[Senate Hearing 113-324]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
S. Hrg. 113-324
S. 1474, S. 1570, S. 1574, S. 1622, AND
S. 2160
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HEARING
before the
COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
UNITED STATES SENATE
ONE HUNDRED THIRTEENTH CONGRESS
SECOND SESSION
__________
APRIL 2, 2014
__________
Printed for the use of the Committee on Indian Affairs
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COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS
JON TESTER, Montana, Chairman
JOHN BARRASSO, Wyoming, Vice Chairman
TIM JOHNSON, South Dakota JOHN McCAIN, Arizona
MARIA CANTWELL, Washington LISA MURKOWSKI, Alaska
TOM UDALL, New Mexico JOHN HOEVEN, North Dakota
AL FRANKEN, Minnesota MIKE CRAPO, Idaho
MARK BEGICH, Alaska DEB FISCHER, Nebraska
BRIAN SCHATZ, Hawaii
HEIDI HEITKAMP, North Dakota
Mary J. Pavel, Majority Staff Director and Chief Counsel
Rhonda Harjo, Minority Deputy Chief Counsel
C O N T E N T S
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Page
Hearing held on April 2, 2014.................................... 1
Statement of Senator Barrasso.................................... 2
Statement of Senator Begich...................................... 9
Statement of Senator Heitkamp.................................... 3
Statement of Senator Hoeven...................................... 4
Statement of Senator Murkowsi.................................... 8
Statement of Senator Tester...................................... 1
Witnesses
Dorgan, Hon. Byron L., U.S. Senator (Retired) from North Dakota;
Founder/Chairman, Center For Native American Youth, Aspen
Institute...................................................... 4
McDonald, Hon. Leander R., Ph.D,, Tribal Chairman, Spirit Lake
Tribe.......................................................... 26
Prepared statement........................................... 28
Robinson, Hon. Lillian Sparks, Commissioner, Administration For
Native Americans, U.S. Department Of Health And Human Services. 43
Prepared statement........................................... 45
Singh, Hon. Natasha, Tribal Court Judge, Stevens Village......... 13
Prepared statement........................................... 15
Washburn, Hon. Kevin, Assistant Secretary--Indian Affairs, U.S.
Department of the Interior..................................... 38
Prepared statement........................................... 40
Zientek, Margaret, Co-Chair, P.L. 102-477 Tribal Workgroup....... 21
Prepared statement........................................... 23
Supplemental testimony....................................... 85
Appendix
Abramson, Cathy, Chairperson, National Indian Health Board
(NIHB), prepared statement..................................... 80
Andersen, Ralph, President/CEO, Bristol Bay Native Association,
prepared statement............................................. 59
Baker, Hon. Bill John, Principal Chief, Cherokee Nation, prepared
statement...................................................... 64
O'Neill, Gloria, CEO/President, Cook Inlet Tribal Council,
prepared statement............................................. 66
Philemonof, Dimitri, President/CEO, Aleutian Pribilof Islands
Association, prepared statement................................ 55
Pigsley, Hon. Delores, Tribal Chairman, Confederated Tribes of
Siletz Indians, prepared statement............................. 83
Pitka, Rhonda, Chairwoman, Council of Athabascan Tribal
Governments (CATG), prepared statement......................... 72
Pyle, Hon. Gregory E., Chief, Choctaw Nation, prepared statement. 65
Letters of support submitted by:
Diana Autaubo................................................ 89
Hon. Scott N. BigHorse....................................... 88
Hon. Tex G. Hall............................................. 91
Robert Polasky............................................... 92
Hon. Robert Shepherd......................................... 90
Schuerch, Timothy, President/CEO, Maniilaq Association, prepared
statement...................................................... 74
TwoBears, Robert, Representative, Ho-Chunk Nation, prepared
statement...................................................... 73
United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc., prepared statement........ 83
S. 1474, S. 1570, S. 1574, S. 1622, AND S. 2160
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WEDNESDAY, APRIL 2, 2014
U.S. Senate,
Committee on Indian Affairs,
Washington, DC.
The Committee met, pursuant to notice, at 2:37 p.m. in room
628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Hon. Jon Tester,
Chairman of the Committee, presiding.
OPENING STATEMENT OF HON. JON TESTER,
U.S. SENATOR FROM MONTANA
The Chairman. I will call the Committee back to order.
When I took over the chairmanship of this Committee, I
committed to moving quickly on legislation referred to us in
order to help move Indian Country forward. I believe the markup
we just held and legislative hearings such as this are
important steps in building that momentum.
I look forward to hearing the various perspectives on the
bills discussed today and forging ahead with growing and
supporting tribal sovereignty and self determination.
To that end, this afternoon, we are holding a legislative
hearing on five pieces of legislation pending before this
Committee. Each bill seeks to address a statutory misstep or to
amend a process that is inhibiting the ability of tribes to
control their own futures and to protect the well being of
their people.
Among these bills, we will look at fixing an oversight in
Alaska where tribal jurisdiction was cut short and the
recently-passed Violence Against Women Act has failed to
protect Alaska Native Women.
We will also look at our trust responsibility for providing
health care to Native people. We need to ensure that the health
of Indian people is not subject to the whims of political
stonewalling, much like it was during the recent government
shutdown and sequestration.
S. 1570, introduced by Senators Begich and Murkowski and
joined by me and four more of our colleagues, would do just
that by providing funding for Indian Health Service a full year
in advance.
We will also look at S. 1574, a bill proposing to help
consolidate and streamline Federal funding for tribal
employment and training and related service programs in Indian
Country. The bill would update and improve upon existing law
which has allowed tribes to integrate their employment related
funding and maximum program efficiency for over 20 years.
We will also look at two bills that, if passed, would help
protect and support Native children. First, S. 1622, introduced
by Senator Heitkamp, would establish a commission to fully
determine the many problems affecting Native children and
provide recommendations on how to best address those concerns.
Finally, we will look at S. 2160 which would help protect
children from harm when they are taken from their homes and
placed in the care of others in the foster care system. It is
especially in these instances that we need to guarantee that
children are not being removed from one unsafe environment only
to be placed into another.
I think discussing these final two bills is particularly
timely as yesterday was April 1 which marks the beginning of
Child Abuse Prevention Month in this Country. I think we can
all agree that the most precious natural resource we have is
our children and the necessity to protect them and help them
grow and develop in safe, supportive communities is a priority
I know I share with my colleagues here on this Committee.
I have been on the record before stating my commitment to
early childhood development and educational attainment for our
children but we all know that children need to be safe, healthy
and secure in order to truly benefit from the educational
experience.
I am pleased to join my colleagues, Senator Heitkamp and
Hoeven in addressing the needs of Native children through their
respective bills and look forward to continuing this important
dialogue on child safety not only this month but until we do
not have to address it anymore.
All of these are important issues and I look forward to
hearing from all the witnesses today on these bills. I look
forward to debating these issues and determining how we can
quickly move these bills forward for consideration of the full
Senate.
The Chairman. With that, Ranking Member Barrasso, do you
have a statement?
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN BARRASSO,
U.S. SENATOR FROM WYOMING
Senator Barrasso. I do, Mr. Chairman.
I want to thank you for holding this important hearing.
It's so good to see our good friend and former colleague and
former chairman of this Committee, Senator Dorgan. I very much
enjoyed serving as Vice Chairman when he was Chairman of the
Committee.
Also, Mr. Chairman, I would like to welcome to the
Committee the students who are here from Lander Valley High
School in Lander, Wyoming in Fremont County. They have been
touring the Capitol and this is a very important issue to them,
specifically one of the bills we are talking about today, the
Native American Children's Safety Act, S. 2160, introduced by
my good friend, Senator John Hoeven, of North Dakota.
Indian children are particularly vulnerable when foster
care placements are not properly investigated. Senator Hoeven's
bill will strengthen and clarify foster care placement
requirements including the character investigations and
background checks. These minimum standards will promote
consistency and address gaps in child protective services.
I recognize that not every potential situation of harm to
Indian children can be prevented by this legislation, but this
bill is a significant and meaningful step forward in the right
direction. For that reason, I am proud to join Senator Hoeven
in cosponsoring this bill. I look forward to working with you,
Mr. Chairman, on all of these bills. Thank you for your
leadership on these important matters.
I look forward to the testimony.
Thank you.
The Chairman. Thank you, Vice Chairman Barrasso. I
appreciate your comments.
Does anyone else have a short opening statement? Senator
Heitkamp?
STATEMENT OF HON. HEIDI HEITKAMP,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA
Senator Heitkamp. First, I would like to thank Senator
Tester and Vice Chairman Barrasso for holding the hearing
today. Senator Tester, I appreciate your willingness to move
this legislation before the Committee and thank all your staff
for making this happen.
I also want to thank my friend and colleague, Senator
Murkowski. I think one of the first times we ever met, we had a
long conversation about the issue and the challenges involving
Native American children. It was a bonding and important
experience because it led to this bill.
When I was looking to introduce my first bill in the
Senate, it only made sense that I introduce it with Senator
Murkowski.
I have spent a lot of time in Indian Country in my time in
public life in North Dakota. I used to come to Federal
officials and ask consistently, what are you going to do to
address these issues, what are you going to do to address these
problems and the national shame of how we allow our Native
American children to live, whether it is housing challenges,
educational challenges or other safety challenges. When I got
here, I realized I couldn't point the finger and ask anyone
else other than myself.
