Indian Country Today
WASHINGTON, D.C. — After heated debate, the U.S. House of
Representatives on July 17 soundly defeated two measures widely
considered harmful to Indian interests.
One rider attached to the 2003 Interior Appropriations Bill would have
limited historical accounting for the individual Indian and tribal trust
accounts. Another, proposed by Congressmen hostile to tribal gaming,
would have set up a commission to study alternate ways for the federal
government to solve Indian problems. Both measures were stripped from
the bill by broad bipartisan margins.
Late in the night of July 17, the House approved the $19.7 Interior
appropriation bill, containing a record $2.9 billion for the Indian
Health Service and $2.4 billion for the BIA. The vote was 344 to 46,
drawing on support from 178 Republicans, 198 Democrats and one
independent.
By a vote of 281 to 144, the House removed language that limited trust
fund accounting from going back beyond 1985. A federal court has ruled
that the federal government must account for trust funds back to 1887.
A second amendment removed language inserted by anti-tribal gaming
forces in Congress that would have diverted $200,000 in BIA funding to
create a commission on Native American Policy to study gaming and other
issues. The measure was inserted in committee by U.S. Rep. Frank Wolf,
R-Va., a long-time foe of gambling and harsh critic of Indian casinos.
Attacking the effort, U.S. Rep. J.D. Hayworth, R-Ariz., said the
proposal “takes scarce funds from BIA that could be used for health,
education and economic development and wastes it on yet another costly
addition to a long line of more than 70 studies that have already been
conducted on these same issues.”
American Indian supporters won approval of his striking amendment on a
vote of 273-151.
Defeat of the trust fund language drew strong praise from Elouise
Cobell, plaintiff in a class action lawsuit against the Interior
Department for alleged mismanagement of up to a million trust fund
accounts since 1888. The suit has demanded that Interior abide by a 1994
act of Congress requiring full historical accounting of the funds, a
task Interior says is nearly impossible and which it tried to avoid by
the rider in the Appropriations bill. The rider would have limited
historical accounting to the time period 1985 to 2000 and excluded
accounts arbitrarily closed before 2000.
In a statement Cobell said, “Secretary Norton and the White House
unlawfully sought to include the provisions in the appropriations bill
to mitigate the pending contempt decision against Norton and to evade
their responsibility to conduct the all-funds accounting required by
United States District Court and United States Court of Appeals.
“Most members of Congress again expressed a strong preference for
settlement of the six-year-old Cobell v. Norton lawsuit. Plaintiffs
concur.
“We have always sought a settlement of these issues and have always sat
down with government officials in good faith; it’s a shame and disgrace
that the Secretary has never done the same. If Secretary Norton or the
White House can show us their good faith intention to settle this case,
plaintiffs will continue to be and always are ready to resolve this
matter,” said Cobell.
The Rahall Amendment striking the rider drew support from 281
Congressmen. Cobell praised “the diligence and fortitude (and
bipartisanship)” of Reps. Rahall, D-W.Va., Kildee, D-Mich., Hayworth,
R-Ariz., Pallone, D-N.J., Miller, D-Calif., Cunningham, R-Calif., and
Young, R-Alaska.
Without their support, she said, “Secretary Norton and the White House
would have succeeded in further harming 500,000 individual Indian trust
beneficiaries.”
“The bipartisan message to Washington on behalf of Indian Country today
was strong and clear,” said Rep. Hayworth. “Put `trust’ back in Native
American trust funds by making a full accounting, and honor tribal
sovereignty on gaming issues.
“I couldn’t be more pleased on behalf of our tribal nations with the
overwhelming votes of support today.”
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