[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 346 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 346

  To establish in the Department of the Interior the Office of Indian 
              Women and Families, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

             February 2 (legislative day, January 30), 1995

  Mr. Domenici (for himself and Mr. Inouye) introduced the following 
  bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian 
                                Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To establish in the Department of the Interior the Office of Indian 
              Women and Families, and for other purposes.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Office of Indian Women and Families 
Act of 1995''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    Congress finds that--
            (1) the primary responsibilities of the Bureau of Indian 
        Affairs are to encourage and assist Indian people to manage 
        their own affairs under the trust relationship between Indians 
        and the Federal Government, and to facilitate, with maximum 
        involvement of Indian people, full development of their human 
        and natural resource potential;
            (2) the Bureau of Indian Affairs coordinates its activities 
        with Indian tribal governments, Federal agencies and 
        departments, and other organizations and groups who share 
        similar interests and programs related to Indians;
            (3) Bureau of Indian Affairs policies, programs and 
        projects impact directly and significantly on the lives of 
        America's Indian people;
            (4) the unique roles and responsibilities of Indian women 
        contribute culturally, socially, and economically to the well-
        being of Indian people, but these contributions are often not 
        fully realized and are undervalued and overlooked within the 
        policies, program, and projects of the Bureau of Indian 
        Affairs;
            (5) Indian children have special educational and social 
        service needs to prepare them for traditional tribal 
        responsibilities and nontribal social and employment 
        opportunities;
            (6) the particular responsibilities, contributions, and 
        needs of Indian women and families can and should be taken into 
        account to improve Bureau of Indian Affairs policy formulation 
        and program operations for the direct benefit of Indian women 
        and families and Indian people as a whole;
            (7) Bureau of Indian Affairs policies, programs and 
        projects, including its coordination and liaison with other 
        Federal, State, and local entities, can be more responsive and 
        enhanced when Indian women and families are considered an 
        integral element of the process as well as contributors to the 
        success of these policies, programs, and projects; and
            (8) there is a need for an Office of Indian Women and 
        Families in the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the purpose of 
        encouraging and promoting the participation and integration of 
        Indian women and families into Bureau of Indian Affairs 
        policies, programs, projects, and activities, thereby improving 
        the effectiveness of its mandate and the status and lives of 
        Indian women and families.

SEC. 3. PURPOSES.

    The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to identify and integrate the issues related to Indian 
        women and families into all Bureau of Indian Affairs policies, 
        programs, projects, and activities. There will be a special 
        emphasis on the economic well-being of Indian women and 
        families including employment and business opportunities;
            (2) to establish an office to serve as a focal point for 
        all Federal Government policy issues affecting Indian women and 
        families for purposes of both economic and social development;
            (3) to collect data related to the specific roles, 
        concerns, and needs of Indian women, and Indian families, and 
        use such data to support policy, program, and project 
        implementation throughout all offices of the Bureau of Indian 
        Affairs and other Federal agencies, and to monitor the impacts 
        of these policies, programs and projects;
            (4) to enhance the economic and social participation of 
        Indian women and families in all levels of planning, 
        decisionmaking, and policy development within the Bureau of 
        Indian Affairs, its area offices, and tribal governments and 
        reservations;
            (5) to conduct research and collect relevant studies 
        relating to special needs of Indian women and families;
            (6) to develop pilot programs and projects to strengthen 
        activities of the Bureau of Indian Affairs involving Indian 
        women and families, and serve as models for future endeavors 
        and planning;
            (7) to ensure a liaison with other Federal departments and 
        agencies, State and local governments, tribally controlled 
        community colleges, other academic institutions, any public or 
        private organizations, and tribal governments that serve Indian 
        peoples;
            (8) to ensure training endeavors for Bureau of Indian 
        Affairs offices and agencies at the national, area, and local 
        levels to ensure Bureau personnel and any other beneficiaries 
        of Bureau and other governmental programs understand the 
        purposes and policies of the office established by this Act;
            (9) to develop policy-level programs, with the assistance 
        of the Assistant Secretary and other senior-level personnel of 
        the Bureau of Indian Affairs, to ensure that systems, 
        directives, management strategies and other related 
        methodologies are implemented to meet the purposes of this Act;
            (10) to strengthen the role of Indian women and families by 
        developing and ensuring culturally appropriate policies and 
        programs; and
            (11) to encourage other actions that serve to more fully 
        integrate Indian women and families as participants in and 
        agents for change in the Federal policy and program activities 
        of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

SEC. 4. DEFINITIONS.