Too often what we have done is we authorize programs and
look at all of the things that we have done for years whether
it's housing, education or public safety but we have never
asked have we really improved the condition for Native American
children, have we really changed outcomes?
I will tell you that the statistics would tell us we have
not. We have not made them safer, we have not provided a higher
quality of education, we have not decreased the despair that
Native American children feel and, as a result, we have a
population with horrible statistics, with one of the most
challenging, the rate of suicide among our children, all
children, children who live in Indian Country and off Indian
Country.
I have to say I have been truly humbled by the bipartisan
nature. I think everyone wants to solve this problem. I cannot
believe in a country as great as America that if we don't all
want to solve a problem, and we all want to work to solve the
problem, that we can't. The great promise of this legislation
is that we are going to see a fast forward for changing the
outcome, for changing the dynamics.
Finally, I want to express my great affection and
appreciation for the work that Senator Dorgan has done. I think
North Dakota has always produced Senators who care about people
in Indian Country. You see that today with two bills being
considered. I will tell you we have a rich heritage but we also
have a great responsibility in our State and Senator Dorgan has
taken that responsibility not only in his work here, but he has
made it his life work to change this outcome. I want to thank
him for appearing today on behalf of the bill.
The Chairman. Senator Hoeven.
STATEMENT OF HON. JOHN HOEVEN,
U.S. SENATOR FROM NORTH DAKOTA
Senator Hoeven. Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you for
holding this hearing. I would also like to thank our Ranking
Member for his comments, as well as your support on the Native
American Children's Safety Act. Also, thank you, Senator
Heitkamp, for your support on that legislation. I am pleased to
join with you on your legislation as well.
I would like to welcome Senator Dorgan and also acknowledge
your work on behalf of Native Americans and your leadership
role.
Also, Chairman Ross McDonald, I'd like to thank the
Chairman for being here today and his work on the Spirit Lake
Reservation and for being here on behalf of not only the people
on his reservation but across the Country.
Thank you so much, Chairman, for being here. I truly
appreciate it.
The Chairman. Thank you all for your statements.
I would like to welcome our first panel. Senator Dorgan, as
always, we try to limit you to five minutes but I know if goes
a little longer, we won't gavel you down.
I will just say it is an incredible honor for me,
especially sitting in this chair, to welcome Senator Dorgan
back to this Committee. It was a little over seven years ago I
came to my first Indian Affairs Committee meeting in the Senate
and saw Chairman Dorgan chairing this Committee along with
Craig Thomas, the fellow that John Barrasso came after.
I really learned issues that impact Indian Country like
none before through the eyes of Byron Dorgan. I would just like
to say before you begin your testimony, I want to thank you
personally for everything you have done for this Committee, for
me, and for Indian people across this Country.
With that, welcome, Byron, and you may proceed.
STATEMENT OF HON. BYRON L. DORGAN, U.S. SENATOR
(RETIRED) FROM NORTH DAKOTA; FOUNDER/CHAIRMAN, CENTER FOR
NATIVE AMERICAN YOUTH, ASPEN INSTITUTE
Senator Dorgan. Mr. Chairman, thank you very much.
I wandered around here for 30 years in the Congress and
haven't been back here much. I will tell all of you that when
you leave, as you all will some day, the thing you miss is
having the opportunity every day to work with your friends in
the Senate and the House. It is good to see all of you.
I am here because Senator Heitkamp asked whether I would
come and testify on her legislation. I am happy to do that. I
think what she and Senator Murkowski have introduced has great
merit. I am pleased to see Senator Hoeven as well and know of
your legislation which I also think has merit.
I want to talk a bit today about the legislation that has
been introduced by Senator Heitkamp and Senator Murkowski. Let
me say immediately the question people might ask is why this,
why another commission, why another study?
Frankly, I think this commission is complementary to
everything that is going on. I am the co-chair of the Task
Force by the U.S. Justice Department on violence on Indian
reservations with children. This is perfectly complementary to
that.
This is complementary to the Center for Native American
Youth which I created and we work every day on a range of these
issues. This complements that. I kind of see this as taking a
step back with collective fresh eyes from the Nation about what
do we see here and how do we finally get our arms around it,
kind of like a diagnosis. It is one thing to talk about these
things. How do you better diagnose what it is and how you fix
it?
We know there are children at risk in this Country, Native
American children especially. We know of all the population
that has been left behind, in my judgment, none have been left
behind more quickly than American Indian children.
Despite the fact that all these promises have been made,
all the treaties that have been signed, all the trust
responsibility that bears on our shoulders, despite all of
that, these kids have been left behind. The fact is, it is a
national disgrace. Poverty rates, high school dropouts, teen
suicide, you could go on and on to describe the circumstances
that face these kids.
I want to mention to you just three children that
symbolize, for me, the urgency with which all of us work on
these issues. The first, Senator Heitkamp has seen this, this
is from February 4, 1990. I remember the day it came out in the
newspaper because it is a photograph of a young child, three
years old. This young girl named Tamara Demearis was put in a
foster home, by the way, by a social worker working 125
separate cases.
A drunken party ensued and this young girl had her leg
broken, her arm broken, her nose broken and her hair pulled out
at the roots at age three. She likely will bear those scars all
of her life. This persuaded me to go to that reservation in
February 1990 to find out what in the Hell was going on. It
still happens across this Country. Despite all our best
efforts, we still see these problems.
I was on the Pine Ridge Reservation about a year ago. I
went to a shelter and met a 12 year old girl. At age 12, this
young girl faced the following: her mother was dead from drug
abuse, she didn't know who her father was; she had been in two
foster homes, sexually abused in both; and now at age 12 was
finally at long, long last safe in a shelter.
That shelter was facing the ignorance of sequestration
which cuts the funding for the most vulnerable people in this
Country. It is unbelievable. I stood in that room looking at
this 12 year old girl thinking; how can this Country allow this
to happen?
Mr. Chairman, you and I were on the Crow Reservation when
the grandmother of Ta'shon Rain Little Light walked forward in
the crowd and held high above her head a photograph of her
granddaughter, Ta'shon Rain Little Light who died in her
mother's arms. She died of cancer and she had been to the
health care facilities at the IHS on their reservation time and
time and time and time again and was treated for depression
until she died of cancer.
These three young children I described to you all suffered
in what I think is a national disgrace, a circumstance where
this is not some mysterious illness. We can fix this, but it is
important to step back as the commission proposed by Senators
Heitkamp and Murkowski offer to do, step back and take a look
at all of these elements and try to see if we can put them
together in a rational way that addresses the issues we know
cause these problems.
Mr. Chairman, I created an organization called the Center
for Native American Youth. That organization focuses on teen
suicide prevention, education opportunity and more. This
commission is complementary to what we do every day. This
commission, in my judgment, will be very, very helpful.
This commission talks about the barriers, the obstacles,
trying to evaluate explicitly what the elements are that we can
put together that finally address the heart of this matter. We
know it is poverty, it is dysfunctional homes, it is gangs that
prey on these kids, drug issues. It is all of that, but we
don't seem to have the capability to put together the solution
or the set of recommendations that can come from this piece of
legislation.
One of the things they are talking about is evaluating what
all the Federal agencies are doing. It is interesting to me
that I have been involved, as all of you have, in so many
different pieces of legislation and at the Center for Native
American Youth downtown here in Washington, D.C., we do a
quarterly meeting and ask the Federal agencies to come and they
come.
Sitting around the table, about 30 of them, 25 to 30
agencies, it is the first time they ever sat around the table
together. All of them working on Indian issues, all of them
working on issues dealing with Indian children, none of them
having met before to talk about what they are doing.
We discovered at the same table that two Federal agencies
were doing exactly the same thing on one reservation, spending
a lot of money, and neither knew the other was there. Isn't
that interesting? Not very interesting, it is pretty
depressing.
That is why this legislation will get at all of those
issues. It is why I think this legislation has very substantial
merit.
I do want to mention to you, in some ways I hope the way
this is written, and as I read it, I think it is possible, that
you might also as an adjunct decide to chronicle the promises,
the treaties, the signatures, the trust, and everything. Put it
all together to evaluate what has been promised and proposed in
law and treaty. These are solemn promises by the government and
then what has been done relevant to those promises.
We know, for example, 50 percent of the health care that
was promised is not met. Full scale rationing for health care
for all Indians, including children. It should be front page,
headline news on the Washington Post today but it is not
because it happens very day, full scale health care rationing.
It ought to bring tears to everyone's eyes.
Finally, let me say the overriding issue is funding. It is
easy to talk about and hard to solve. The funding issue for
foster care for social services, education, housing, health
care as I just described are chronic. We have to find a way to
get at it.
Let me conclude by saying that when we talk about all these
things, I held some hearings, for example, on teen suicide and
was told by parents and others don't do this, don't have public
hearings on this subject because it is something that obviously
we are ashamed of, it is a stain, don't do this.
As I said, we don't have any choice. This continues to
happen. We have to shine all the spotlights on one spot and
figure out not only what is happening, but how on earth do we
fix it. My sense is that we can use this commission as well to
chronicle all those promises that have been made and all the
under funding that exists in these areas to try to figure out
how to button this up, and finally, with recommendations and
best practices, give some of these children some hope for the
future.
