cartels, resulting in the spread of methamphetamine and violent crime.
To assist tribes in suppressing the distribution of methamphetamine, the budget would sustain the full $24 million in funding for the Safe Indian Communities Initiative provided by Congress in 2008 and add $2.9 million, for a total of $26.6 million in 2009.  This cumulative investment of $50.2 million over two years will put additional law enforcement agents on the ground in targeted communities and fund additional training for the current force. Targeted communities will be identified through a needs analysis that looks at rate of violent crime, service population and current staffing levels. The initiative also addresses related effects such as drug abuse and child neglect and abuse, and increase staffing in BIA-funded detention centers.
At a press conference on January 31, 2008 Secretary Kempthorne said, "the Department of the Interior and the Bureau of Indian Affairs will not cease to provide support for these programs until we shut down the peddlers of poison who are victimizing Native American families' and particularly Indian children." more
 On February 5, 2007, Interior Secretary Kempthorne launched two initiatives aimed at improving quality of life for Indian tribes. Combating a methamphetamine crisis in Indian Country and promoting higher academic achievement in Indian schools are key initiatives for the Department of the Interior.
The President proposed a $16 million increase in FY2008 to fund the Bureau of Indian Affair's Safe Indian Communities Initiative, which strengthened law enforcement capabilities on tribal lands by providing $5 million to hire and train additional law enforcement officers; $5 million to increase staff at Indian detention facilities and for training detention officers; and $6 million to provide specialized drug enforcement training for officers and public awareness campaigns about the dangers of methamphetamine use for tribal communities.  "Tribal leaders describe a methamphetamine crisis that has the potential to destroy an entire generation if action isn't taken," Kempthorne said. "They refer to it as the second smallpox epidemic and rank it as the number one public safety problem on their reservations." Organized crime and foreign drug cartels have taken advantage of the limited law enforcement presence on tribal lands to produce and distribute the drug, resulting in a violent crime rate in some communities that is ten to 20 times the national average.
"At one reservation particularly hard hit, an estimated 25 percent of babies are born addicted to methamphetamine," Kempthorne said. "We cannot ignore this tragedy. We must help Indian Country remove this scourge from its midst. We will stop these peddlers of poison."
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