[Congressional Bills 108th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1540 Introduced in Senate (IS)]

  1st Session
                                S. 1540

    To provide for the payment of amounts owed to Indian tribes and 
                individual Indian money account holders.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                July 31 (legislative day, July 21), 2003

  Mr. Daschle introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
    To provide for the payment of amounts owed to Indian tribes and 
                individual Indian money account holders.

    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 ``Indian Trust Payment Equity Act of 
2003''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS AND PURPOSES.--

    (a) Findings.--Congress finds that--
            (1) the United States has entered into treaties with Indian 
        tribes under which the United States made various commitments 
        to Indian tribes and Indian people;
            (2) the United States functions, by treaty and statute, as 
        a trustee for Indian tribes and individual Indians;
            (3) the United States has a fiduciary obligation to Indian 
        tribes and Indian people and, in accordance with that 
        obligation, must use the highest standard of care to protect 
        the assets of Indian tribes and individual Indians;
            (4) the United States has failed Indian tribes and 
        individual Indians and abridged its treaty obligations related 
        to the handling of trust fund management and historical 
        accounting;
            (5) mismanagement of Indian trust assets by the United 
        States is a longstanding problem that spans many 
        administrations;
            (6) the complexity and longevity of that mismanagement 
        neither mitigates the injustice visited on the 300,000 Native 
        Americans whose accounts have been shortchanged nor absolves 
        the United States of its responsibility to correct the 
        situation in a timely manner;
            (7) a civil action, Cobell v. Norton, Civ. No. 96-1285 
        (RCL), was filed in 1996 in an attempt to obtain a court order 
        to compel the United States to account for the trust funds 
        managed by the United States on behalf of individual Indians;
            (8) as of the date of enactment of this Act, the overall 
        individual Indian money fund--
                    (A) contains approximately $3,000,000,000; and
                    (B) distributes more than $500,000,000 each year to 
                individual Indian money account holders;
            (9) those funds are generated from Indian trust land 
        royalties resulting from leases of that land to oil, 
        agricultural, timber, and mining interests;
            (10) not only do the parties to the Cobell action disagree 
        on the amount of money owed to individual Indian money account 
        holders, there is disagreement between the United States and 
        the Cobell plaintiffs on the number of individual Indian 
        beneficiaries residing in the United States;
            (11) the United States estimates that, as of the date of 
        enactment of this Act, there are approximately 300,000 
        individual Indian trust beneficiaries residing in the United 
        States;
            (12) the United States has never issued a public 
        approximation of the amount of money owed to individual Indian 
        money account holders;
            (13) in 2001, the Secretary of the Interior established the 
        Office of Historical Trust Accounting to determine the means by 
        which a full accounting of individual Indian money accounts 
        could be accomplished;
            (14) the Office of Historical Trust Accounting has 
        estimated that the process of conducting the accounting--
                    (A) could last a decade or longer;
                    (B) could cost at least $2,400,000,000; and
                    (C) might not produce a usable result;
            (15) the Cobell civil action was filed only on behalf of 
        individual Indians, and not Indian tribes; and
            (16) the Secretary of the Interior has stated that 
        completion of a comprehensive accounting of funds owed to 
        individual Indian money account holders will not be completed 
        for at least 5 years after the date of enactment of this Act.
    (b) Purposes.--The purposes of this Act are--
            (1) to acknowledge that the United States owes a 
        considerable amount of funds to Indian tribes and individual 
        Indian money account holders;
            (2) to recognize that the acute human needs of Indians 
        require that the debt be paid to Indians and Indian tribes as 
        promptly as possible;
            (3) to respect the sovereignty of Indian tribes; and
            (4) to provide for payments of amounts that Indians and 
        Indian tribes are owed by the United States.

SEC. 3. DEFINITIONS.

    In this Act:
            (1) Accounting.--The term ``accounting'' means the 
        comprehensive accounting of funds owed to individual Indian 
        money account holders required to be completed by the Secretary 
        as a result of the holding of the court in Cobell v. Norton, 
        Civ. No. 96-1285 (RCL).
            (2) Fund.--The term ``Fund'' means the Indian Trust Payment 
        Equity Fund established by section 5(a).
            (3) Indian.--The term ``Indian'' means an individual who is 
        a member of an Indian tribe (as determined by the Indian 
        tribe).
            (4) Indian tribe.--The term ``Indian tribe'' has the 
        meaning given the term in section 4 of the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450b).
            (5) Secretary.--The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary 
        of the Interior.

SEC. 4. INDIAN TRUST PAYMENT EQUITY.