Parents care about this, tribal officials care about this
and when we talk about it, I don't want anyone to think there
are tribal members and tribal councilmen who don't care. They
do, they work very hard and so do parents, to try to fix these
things but they need our help because we are the ones who made
the promise and we are the ones not keeping it.
Let me say this commission idea is complementary to
everything else that is going on but I think may well get us
way down the road in terms of a new diagnosis and new
prescriptions about how we finally fix this in a different way.
Mr. Chairman, thank you very much for inviting me.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Dorgan, for your
testimony.
I have many questions. I am going to ask you one. For three
years now and much time before that, for the last three years
plus you have been working with the Center for Native American
Youth. You have probably seen some stuff you wouldn't normally
have seen.
If you could wave a magic wand and could ask Congress to do
one thing that would help our Native youth or the whole
population in general, what would it be?
Senator Dorgan. Obviously the future is education. We have
a 50 percent high school dropout rate among Native American
youth. That is pretty unbelievable. What kind of future does
that consign someone to when you have that kind of dropout
rate?
We have a program called Champions for Change where we
bring in kids from around the Country who are champions--many
of you have met them--really inspiring young kids, to kind of
celebrate success. It is the case there are some kids out there
succeeding but it is also the case that half these kids aren't
making it through high school.
My first answer is always adequately fund these programs
because we made the promise. The second is the future for these
kids is education.
The Chairman. Senator Barrasso?
Senator Barrasso. No questions, thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Senator Murkowski?
STATEMENT OF HON. LISA MURKOWSKI,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA
Senator Murkowski. Not so much a question but a thanks. It
is clear from your very impassioned remarks here this afternoon
that the care and compassion you showed for American Indians,
Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians when you were chairing this
Committee and I was privileged to sit as your ranking, that
passion hasn't abated since you have left the Senate.
Even before you left, you and I discussed what you were
doing to found the Center for Native American Youth and wanting
to continue the focus on Native youth suicide and what we can
do to make a difference.
I just want to publicly acknowledge and thank you for that.
I think it is often easy to leave the rigors of what we do here
day to day, and quite honestly some of the things that weigh
heavily on our shoulders and our conscience, to know you have
left from here and continue to do good things for so many
around Country and truly those most vulnerable, I renew my
commitment to work with you on not only the Native Youth
suicide issues but what you can help Senator Heitkamp and I do
to advance this children's commission.
I have great gratitude for what you do.
Senator Dorgan. Senator Murkowski, thank you very much.
I should mention to you all that Senator Murkowski was on
the advisory board of the Center for Native American Youth when
we created it three years ago. Thank you for that.
I don't know what is second, third, or fourth place in most
peoples' lives but I know what is in first place. It is kids.
If kids are not in first place, then there is something
unbelievably warped about people. Children are our most
important resource. We love them, we have responsibilities for
them, we take care of them, but with respect to the children of
the people who were here first in this Country, you go do these
tours, we are doing a lot of youth tours now around the Country
on Indian reservations and what you see are a lot of kids
living in third world conditions.
Then you ask the question, how do they get into that
trouble? Why aren't they off to college? Why do they quit
school? You try living in a three bedroom home with 24 other
people and try and study at night. You try and live on a
reservation where gangs are there or Mexican drug pushers are
there. I should say drugs from Mexico are coming to the
reservation, they are targeting them. It is a pretty hard life
for some of these kids.
Despite all that, you see some kids who make you so proud
it brings tears to your eyes, kids that go through unbelievable
things. There is a young boy who started an organization called
NERDS, Native Education Raising Dedicated Students. He is 16
years old and on the football team.
He saw a bunch of his friends getting Ds and Fs and
thought, I am going to try to make it cool for them to get As
and Bs. He started NERDS, it became a club and people joined
this club. He was telling us about kids he was playing football
with who were getting Ds and Fs who are now getting As and Bs
because they understood it was kind of fun to be a part of a
people who were succeeding, part of a group that was
succeeding.
When you find a young, teenage kid who creates an
organization called NERDS to help his friends, then you think
there is some hope out there. If they can do that, what can we
do as legislators. I know you are going to be doing some tours
of reservations and there is nothing like being there and
talking to those young people and seeing it.
I know that you, like I, when you go to sleep at night, you
want to lay your head on the pillow thinking, you know what, I
did a little something to improve some lives today. When I
decided to leave here, I chose to see if I could do it with
kids because you have to start somewhere and these kids are our
future.
Native American kids have been left behind. I think Senator
Heitkamp and all of you around the table feel the same way. It
is time to stop leaving them behind and have them become a part
of the American dream as well.
The Chairman. Senator Begich?
STATEMENT OF HON. MARK BEGICH,
U.S. SENATOR FROM ALASKA
Senator Begich. Senator Dorgan, it is good to see you.
I wasn't going to ask questions. I am always impressed and
motivated and inspired when you come and speak, especially
around American Indian and Alaska Native issues when it comes
to youth. Thank you again for your passion, as always.
I want you to know that Tessa Baldwin, who was an intern in
my office, came as one of your quality leaders and she
produced. You are producing them. We are taking advantage of it
too, an incredible inspiration in a program she founded, Hope
for Alaska, to help young people in Alaska deal with suicide.
As you work with your foundation, you are planting seeds
everywhere and I want to thank you for that.
As Senators, you know we travel quite a bit. I was in a
hotel, I can't remember which city, and I was watching a late
night show which showed two young Native women who play
basketball, sisters. I think it was Louisville, if I remember
correctly. I am seeing some heads shake so they know exactly
what I am talking about.
Just watching that story, I was so impressed that the
younger sister said she is going to finish college, get her
degree. I think she has a 3.6. But she talked about the
challenges of coming off the reservation into this unique
experience. What she wants to do is go back to the reservation
and inspire young people.
It was probably 15 minutes at most. They are great
basketball players, incredible. Just to watch their enthusiasm
not about the sport but how the sport is part of what they want
to bring back with the education and the opportunity for young
people, it was inspiring.
As I listened to you about inspiring young people, it is
just impressive. It draws me to one of the things you did when
you were here in the Indian Law and Order Commission that was
established. As you know, its report has come out and it was
pretty amazing, not in a positive way. Alaska has a whole
chapter which, on one hand, is very disappointing but on the
other hand, we have an opportunity.
What is your advice? You were here for so many years but
now looking in and watching what we do, how do we make sure. We
had a hearing and we were glad we had it but what do we do to
make sure the recommendations and ideas they have in that
commission, as well as the future commission, to ensure they
actually happen?
That is always the challenge around here. Just listening to
you and thinking of the things we could be doing right this
second, my worry is as we move forward, what do we do, how do
we engage those recommendations groups like yours and others to
make sure they happen?
Again, thank you for Tessa and creating a leader. Alaska is
blessed because of that. She is doing great work because of
you.
Senator Dorgan. Tessa Baldwin is extraordinary and Hope for
Alaska, she is a champion for change.
I wanted to say one of my regrets is I don't think we do
enough in our Congress of oversight hearings. Even if it is
just one Senator, maybe not always the chairman, but one
Senator coming to have an oversight hearing and you have one
agency to come, sit here and answer the questions, what are you
doing, what aren't you doing.
I think there is such a rich vein to be mined in the
oversight of agencies on these Indian programs. This Committee
could have the capability of doing that. I did not do as much
of that. We were trying to get the Indian Health Care
Improvement Act done, the Tribal Law and Order Act and diabetes
extension and so on.
I think there is a rich vein to be mined on this issue of
oversight. You don't have to have a full committee hearing to
do it. You can have one or two Senators there and go at it and
figure out what some of these agencies are doing.
Maybe they say we only have half the money that we need, so
what are you doing with half the money. At least let's find out
that.
Senator Begich. I will leave my questions at this point and
say it is a good point, because I'm thinking the report, we
have the commission and now it is up to agency implementation.
Maybe the next step is to say here are the recommendations that
were made, whichever agency it might be, you come back here,
tell us what you are doing and I like your idea.
It doesn't matter how much they have but what are they
prioritizing and how are they making that work. Thank you for
that advice.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Senator Hoeven?
Senator Hoeven. Senator Dorgan, thanks again for being
here. You worked very hard on trying to prevent teen suicide
among Native American youth both during your time in the Senate
and now with the Center for Native American Youth. Would you
talk just a minute about linkage as you see it between child
safety and keeping children safe in foster homes which is what
we seek to do with the Native American Children's Safety Act
and suicide among our Native American youth? Could you talk
about that linkage and your thoughts on safety in terms of the
home, foster care and so forth among Native Americans?
Senator Dorgan. I have been on Indian reservations and
talked to a roundtable of students, maybe seniors in high
school or juniors in high school, about ten of them, about what
is your life like and what are your issues. Safety always comes
up. There is always an issue of what is happening around them
in their environment that causes them concern about their
safety.
It is well documented that Indian children are far over
represented in foster homes, which is another cultural issue.
It is too easy for them to be put in foster homes.
Second, when they are put in foster homes, is the
investigation done sufficiently to make sure they are putting
these kids in safe homes? That is why I mentioned the case of
Tamara Demearis. That is the case that has always kept me
involved. The tears in this little girl's eyes were real tears.
