SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - U.S. Sens. John Thune and Byron Dorgan want to replenish the number of law enforcement officers assigned to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation that straddles their states.

They said a surge of Bureau of Indian Affairs officers last summer - dubbed Operation Dakota Peacekeeper - bumped staffing levels from 13 to 37 on the reservation that's roughly the size of Connecticut. But the extra help is gone and the crime rate, at one point more than eight times the national average, is on the rise after dropping during the surge.

Thune said President Barack Obama's budget didn't include additional funding for law enforcement on Standing Rock and other reservations. The South Dakota Republican said he has been unsuccessful at getting such an appropriation from Congress.

"A lot of the gains we've made in public order are in danger of being lost," he said of "start and stop" programs.

Dorgan, a North Dakota Democrat and chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, is holding a hearing Wednesday at Sitting Bull College in Fort Yates, N.D., which Thune also plans to attend.

"This is not a solution - to bring temporary people in and leave. We need to fix this for the long term," Dorgan said.

Obama's appointment of Kimberly Teehee, a member of the Cherokee Nation, as a senior policy adviser for Native American affairs should help persuade the White House to better fund law enforcement in Indian Country, Dorgan said.

"We're going to have to make it a priority," he said. "I'm convinced if we keep pushing, we're going to make some progress."

Thune wrote to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar and spoke to Bureau of Indian Affairs Director Pat Ragsdale, urging both to increase the number of officers on the Standing Rock reservation.

Dorgan authored and Thune co-sponsored the Tribal Law and Order Act, which would give more local control to tribal law enforcement agencies and make federal agencies more accountable for legal and treaty commitments to law enforcement in Indian Country.

Rep. Stephanie Herseth Sandlin said the House on Friday passed an Interior Department funding bill 283-184. Included is $2.6 billion for the Bureau of Indian Affairs, an increase of $183 million from the 2009 budget, she said.