    As used in this Act:
            (1) The term ``Indian woman'' means a woman who is a member 
        of an Indian tribe.
            (2) The term ``Indian tribe'' means any Indian tribe, band, 
        nation, or other organized group or community, any Alaska 
        Native village or regional or village corporation as defined in 
        or established pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement 
        Act (85 Stat. 688), which is recognized as eligible for special 
        programs and services provided by the United States to Indians 
        because of their status as Indians.

SEC. 5. ESTABLISHMENT OF OFFICE OF INDIAN WOMEN AND INDIAN FAMILIES.

    (a) Establishment.--There is established in the Department of the 
Interior the ``Office of Indian Women and Families'' (hereinafter 
referred to as the ``Office'').
    (b) Director.--The Office shall be under the management of a 
director (hereinafter referred to as the ``Director''), who shall be 
appointed by the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs. The Director 
shall report directly to the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs.
    (c) Compensation.--The Director shall be compensated at the rate 
prescribed for level IV of the Executive Schedule under section 5313 of 
title 5, United States Code.
    (d) Tenure.--The Director shall serve at the discretion of the 
Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs.
    (e) Vacancy.--A vacancy in the position of Director shall be filled 
in the same manner as the original appointment was made.
    (f) Duties.--The Director shall administer the Office and carry out 
the purposes and functions of this Act. The Director shall take such 
action as may be necessary in order to integrate Indian women and 
family issues into the Bureau of Indian Affairs policies, programs, 
projects and activities.

SEC. 6. FUNCTIONS OF OFFICE.

    It shall be the function of the Office to develop a policy paper 
for Indian women and families to articulate the objectives of the 
Office, to serve as a guideline for systematically integrating Indian 
women and families issues into the Bureau of Indian Affairs policies, 
programs, projects, and activities, and to establish and detail 
indicators and benchmarks for measuring the success of the Office.

SEC. 7. POLICY TASK FORCE.

    (a) Establishment of a Policy Task Force.--The Director, in 
consultation with the Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs, shall 
establish a temporary policy task force on Indian women and families.
    (b) Membership.--Members of the task force shall be appointed by 
the Director. The task force shall include representatives from Federal 
agencies and departments, relevant Indian organizations, State agencies 
and organizations, Indian tribal governments, institutions of higher 
education, and nongovernmental and private sector organizations and 
institutions.
    (c) Functions.--The policy task force shall--
            (1) ensure that the Policy Paper for Indian women and 
        families prepared by the Bureau of Indian Affairs articulates a 
        set of goals, objectives, management strategies, and monitoring 
        systems for the improvement of all Federal programs, including 
        programs of the Bureau of Indian Affairs, designed to improve 
        the quality of life of Indian women and families;
            (2) recommend a permanent policy mechanism to be 
        established in the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the continuous 
        monitoring and refinement of policy and programs designed to 
        improve the quality of life of Indian women and families; and
            (3) recommend a permanent policy mechanism to be 
        established in the Bureau of Indian Affairs for the purpose of 
        collecting and disseminating to Congress and the public 
        information and other data relevant to the progress of the 
        policy and programs designed to improve the quality of life of 
        Indian women and families.
    (d) Termination.--The task force shall terminate upon the 
expiration of fourteen months following the date of the enactment of 
this Act.

SEC. 8. ASSISTANT SECRETARY OF INDIAN AFFAIRS.

    The Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs shall--
            (1) ensure that the Office receives adequate resources to 
        carry out the purposes of this Act; and
            (2) ensure that senior-level staff members and other 
        employees of the Bureau of Indian Affairs are participants in 
        and responsible for assisting in carrying out the purposes of 
        this Act relating to the improvement of policies and programs 
        of the Bureau of Indian Affairs.

SEC. 9. REPORTING.

    The Secretary of the Interior, acting through the Bureau of Indian 
Affairs, shall, on or before March 15 of each of the two calendar years 
next following the calendar year in which this Act is enacted, and 
biennially thereafter, report to Congress on the progress of achieving 
the purposes of this Act. Such report shall include, but not be limited 
to, information relative to the current status of progress of the 
Bureau of Indian Affairs' policy on Indian women and Indian families in 
fulfilling its objectives, programs and projects, including how well 
the Bureau of Indian Affairs has operationally integrated the issue of 
Indian women and families into its overall policies, programs, 
projects, and activities. Such report shall include a review of data 
gathered to assess and improve the quality of life of Indian women and 
families, including specific recommendations to improve the education, 
health, employment, economic, housing, social, and other services 
within the Bureau of Indian Affairs relating to Indian women and 
families.

SEC. 10. AUTHORIZATIONS.

    Commencing with fiscal year 1994, and each fiscal year thereafter, 
there are authorized to be appropriated for carrying out the provisions 
of this Act, $2,000,000.
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