She was beaten severely, and should have never been in that
home.
I talked to the woman who put her there. That woman was
handling 125 cases. You can't handle more than 25 or 30 cases.
Do you think she went to find out was this a safe home? She
didn't do that, she didn't have the time, so this precious
child was put in an unsafe circumstance.
Does that relate to teen suicide? Sure. I think there is
not one trigger for teen suicide, there are a lot of triggers.
There is the issue of safety and a wide range of things that
confront these kids every single day: poverty, abuse, sexual
abuse and so on. I think the suicide issue continues, in my
judgment, to be very, very serious.
You have to keep talking about it and I think we will begin
to see the reduction of rapes and teen suicide when we finally
begin to see some progress in many of these other areas. That
gets back to the underlying bill we were talking about and also
the legislation you have introduced.
Senator Hoeven. Thank you.
The Chairman. Senator Heitkamp?
Senator Heitkamp. Thank you, Chairman Tester.
I have just a couple comments which I think Senator Dorgan
covered quite well, the commitment we have from tribal leaders,
whether it is elder groups or tribal councils, everyone wants
to take this problem out into the open and start really
beginning to examine the root causes and how we can change
outcomes.
Senator Dorgan, I want to talk with you about how we make
this issue of those kids, how many times do we hear those kids,
but these are our kids, these are all of our kids, these are
Americans. I sometimes think that it is very easy for people
who don't have the experiences we have coming to Indian Country
to say that's Heidi's problem or that's Byron's or Jon's
problem. It is your problem; it is not our problem.
I think one of the reasons why this has been allowed to
continue I we have not created a dialogue in this Country that
says these are our kids and this is a shame when this happens.
This is on us. This is on all of us because we are the adults.
How do we build that broader support beyond a Committee
like this, beyond a room like this? How do we build the broader
support, Senator?
Senator Dorgan. It is very hard to do. As you know, many of
the Indian reservations, particularly in the northern Great
Plains are far from population centers out of sight and the
same in Montana. You land in Billings and drive down to the
Crow Reservation and there is so much there that is not seen or
not understood by the American people who have made a
commitment to them.
It is very hard. The thing is, as difficult as it is, we
cannot stop. This Committee is the location of a lot of the
effort that has to continue to be made to say to the Country,
you cannot allow this to continue. This is not fair. It is not
even legal. You have actually signed treaties and made promises
and passed legislation. I think you are touching on something
that is really important.
To the extent that we can, make sure that you continue to
say in the face of the American people, here is what exists and
we have to change, we cannot allow this to continue.
Senator Heitkamp. To close with a story, it is about a
friend of ours, a guy named Al Lick who for years worked for
the children of North Dakota. He was doing a program where he
was trying to figure out how he could do early intervention,
how he could do some prevention work. He was visiting across
the State of North Dakota and every place he went, people would
tell him, you can't do that, you can't do this, you can't do
that and he got worn down.
Finally, the last place he went an elder approached him and
said, you know, Mr. Lick, what you can't do and he thought here
it comes again. He said, you can't give up. It is really
important that we don't give up. It is really important that we
don't forget or lose our sense of responsibility.
Thank you.
Senator Dorgan. Thank you very much.
Mr. Chairman, I have exhausted more time than you probably
expected but thank you for inviting me. As I said, I don't get
here very often, but when asked if I would come, of course I
was happy to do that.
Thanks for being chairman and thanks to the Committee for
spending time on this issue. I know there are plenty of other
issues that command your attention.
The Chairman. Senator Dorgan, we all want to thank you for
being here today. I know your schedule is busy and you took
time out of it to come enlighten us and we very much appreciate
that.
I would tell you to keep up with the leadership role you
are in but we know that ain't going to change. Thank you very
much for everything you have done and will continue to do.
I have to leave for another committee meeting. I hope to
get my questions and be back. I am going to turn the
chairmanship over to Senator Begich.
We will start with the second panel which is Native
American representation. Go ahead, Senator Begich.
Senator Begich. [Presiding.] Thank you very much, Mr.
Chairman. I look forward to conducting this next portion.
I would like to welcome the second panel to come forward.
We have Natasha Singh, a Tribal Judge from Stevens Village in
Alaska; Margaret Zientek, Co-Chair, Tribal Workgroup working on
integration of employment related funding from Federal agencies
and the Honorable Leander R. McDonald, Chairman of the Spirit
Lake Dakota Nation in North Dakota.
Welcome to all three of you. We appreciate it. We will
start with Natasha and go down. Give your testimony and then we
will be open for questions from members. Again, thank you all
very much for being here this afternoon on the important
legislation in front of us today.
Natasha?
STATEMENT OF HON. NATASHA SINGH, TRIBAL COURT JUDGE, STEVENS
VILLAGE
Ms. Singh. Distinguished members of the Committee, thank
you for holding today's hearing on several bills of particular
importance to Alaskan tribes.
My name is Natasha Singh. I am a Stevens Village tribal
member, a tribal court judge, a foster mother and I am also
general counsel for the Tanana Chiefs Conference. TCC is a
health and social services tribal consortium that represents 37
federally recognized tribes of interior Alaska.
The focus of my testimony and why I am here today is to ask
the Committee to use S. 1474 to make lasting changes in rural
Alaska. This Committee recently reviewed the Law and Order
Commission report. In that report, you got a glance at the
horrors faced by some of the women and children living in rural
Alaska.
Generations of Alaska Natives living in our villages have
been ignored by the State's law enforcement and judicial
systems, a fact which has created despair among tribal members.
This summer, I was in a village when an intoxicated man
attempted sexual assault on a 13 year old girl. When the
village leaders called the State troopers, they were told
nothing could be done. This is the third time that I am aware
of that this man has attempted sexual assault.
This man is currently still in the village, he regularly
drinks and the community, the women and children have little
protection from this individual. Do not allow this man to
continue to terrorize his tribe. The time for positive
congressional reform is long overdue.
As currently written, S. 1474 will do very little. That is
why we ask Congress to amend the bill as written and to add the
Alaska Safe Families and Villages Self Governance Tribal Law
Project. This project will recognize the authority of tribal
governments to deal in the first instance with issues of local
domestic violence, sexual assault and alcohol and drug abuse.
That is what is needed, that is what the Commission called
for and that alone is what Congress can do.
A major accomplishment of the bill as currently written is
the repeal of S. 910 of the Violence Against Women Act. I
really would like to thank Senators Murkowski and Begich for
agreeing to repeal that section. Since the passage of that
section last year and with the State's continued challenge to
tribal court authority, we have seen that tribal courts are
more hesitant to issue protective orders when it deals with
non-members.
I would like to tell you today that if a woman in a village
is the subject of domestic violence, the local tribal court
must be assured that it may take lawful, immediate action
against abusers regardless of tribal membership.
S. 910 has created such a problem and the cure is
straightforward that we respectfully urge the Committee to
include this provision in any relevant bill moving forward,
including S. 919, the Tribal Self Governance legislation.
I would also like to briefly touch on S. 1574. I would like
to praise the Committee for setting this as a high priority. It
is a long-awaited bill that would make permanent the remarkably
successful 477 Initiative. TCC fully supports the testimony you
will hear from Margaret Zientek.
The 477 Initiative has proven to be a forward looking piece
of legislation that permits tribes to consolidate employment
and training programs authorized by different Federal statutes
at different times and through different Federal agencies.
Given the enormous nationwide success of the 477 Initiative,
TCC strongly supports making it permanent.
TCC also supports enactment of S. 1570 which would
authorize advance appropriations of the Indian Health Service.
Sharp and unpredictable funding swings cause severe disruptions
and hardships, not just for IHS and tribal providers, but for
the patients who depend on the IHS system as their only source
of health care.
The solution is to authorize advanced appropriations as
Congress did years ago in connection with the Veterans
Administration's medical accounts.
Thank you for the opportunity to testify today on these
three important bills. In my experience as tribal court judge,
I am confident enactment of an amended S. 1474 will help our
communities reverse the disproportionate horrors experienced by
our women and children.
Thank you for inviting me to testify. It has been an honor.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Singh follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Natasha Singh, Tribal Court Judge, Stevens
Village
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
Senator Begich. Thank you very much.
Margaret?
STATEMENT OF MARGARET ZIENTEK, CO-CHAIR, P.L. 102-477 TRIBAL
WORKGROUP
Ms. Zientek. Hello. I am Margaret Zientek. I am co-chair
for the Public Law 102-477 Tribal Workgroup.
For the past 14 years, I have served 60 tribes across the
Nation, 477 tribes, representing 250 tribal nations. For 16
years, I have had the privilege of serving my own tribe, the
Citizen Potawatomi Nation, as assistant director for our Public
Law 102-477 program. For the past two years, I have served as a
tribal member of the Administrative Flexibility Workgroup.
I thank you for this opportunity today to speak in support
of S. 1574. Tribal workgroup members strongly support Senators
Murkowski and Begich and co-sponsors in a bill that will make
permanent and amend the Indian Employment Training and Related
Services Demonstration Act of 1992, as amended.
The 477 Initiative provides a critical foundation for
maximizing the effectiveness of diverse tribal employment,
training related services and the law allows for consolidation
of funding streams from the Department of the Interior, the
Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of
Labor.