    (a) Payments.--For each of fiscal years 2004 through 2008, subject 
to section 5(d), the Secretary shall use $2,000,000,000 of the amounts 
in the Fund to provide to Indian tribes payments of amounts owed by the 
United States to individual Indian money account holders as a result of 
mismanagement of the individual Indian money fund.
    (b) Contracts for Auditing.--The Secretary--
            (1) may enter into a contract with an Indian tribe under 
        section 102 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education 
        Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450f), or amend such a contract, to 
        provide funds to the Indian tribe from the Fund to assist the 
        Indian tribe in performing audits of individual Indian money 
        accounts in accordance with generally accepted accounting 
        standards consistent with chapter 75 of title 31, United States 
        Code (commonly known as the ``Single Audit Act of 1984''); and
            (2) if the account holder accepts the results of an audit, 
        may use amounts in the Fund as partial payment until a full 
        accounting is satisfied.
    (c) No Effect on Accounting or Judicial Decisions.--Nothing in this 
section--
            (1) negates or otherwise affects the requirement of the 
        Department of the Interior to complete the accounting; or
            (2) constitutes a settlement regarding any individual 
        Indian money account or any civil action to compel an 
        accounting and payment of amounts owed to individual Indian 
        money account holders.

SEC. 5. INDIAN TRUST PAYMENT EQUITY FUND.

    (a) Establishment.--There is established in the Treasury of the 
United States the Indian Trust Payment Equity Fund to be used in 
carrying out this Act, consisting of such amounts as are appropriated 
to the Fund under subsection (b).
    (b) Appropriations to Fund.--There are appropriated to the Fund--
            (1) such amounts as are made available under subsections 
        (a) and (b) of section 6;
            (2) such amounts are deposited in the Fund under section 
        5(d)(2); and
            (3) any interest earned on investment of amounts in the 
        Fund under subsection (d).
    (c) Expenditures From Fund.--
            (1) In general.--Subject to paragraph (2), upon request by 
        the Secretary of the Interior, the Secretary of the Treasury 
        shall transfer from the Fund to the Secretary of the Interior 
        such amounts as the Secretary of the Interior determines are 
        necessary to provide payments under section 4(a).
            (2) Administrative expenses.--An amount not exceeding 1 
        percent of the amounts in the Fund shall be available for each 
        fiscal year to pay the administrative expenses necessary to 
        carry out this Act.
    (d) Investment of Amounts.--
            (1) Investments.--
                    (A) In general.--The Secretary of the Treasury 
                shall invest such portion of the Fund as is not, in the 
                judgment of the Secretary of the Treasury, required to 
                meet current withdrawals.
                    (B) Obligations.--Investments may be made only in 
                interest-bearing obligations of the United States.
            (2) Acquisition of obligations.--For the purpose of 
        investments under paragraph (1), obligations may be acquired--
                    (A) on original issue at the issue price; or
                    (B) by purchase of outstanding obligations at the 
                market price.
            (3) Sale of obligations.--Any obligation acquired by the 
        Fund may be sold by the Secretary of the Treasury at the market 
        price.
            (4) Credits to fund.--The interest on, and the proceeds 
        from the sale or redemption of, any obligations held in the 
        Fund shall be credited to and form a part of the Fund.
    (e) Transfers of Amounts.--
            (1) In general.--The amounts required to be transferred to 
        the Fund under this section shall be transferred at least 
        monthly from the general fund of the Treasury to the Fund on 
        the basis of estimates made by the Secretary of the Treasury.
            (2) Adjustments.--Proper adjustment shall be made in 
        amounts subsequently transferred to the extent prior estimates 
        were in excess of or less than the amounts required to be 
        transferred.

SEC. 6. FUNDING.

    (a) In General.--Out of any funds in the Treasury not otherwise 
appropriated, the Secretary of the Treasury shall transfer to the 
Secretary, for deposit in the Fund--
            (1) not later than 30 days after the date of enactment of 
        this Act, $2,000,000,000; and
            (2) on October 1, 2004, and each October 1 thereafter 
        through October 1, 2007, $2,000,000,000.
    (b) Receipt and Acceptance.--The Secretary shall be entitled to 
receive, shall accept, and shall deposit in the Fund and use to carry 
out this Act the funds transferred under subsection (a), without 
further appropriation.
    (c) Availability of Funds.--Funds transferred under subsection (a) 
shall remain available until expended.

SEC. 7. REPORT.

    Not later than 4 years after the date of enactment of this Act, the 
Secretary shall submit to Congress a report that includes--
            (1) an accounting of all payments made under section 4(a); 
        and
            (2) a description of the status of, and an estimated date 
        of completion for, the accounting.
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