Nearly two dozen U.S. senators are pressing President-elect Barack Obama to include $2 billion in his proposed budget for tribes beleaguered by "a public safety and health crisis" due, in part, to a lack of federal funding.

"We have critical needs here in this country, particularly on Indian reservations," Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., said Wednesday. "American Indians usually play second fiddle when it comes to having the federal government meeting its obligations and its promises. That includes water projects, law enforcement, health care and more."

In some tribal areas, upward of 35 percent of homes don't have adequate or safe water supplies.

Twenty-two senators signed and sent a letter to Obama asking him to fill in budget lines providing tribes with $1 billion for water projects, $750 million for public safety and $250 million to improve health care.

Congress already authorized the $2 billion request as part of a $48 billion global AIDS bill passed in July.

"To actually have any money, we need to get it in the administration's budget, which is why we sent the letter to Obama," said Sen. Jon Tester, D-Mont., on Wednesday. "Getting it into the president's budget is the best way to do it."

The request targets health care and public safety needs, although the largest budget share would go to improving water projects. In some tribal areas, upward of 35 percent of Native homes lack adequate water supplies.

As the entire nation reels from an economic crisis affecting everyone from Wall Street to Main Street, Native people in tribal communities are being hit even harder.

"The health-care system is particularly inadequate," said Dorgan, who also is chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. "We have children dying and elders dying on Indian reservations because they don't get proper medical treatment that other Americans take for granted."

It's one thing to have $2 billion authorized, but another to get it funded, said Dorgan. "We're going into a very difficult situation with huge federal budget deficits. My hope is they will allocate some funding to some areas of crisis."

While state government leaders complain about budget shortfalls, tribal leaders argue their situation is more dire.

Jacqueline Johnson-Pata, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians, said tribal leaders have developed an economic recovery plan that includes "ready-to-fund infrastructure projects" as part of the national economic stimulus package.

She said many Native people who have lost jobs in urban areas are returning to already economically strapped tribal communities long in need of houses, bridges, roads, water projects, schools, hospitals and detention buildings.

Up to 90 percent of Bureau of Indian Affairs detention facilities may be closed because the buildings are in such poor condition.

At least $125 million is needed to improve Indian health-care facilities.

Another $125 million is needed to fill a shortfall in contract health services.

Meanwhile, U.S. attorneys declined to prosecute 65 percent of all reservation cases between 1997 and 2006.

Assaults against Native people are about twice as high as those in the country as a whole.

And about 10 to 15 percent of Indian homes do not have plumbing.

"You can't live without water," said Tester, who is advocating for the $1 billion for tribal water projects. "And it has to be good quality. Water is the foundation for economic growth and for health care."

The $2 billion budget request being supported by the 22 senators would ease some economic pains in reservation communities.

"Our budget has been dry forever," said Johnson-Pata. "The existing economic crisis is making our economic crisis even harder. We really can't take much more."

(Reach reporter Jodi Rave at 800-366-7186 or jodi.rave@;lee.net.)