The 477 Initiative also provides flexibility for tribes to
tailor the consolidated service into a single program that
meets local community needs. It reduces administrative
redundancy by merging program and financial reporting
requirements while still adhering to the Government Performance
Results Act.
In fact, to date, the 477 Initiative received the highest
OMB PART rating of any program in Indian Country.
In fiscal year 2012, the 477 programs in total reported
approximately 44,000 people served with a 99 percent positive
employment or education outcome. Of those who entered
unsubsidized employment, they achieved an average of $7.00 per
hour wages, tax paying citizens. Over 30 percent of the adults
served were cash assistance recipients, TANF or BIA general
assistance recipients.
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation for the past three years
reports a total of over 5,000 people served with 40 percent
receiving unsubsidized employment with average earnings gain of
$4.50 per hour. Additionally, through the economic development
portion of the 477 bill, we have created 122 new jobs in our
community.
For two years, I have been meeting with the Administrative
Flexibility Workgroup and it has become clear that problems lie
in key and targeted issues regarding the terminology in the
original Act. The 477 tribes agree strongly with Senators
Murkowski and Begich and other co-sponsors of the bill.
It is time for Congress to amend the 477 Act, make this
landmark legislation permanent, build on pass successes, expand
type and sources of funding eligible to be included in the 477
plan, and address issues that have arisen in recent years.
The 477 Tribal Workgroup strongly supports S. 1574 and
looks forward to working with this Committee to improve the
bill's provisions. Key elements of the bill are reaffirmation
of Congress' intent, continue to receive funds through
contracts and amendments pursuant to the Indian Self
Determination Act, but tribes are not required to maintain
separate records, tracing services or activities conducted
under an approved plan back to individual Federal programs, nor
are they required to track audit expenditures by original
program sources.
The Federal funds can be combined and integrated in order
to achieve the program goals set forth in an approved 477 plan
and eliminate any ambiguities on this point and that tribes can
allocate funds directly to support economic development and
creation of jobs.
Additionally, 477 tribes recommend the following
provisions. Expand the scope of the original demonstration
project to include competitive formulas, block grants, and
designated funds. Expand to include employment training and
related social services programs from other Federal agencies
and address the timely approval of 477 plans, regulation
waivers and dispute resolution so there are clear rules and
clear forms for resolving disagreements and insert provisions
that allow a tribe the option of utilizing their negotiated,
indirect cost rate rather than applying separate administrative
caps from each funding source if a tribe should so choose
Without congressional reaffirmation of the fundamental
purposes of the original Act to allow tribes to reallocate
their funds within the 477 plan in order to address local
issues and programmatic needs in the most effective manner
possible, 477 will not continue to reach its full potential.
S. 1574 can address all of these problems, restore and
strengthen Congress' original vision of this important
initiative. On behalf of the 477 Tribal Workgroup, we urge
Congress to act with dispatch in finalizing the bill and
quickly move to mark up.
Thank you for this opportunity to address both S. 1574 and
I also stand in support of my colleagues here on this panel in
what they have to say today.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Zientek follows:]
Prepared Statement of Margaret Zientek, Co-Chair, P.L. 102-477 Tribal
Workgroup
My name is Margaret Zientek, and I appear today as Co-Chair of the
477 Tribal Work Group. I am also a tribal representative on the Pub. L.
102-477 Administrative Flexibility Workgroup (AFWG), and serve as the
Assistant Director for the Citizen Potawatomi Nation Employment and
Training Program, of which I am an enrolled citizen. Thank you for this
opportunity to present written testimony in support of S. 1574, a bill
to make permanent and to amend the Indian Employment, Training, and
Related Services Demonstration Act of 1992, as amended, Pub. L. No.
102-477, 25 U.S.C. 3401.
As Co-Chair for the 477 Tribal Work Group, I speak today on behalf
of over sixty 477 programs representing and serving over 250 Tribes
across the United States. The Citizen Potawatomi Nation has operated a
477 program for almost two decades, and I have served in my national
capacity for over ten years. This bill takes the crucial steps to make
the very successful demonstration project permanent, provides more
detailed processes that build on the experience of the past decades of
implementation, and opens up the opportunity to add other programs.
The 477 Initiative established by Pub. L. 102-477 has been
essential for the development of effective and efficient tribal
services to increase employment and training in Indian country. The 477
Initiative is formally administered by the Office of Indian Energy &
Economic Development (OIEED) in the Department of the Interior (DOI).
The program provides a critical foundation for maximizing the
effectiveness of diverse tribal employment, training and related
service programs that would otherwise be available to Tribes only by
dealing with a panoply of federal agencies issuing multiple contracts
or grants.
The law allows for the consolidation of funding streams from
thirteen separate programs located in the U.S. Departments of the
Interior; Health& Human Services (DHHS); and Labor (DOL). Thanks to the
477 Initiative, these programs are consolidated into a single tribal
employment and training program. By this means, the 477 Initiative
provides critical flexibility for Tribes and tribal organizations to
tailor the consolidated activities into a single new program that best
meets the unique local needs of their respective communities.
At the same time, it eliminates administrative redundancy by
merging program and financial reporting requirements, all while still
adhering to the Government Performance Results Act's stringent
accountability standards. Tribes, alone, decide which programs or
combination of programs to combine into a 477 Plan. This structure
affords maximum local flexibility and full accountability, which
accounts for the fact that the 477 Initiative has to date received the
highest OMB PART rating of any program in Indian Country.
In FY 2012, DOI-OIEED reported a total participant base of 43,991
people. Thanks to the 477 Initiative, over 99 percent of these adults
and youth achieved positive employment or education outcomes, earning
an average $7.00 increase in hourly wages. Over one-third of the adults
had been on a Cash Assistance Program such as TANF or BIA General
Assistance at the time they entered their tribal 477 program. These
data reveal a remarkable success story.
477 Tribes target services to the most needy, in order to reduce
the strain on the public assistance programs. The goal of every 477
Program is to enable our people to be self-sufficient. Some Tribes
report that the Cash Assistance Program percentages exceed well over 50
percent of those they serve. Tribes and tribal organizations can
include TANF and Child Care as well as WIA and BIA funds in their 477
Program, creating a holistic approach that removes multiple barriers to
service delivery and positive client outcomes.
The Citizen Potawatomi Nation's 477 Program: The Citizen Potawatomi
Nation (CPN) has participated in the 477 Initiative since 1996. We have
been able to achieve enormous administrative savings and provide
extended services to our participants as a direct result of the Act's
provisions. During just the past three years, CPN's 477 program has
served over 5,000 people, of whom over 40 percent achieved unsubsidized
employment, with an average earnings gain of $4.50 per hour.
For over two decades, the 477 Initiative has offered success to
some of the areas with highest unemployment in the country. Because of
477, Tribes and tribal organizations have produced outcomes far beyond
those of their neighboring States because they have been able to
consolidate the resources of diverse programs in ways that make the
most sense at the local level. They have moved tribal members from cash
assistance to unsubsidized employment. And they have accounted for 477
program activities according to the Plan approved by the Department of
the Interior.
The Pub. L. 102-477 Administrative Flexibility Work Group: In 2011,
our Tribal Work Group and many individual Tribes and tribal
organizations went to Congress to respond to two new programmatic
changes being pressed by DOI and HHS. First--and despite no intervening
problems--the agencies suddenly wanted to cease transferring 477
program funds to participating Tribes and tribal organizations through
Indian Self-Determination Act contracts or compacts. Second--and again,
despite no intervening problems, and despite extraordinary PART and
GPRA scores--the agencies now wanted to impose a new accounting
practice that would essentially destroy the 477 Initiative by demanding
that participating Tribes and tribal organizations account separately
for the receipt and expenditure of each stream of agency funding going
into a 477 Plan (rather than following the historic practice of
accounting for and independently auditing these funds on a consolidated
basis).
The House and Senate appropriations conferees meeting on the FY
2012 Interior appropriations bill instructed the agencies, including
OMB, to engage in consultations with the 477 Tribes and tribal
organizations to reach ``consensus'' and ``permanently resolve'' these
issues. The federal agencies and the 477 Tribes agreed to try to
resolve their differences over these new issues, and that effort, in
combination with the President's Administrative Efficiency Executive
Order, led to the formation of the P.L. 102-477 Administrative
Flexibility Work Group (AFWG). This group met weekly and included
policy and program representatives from DOI, DHHS, DOL, and the Office
of Management and Budget (OMB), as well as representatives from 10
affected Tribes and tribal organizations. The tribal representatives
were designated to participate on behalf of all the tribes and tribal
organizations involved in the Initiative, and included the co-chairs of
the 477 Tribal Work Group.
In the meantime, the agencies agreed to temporarily suspend all
changes, allowing 477 funds to continue being transferred thru self-
determination agreements, and suspended any supplemental financial
reporting requirements. In due course, the agencies and tribal
participants reached consensus on a number of issues, but were never
able to ``permanently resolve'' their disagreements over the fund
transfer and reporting issues due to a fundamental difference over the
proper interpretation of the 477 statute.
Necessity for Amendments to 477 Act. Thanks to the joint and
comprehensive review of the 477 Initiative, the Tribes and the agencies
developed a better understanding of the language and purpose of the 477
Act, the history of the Act's implementation, and the historic process
for the submission and approval of 477 Plans. However, despite
extraordinary efforts, consensus was never reached regarding key
interpretive issues. Since the disagreements were less about policy
than they were about the terms Congress employed in the original
enactment, clarifying amendments should resolve these issues.
For now, the agencies have agreed to continue transferring funds
through self-determination agreements, without actually committing in
writing to do so. As for financial issues, the agencies continue to
disagree with the Tribes' longstanding understanding that 477 Plans can
and do provide for the consolidation and re-budgeting of all covered
federal funds in order to best meet the local priorities and needs of
the Tribe, all as specified in the Plan. Tribal representatives have
also expressed concern with new reporting requirements that may force
Tribes to increase administrative costs, change data collection
practices and software, and create new problems where none has
previously existed. In sum, the 477 Initiative is not a problem needing
fixing; it is a resounding success story that needs to be preserved
strengthened and emulated elsewhere.
Tribal representatives have consistently advocated for building on
the status quo, because the status quo has resulted in extraordinary
success. This includes reporting in aggregate and not by fund source;
tribal authority to re-budget and reallocate program funds as specified
in an approved Plan; implementation that does not require Tribes to
create or maintain new or additional records or to incur new
administrative costs; use of a pilot program to test efficiency and
cost effectiveness of 477 Plans; accountability against the
requirements of the Plan; continued funding through self-determination
contracts and compacts; and permanent elimination of any OMB
requirement (such as was proposed in the suspended OMB 2009 Circular A-
133 compliance supplement) to do supplemental accounting by fund
source.
For these reasons, the 477 Tribes and tribal organizations strongly
agree with Senator Murkowski and Senator Begich and the bill's other
co-sponsors that it is time for Congress to amend the 477 Act, to make
this landmark legislation permanent, to build upon past successes for a
better future; to expand the types and sources of funding eligible to
be included in a 477 Plan; to establish additional protective
procedures as outlined below; and to address new issues that have only
arisen in recent years. The 477 Tribal Work Group strongly supports S.
1574, and looks forward to continuing to work with the Committee to
improve upon the bill's provisions in the coming days and weeks.
One major area of confusion has been a matter of semantics, in
particular what is meant by the word ``program'' in the context of the
477 law. To help clarify this confusion, we suggest that the federal
level 477 operations be called the 477 ``Initiative,'' that the tribal
operations under the 477 law be referred to as a 477 ``Plan,'' and that
the federal programs constituting the components of each Tribe's or
tribal organization's plan be termed the ``programs.'' Clarification
along these lines would significantly resolve some of the confusion
that has recently arisen over how to interpret the law.
We praise the Committee for introducing the bill, which resolves
the disagreements that remain with the agencies and lays the groundwork
for the most critical elements Indian country needs in these
amendments, including:
1. Reaffirmation of Congress's intent that Tribes and tribal
organizations carrying out consolidated programs under the Act
through an approved Plan may continue to receive their funds
through contracts and agreements awarded pursuant to the Indian
Self-Determination Act, and may continue to use those 477 funds
on allowable activities authorized pursuant to each Tribe's
approved 477 Plan.
2. Reaffirmation of Congress's original intent that Tribes and
tribal organizations are not required to maintain separate
records tracing services or activities conducted under an
approved Plan back to individual federal program sources, nor
are they required to audit expenditures by original program
source. Congress should reiterate that Single Agency Audit Act
audits, which audit funds on a consolidated basis, are
sufficient to assure accountability in the expenditure of these
funds, as has long been the case.
3. Reaffirmation that federal program funds can be combined and
integrated in order to achieve the program goals set forth in
an approved 477 Plan, and elimination of any ambiguity on this
point.
4. Reaffirm that tribes can allocate funds to directly support
Economic Development and creation of jobs.
These three provisions would ``permanently resolve'' the
outstanding disputes that have arisen between the 477 Tribes and the
federal agencies, and ensure that the spirit and intent of the original
477 Act, as carried out for two decades, will remain in place and be
implemented consistently across future administrations.
In addition, the 477 Tribes recommend that the bill also include
provisions that address tribal efforts to achieve a number of long-term
goals related to work force development in Indian Country.
For example, legislation should include a mechanism to identify
eligible employment, training and related social service programs from
other federal agencies on which Tribes and tribal organizations might
draw to supplement their efforts and to add to their Plans. To do this,
the scope of the original demonstration program should be expanded in
two ways: (1) to cover a wider range of departmental and agency funds,
including competitive funds, formula funds, block grants, and
designated funds; and (2) by specifying a wider range of funding types,
including funds for job training; welfare to work and tribal work
experience; creating or enhancing employment opportunities; higher
education; skill development; assisting Indian youth and adults to
succeed in the workforce; encouraging self-sufficiency; familiarizing
individual participants with the world of work; facilitating the
creation of job opportunities; and any services related to these
activities.
Finally, the 477 Act should also be amended to address timely
approval of 477 Plans, regulation waivers and dispute resolution, so
that there are clear rules and clear forums for resolution of
disagreements about the 477 Act, and insert provisions that allow a
tribe the option of utilizing their negotiated indirect cost rate,
rather than applying separate administrative caps to each funding
source.
Summary and Conclusion. It is has become clear in recent years that
the 477 Initiative will not reach its full potential until Congress
reaffirms one of the fundamental purposes of the original Act--to allow
Tribes and tribal organizations to reallocate their funds within their
approved 477 Initiative in order to address local issues and
programmatic needs in the most effective manner possible. In part, this
may be due to ambiguous language in the 477 law which only recently has
been identified. Whatever the reason, acknowledging tribal authority
and responsibility to meet local needs by reallocating funds as needed
is exactly the point and strength of the 477 Initiative. It is
precisely this flexibility that has allowed us to be so successful. It
is precisely this flexibility that must be retained and strengthened.
The silos that exist elsewhere must not be resurrected here.
S. 1574 can address all of these problems and restore and
strengthen Congress's original vision of this important initiative. We
respectfully urge Congress to act with dispatch in finalizing the bill
and moving to mark-up. The 477 Tribal Work Group and our members Tribes
stand ready and willing to work with this Committee to adopt amendments
that will provide a sound and unambiguous foundation for the 477
Initiative in the 21st Century. It is imperative that the 477
Initiative get back on track, that it continue to meet the needs of
tribal members and operate much in the manner that it successfully
operated from its inception in 1992, and that is be established as a
foundation for expansion and emulation in other areas.
We are deeply grateful for this Committee's unwavering support for
the 477 Initiative, and we look forward to working with the Committee
to see this important bill enacted this year.
Thank you for this opportunity to address S. 1574.
Senator Begich. Thank you very much.
Chairman McDonald?
STATEMENT OF HON. LEANDER R. MCDONALD, Ph.D., TRIBAL CHAIRMAN,
SPIRIT LAKE TRIBE
Mr. McDonald. I would like to begin by thanking Chairman
Jon Tester and distinguished members of the Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs for the opportunity to present testimony on
tribal concerns and issues relevant to children safety and more
specifically to the proposed Native American Child Safety Act.
I want to also recognize our Senators from the great State
of North Dakota and thank them for inviting me to come and
share a bit of our perspective from the tribes in North Dakota.
My name is Leander Russell McDonald. I am Chairman of the
Spirit Lake Tribe located in northeastern North Dakota. The
Spirit Lake Reservation was established by the treaty of 1867
and currently consists of more than 250,000 acres of land with
just over 7,200 enrolled members. Our reservation population is
approximately 6,200 people consisting of enrolled members, non-
enrolled members and non-Indians.
Most of the enrolled members of the Spirit Lake Dakota
Nation reside either on the Spirit Lake Reservation or within
the immediate area.
Child protection services continue to a priority for our
Nation. In Dakota, children are called Wakanheza, which
translates to sacred being. They are considered sacred to us as
they are recognized as newly coming from the Creator.
This perspective guides us as individuals, tribal leaders
and elected officials to do everything within our power to
develop legislation that fosters their protection and welfare.
The Spirit Lake Tribe has been highlighted in the media over
the past two years as a result of the child protection issues
experienced by our community.
On October 1, 2012, the Spirit Lake Tribe retroceded a
Public Law 93-638 Child Protection Services program back to the
Bureau of Indian Affairs due to the inability of the Tribe to
address serious deficiencies identified in a detailed
corrective action plan issued by the BIA in April 2012.
Limited budgets, difficulties retaining qualified staff and
lack of placement options for children in crisis are among the
factors that have contributed to the issues we continue to face
within our community. The Tribe continues to administer the
Title IV-E Foster Care of the Indian Child Welfare Act and
family preservation programs under the Spirit Lake Tribe Social
Services Program.
All four of these programs are recognized as critical and
interrelated to the protection of American Indian children for
many of the reservations throughout the Nation.
In 2011 and 2012, the Spirit Lake Tribe lost three very
young children to homicides. These homicides devastated our
community and exposed system-wide flaws and inconsistencies in
our system. I have come to believe that these inconsistencies
are not specific to the Spirit Lake Tribe but are rather the
norm across many reservations within our region.
Unfortunately, the Spirit Lake Tribe had to lose one of our
grandchildren to learn that background checks for all adult
members of the household must be mandatory to ensure the safety
of all children placed in relative and foster care homes. We do
not wish to remove children from one dangerous environment only
to place them in another.
Equally important, we have come to understand that we must
hold professionals accountable when they are not following
tribal existing law.
This brings me to the proposed Native American Child Safety
Act currently introduced by Senators Hoeven and Tester and co-
sponsored by Senators Barrasso and Heitkamp.
The proposed legislation would, among other things, expand
background check requirements for all adults residing in
prospective foster care homes where Native American foster care
children are to be placed by tribes or the Bureau of Indian
Affairs.
This legislation would bridge an existing data gap
identified within our communities and provide a necessary step
to ensure that all adults residing with children in the foster
care system are proper screened. The legislation also promotes
consistency by creating minimum safety standards for children
in foster care by also requiring new adults joining the
household to also have background checks.
We respectfully request that the procedures used to
implement the legislation not be duplicative, costly nor a
source of frustration to possible foster parents or caregivers.
Potentially, up to three jurisdictions may be involved in the
care and placement of Native Children. Relatives and other
caregivers may be required to undergo tribal, State, and
Federal background checks, dependent upon where the placement
is located.
Furthermore, requiring independent background checks for
the same individuals based upon care type, i.e., foster care,
relative care, guardianship or kinship care, seems
unnecessarily duplicative and needs to be addressed. A
comprehensive background check that could be applied regardless
of care type would suffice to safeguard the children being
placed while not being a burden on the individuals seeking to
provide care.
Equally true is the fact that all tribes have child abuse
and neglect registries and accessing confidential information
on existing registries will need to be addressed to ensure that
the purpose of this legislation can be realized.
I expect that an obstacle to this end may be that tribal
convictions are not consistently included in the National Crime
Information Center database. The process for completing
criminal background checks is likely to be cumbersome and in
some instances, unreliable as long as data relevant to criminal
histories is housed in separate places. This fact will need to
be addressed in order to have a truly comprehensive criminal
background check completed.
In closing, I would like to add that while background
checks for adults in homes is a necessary part of the effort to
safeguard our children, this cannot be the only effort. Federal
support for tribal programs and service agencies that are
adequately staffed and trained is also imperative.
Ongoing Federal support to enhance tribal courts, develop
culturally appropriate service for children and families and
improved collaboration across tribal, State and Federal
jurisdictions is necessary. Strong and stable tribal justice
systems and services are an important part of enforcing our
tribal laws in a culturally appropriate way and are also
important to making sure that the service providers working in
our community are following our tribal laws.
I would like to thank you for the invitation to speak to
you today. I trust this testimony will be taken under
advisement as you continue to develop legislation that will
help to safeguard the children within our tribal communities.
Mitakuye Owasin from all my relatives. Thank you.
[The prepared statement of Mr. McDonald follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Leander R. McDonald, Ph.D., Tribal Chairman,
Spirit Lake Tribe
I would like to begin by first thanking Chairman Jon Tester and
distinguished members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for the
opportunity to present testimony on tribal concerns and issues relevant
to children's safety, and more specifically, to the proposed Native
American Child Safety Act.
My name is Leander ``Russ'' McDonald, Chairman of the Spirit Lake
Tribe, located in northeastern North Dakota. The Spirit Lake
Reservation was established by the Treaty of 1867 and currently
consists of more than 250,000 acres of land. We have just over 7,200
enrolled members. Our reservation population is approximately 6,200
people, consisting of enrolled members, non-enrolled members, and non-
Indians. Most of the enrolled members of the Spirit Lake Dakota Nation
reside either on the Spirit Lake Reservation or within the immediate
region.
Child protection services continue to be a priority for our Nation.
In Dakota, children are called Wakanheza, which translates to sacred
being. They are considered sacred as they are recognized as newly
coming from the Creator. This perspective guides us as individuals,
tribal leaders, and elected officials to do everything within our power
to develop legislation that fosters their protection and welfare. The
Spirit Lake Tribe has been highlighted in the media over the past two
years as a result of the child protection issues experienced by our
community.
On October 1, 2012, the Spirit Lake Tribe retroceded a Public Law
93-638 Child Protection Services (CPS) program back to the Bureau of
Indian Affairs (BIA) due to the inability of the Tribe to address
serious deficiencies identified in a detailed corrective action plan
issued by the BIA in April 2012. Limited budgets, difficulties
retaining qualified professionals, and lack of placement options, for
children in crisis are among the factors that have contributed to the
issues that we continue to face within our community. The Tribe
continues to administer the Title IV-E Foster Care, the Indian Child
Welfare Act (ICWA), and Family Preservation programs, under the Spirit
Lake Tribe Social Services Program. All four of these programs are
recognized as critical and interrelated to the protection of American
Indian children for many of the reservations throughout the Nation.
In 2011 and 2012, the Spirit Lake Tribe lost three very young
children to homicides. These homicides devastated our community and
exposed system-wide flaws and inconsistencies. I have come to believe
that these inconsistencies are not specific to the Spirit Lake Tribe,
but are rather the norm across many reservations within our region.
Unfortunately, Spirit Lake Tribe had to lose one of our grandchildren
to learn that background checks for all adult members of the household
must be mandatory to ensure the safety of all children placed in
relative and foster care homes. We do not wish to remove children from
one dangerous environment only to place them in another, and equally
important, we have come to understand that we must hold professionals
accountable when they are not following existing law.
This brings me to the proposed Native American Child Safety Act
that is currently being introduced by Senator Hoeven, Senator Tester,
and co-sponsored by Senator Barrasso and Senator Heitkamp. The proposed
legislation would, among other things, expand background check
requirements for all adults residing in prospective foster care homes
when Native American foster care children are to be placed by Tribes or
the Bureau of Indian Affairs. This legislation would bridge an existing
gap that has been identified within our community and provide a
necessary step to ensuring that all adults residing with children in a
foster care setting are properly screened. The legislation also
promotes consistency by creating minimum safety standards for children
in foster care by also requiring new adults joining the household to
also have background checks.
We respectfully request that the procedures used to implement the
legislation not be duplicative, costly, nor a source of frustration, to
possible foster parents or caregivers. Potentially, up to three
jurisdictions may be involved in the care and placement of Native
Children. Relatives and other caregivers may be required to undergo
tribal, state, and federal background checks, dependent upon where the
placement is located. Furthermore, requiring independent background
checks for the same individuals based upon ``care type'' (i.e. foster
care, relative care, guardianship, or kinship care) seems unnecessarily
duplicative and needs to be addressed. A comprehensive background check
that could be applied regardless of ``care type'' would suffice to
safeguard the children being placed while not being a burden on the
individuals seeking to provide care.
Equally true is the fact that not all tribes have child abuse and
neglect registries and accessing confidential information on existing
registries will need to be addressed to ensure that the purpose of this
legislation can be realized. I expect that an obstacle to this end may
be that tribal convictions are not consistently included in the
National Crime Information Center database. The process for completing
criminal backgrounds is likely to be cumbersome and in some instances
unreliable as long as data relevant to criminal histories is housed in
separate places. This fact will need to be addressed in order to have a
truly comprehensive criminal background check completed.
In closing, I would like to add that while background checks for
adults in the homes is a necessary part of the effort to safeguard our
children this cannot be the only effort. Federal support for tribal
programs and service agencies that are adequately staffed and trained
is also imperative. Ongoing federal support to enhance tribal courts,
develop culturally appropriate services for children and families, and
improve collaboration across tribal, state and federal jurisdictions is
necessary. Strong and stable tribal justice systems and services are an
important part of enforcing our tribal laws in a culturally appropriate
way and are also important to making sure that the service providers
working in our community are following our tribal laws. I would like to
thank you for the invitation to speak to you today. I trust this
testimony will be taken under advisement as you continue to develop
legislation that will help to safeguard the children within our Tribal
communities.
Senator Begich. Thank you all very much.
I know we all have questions, so let me go ahead and start.
First, Natasha, thank you for being here. I know for our
Alaskan friends who come all the way from Alaska, it is not an
easy trip and it is very warm here today in comparison. We
appreciate your being here.
Your written testimony and your verbal testimony are both
powerful and helpful. Sometimes we have to read between the
lines what people want us to think they are presenting. Not
with you, you were very direct, so I want to follow up on a
couple things.
I want to read pieces from a letter I know the Alaska
Federation of Natives sent to Congressman Young. I am going to
read this and ask you a question or two. In 2012, the Alaska
Federation of Natives sent a letter to Congressman Young that
states that the State of Alaska is entrenched and made policy
choices that ``under-fund rural Alaska and cripple the capacity
of rural Alaska, especially tribal governments, to implement
local solutions.'' It continues to say that ``dismal statistics
point to the failure of the State of Alaska to protect its
citizens.''
First, do you agree with AFN's statement in general?
Ms. Singh. Yes, I wholeheartedly agree.
Senator Begich. I know we have discussed and you testified
on 1474, the Alaska Safe Family and Villages Act, I have
introduced each session trying to change a few things. You
commented that there are additional amendments that are needed
to make it stronger. Do you believe that because of these
comments that AFN made as well as the Commission just came out
with an incredible report that was presented at AFN, if I
remember correctly, and was pretty devastating to say the
least? Do you think this legislation, with additional
amendments you suggest and others might suggest, would give us
those tools to combat the issues of violence and crime within
our villages in Alaska?
Ms. Singh. Yes. As currently written, mostly the bill is
encouraging agreements with the State of Alaska and with our
tribes but Federal legislation isn't for that. In fact, TCC is
in a negotiated agreement with the State right now regarding
our tribal courts. The State of Alaska has agreements across
the State in different pockets with tribes.
We need those amendments, the tribal courts need that
concurrent jurisdiction and authority.
Senator Begich. Enforcement powers?
Ms. Singh. Exactly.
Senator Begich. If you just have those agreements, I don't
want to put words in your mouth, but want to make sure I am
hearing you right. For example, the situation you just gave me
regarding the trooper situation, you may not see a change as
dramatic as you need which is you want to have a better justice
system?
Ms. Singh. Exactly, a law enforcement and justice system
both.
Senator Begich. Part of that is critical to ensure that
Section 910 is repealed?
Ms. Singh. Yes, it is very important.
Senator Begich. We have strengthened the law, you negotiate
with the State but if we don't repeal Section 910, you still
have some conflict of your authority or potential power?
Ms. Singh. Yes.
Senator Begich. Is that a fair statement?
Ms. Singh. Yes.
Senator Begich. I appreciate this is something to look for
as we move to mark up, some of those suggestions I know you
have in your testimony but even more specific legislative
language because if we could strengthen it that you are not
solely depending on the State to make a decision, because to be
frank with you, in my opinion, the State has not been very
supportive of tribes in Alaska. Is that fair?
Ms. Singh. Yes.
Senator Begich. You need some assistance from the Federal
Government so you can create some additional tools in the
toolbox for justice within your own communities. Is that a fair
statement?
Ms. Singh. Yes.
Senator Begich. You can add these amendments but if you
don't take out Section 910 or repeal it, you are not there yet?
Ms. Singh. No.
Senator Begich. You have to repeal 910 and add some
additional amendments that will add meat to this, is that fair?
Ms. Singh. Yes.
Senator Begich. One by itself won't do it.
Second, I want to thank you. My sister is a foster parent
and I know what that is like. Every holiday season when I am at
the house, I am not sure who is going to be additional in the
home but it is always a great experience because those kids
come back, even when they are no longer foster kids, and
participate in our family on many different levels. It is an
incredible power to see that with these young people given a
home that is safe and clean.
I thank you for your personal commitment.
Lastly, as a judge, do you see, not only in your community
but throughout Alaska, other tribal court judges or others that
work in the field are looking for this tool? It is not just TCC
but throughout Alaska as AFN has said? Is that fair from your
personal conversations?
Ms. Singh. Yes. Just yesterday I was emailing with a
coalition we have across the State of tribal court judges,
attorneys and tribal leaders precisely on my testimony. They
all fully support it.
Senator Begich. Very good.
I know there are others. I want to go through the list with
folks who got here in order of attendance but let me also say I
want to talk with you at some point and Andrea Well who is
behind me, and see if we can get some of that very specific
language we can start thinking about inserting in this bill so
it really creates the tools we need.
We know the State is not going to agree with what we are
going to do here but at the end of the day, we hope they will
because this is about creating justice and a better system for
Alaska Native people.
Thank you.
I have Senator Heitkamp and Senator Murkowski and then
Senator Hoeven, in that order. Senator Murkowski?
Senator Murkowski. Thank you.
Thank you to each of our witnesses for traveling and your
testimony, but also for what got you here to provide the
testimony which is clearly a passion in your respective areas.
I want to note your comments on your Native word for
children being sacred. I think if we all kept that in mind,
perhaps we wouldn't be dealing with many of these problems that
face this Committee. Thank you for your leadership there.
I know our Alaska tribes want to look at this background
check issue to ensure our Native children are as safe as we can
possibly keep them.
Margaret, I thank you for what you have done in your
capacity as co-chairperson of the Tribal 477 Workgroup. You
noted the impact that we have from successful application of
the 477 program in Alaska. The 477 program is operated by CITC,
the Cook Inlet Tribe. It provides services to a native
population of 40,000, transitions over 2,100 TANF recipients
from welfare to work, providing them with skills and allowing
them an opportunity to earn an average hourly wage of over
$11.53.
CITC provided 8,989 job seekers with career exploration
training and job search assistance, 4,767 of those job seekers
were placed in jobs.
What we see coming from these programs is exactly why we
need the advocacy. Thank you for that and for your work and
working with Gloria O'Neil and so many on these very important
issues. I appreciate that.
I don't have any questions for you because I agree with
everything that you have said.
Natasha, I want to use my time to perhaps provide some
baseline which I think is going to be critical. Senator Begich
is right, we recognize there is conflict between our tribes and
the State in terms of areas of jurisdiction.
We also recognize that without funding for our tribal
courts, this is going to be exceedingly difficult to advance. I
am trying to work to establish some baseline funding for our
tribal courts in Alaska so that resources are available to
continuously operate our courts, and invest in the training of
our tribal court judges and our staff. I hear from so many that
they are so desperately needed. Assistant Secretary Washburn is
sitting behind you and will get this question from me when he
comes before the dais.
I am the top Republican on Interior appropriations and we
are looking very critically at how we can establish base
funding for our Alaska tribes. I would like you to try to
provide the Committee today, if you cannot do it today, we can
get information later, what you figure the average cost to run
a successful tribal court in one of your villages is?
What I am trying to establish is to provide the
Administration an estimate of the need and what will
adequately, hopefully beyond adequately, fund our tribal court
system in the State of Alaska. Do you have any baselines you
can share?
Ms. Singh. I don't off the top of my head have a baseline.
Most of our tribal courts right now have volunteers, our judges
are volunteers. Some of our clerks might get paid but some of
our clerks are volunteers. Our social workers, it is had to
retain them because they get paid very little.
Knowing the State system of social and child protection, if
you go into a State court in a child protection case and you
are sitting there with probably six attorneys and usually eight
State-appointed attorneys. When tribal courts have those cases,
none of those attorneys are present, and you are not paying for
any of that, the court costs, the flying back and forth from
the village to an urban center. In child protection alone, you
save, in one hearing, thousands of dollars.
I look forward to getting to you specific figures but it
would depend on the size of the tribe and how many cases they
are taking on an annual basis.
Senator Murkowski. I appreciate that. I would appreciate it
if your folks could really try to put some thought into some
hard numbers because this is something I think we need to be
able to establish to the Administration because the need is
clearly there. It is not just for the day to day operation; it
is for the training. We have the conferences that go on and you
have to be able to bring in the folks. There is a very clear
need here for greater resources to be directed.
Rather than just pulling numbers out of the air, we need to
work to identify what our baseline might be.
I have a couple other questions. My colleague has returned.
Senator Heitkamp has yielded to me, so if we have an
opportunity for a second round, I would like to do that.
Senator Begich. Thank you very much.
Let me go to Senator Heitkamp and then Senator Hoeven.
Senator Heitkamp. I will be very brief.
For those of you who look at this, I will say that no one
needs to be a second class citizen. Everyone has a right to be
safe in their homes and when they are not safe in their homes,
they have a right to see the perpetrator brought before a court
of law, convicted and appropriately punished. That is a basic
human right we have in this Country.
When it is denied, you lose faith and you begin to believe
maybe we are not part of this Country because what does it mean
to be an American, what does it mean to be a part of this
Country. I pledge to you that I will do everything that I can
to assist in this effort to bring a broader justice not only to
Alaska Natives but to all of Indian Country. It is appalling
what we have allowed to happen.
I want to turn to Chairman McDonald who didn't brag enough
about himself, so I will brag a bit about him. He stepped into
a very difficult situation and has brought I think such a
wonderful sense of community back to tribal government and has
led his people in very small ways but very important ways to
knowing we all are working on this together.
Thank you, Senator Hoeven, for the invitation to Chairman
McDonald. I think it is so critical that we show progress.
To that end, I want to talk about what is happening right
now with BIA sourced funding, whether those resources have been
adequate, how we are managing the 4E responsibilities and the
foster care responsibilities and coordination. How would you
grade child social services right now at Spirit Lake?
Mr. McDonald. Coming from education, I think right now we
are around a D. I think we are below average and I think there
is yet a lot of work to be done and we need to continue to
build that foundation.
Senator Heitkamp. How do we get to a C, then a B and then
an A?
Mr. McDonald. I think the first part of it is trying to get
staffed up. I think on both the tribal and BIA sides, we are
having difficulties in filling positions with qualified
individuals. Once we are staffed to what funding allows, then
consider getting us to the point where should be funded.
I think we are about halfway there on the funding side
right now. I think if we had double the workers, we wouldn't be
where we are right now, or double the resources in regard to
where we are right now. I think that would help them to that
end.
I heard the testimony by Senator Dorgan. I agree with him
that we have caseloads that are overwhelming to the caseworkers
that we do have. They are overwhelmed and are just trying to
get the work done. Part of the importance of this bill is that
we still need to get the work done in a safe way to protect
those children when we do place them in homes.
The other part that the Senator talked about was the
importance of them having the resources to do that. It is
across the board. It is not just the social services piece of
it; it is the court piece and having adequate funding to do
that; it is the law enforcement piece so we can investigate
those issues that the people are filing 960's on, and the
criminal investigation piece.
I do want to say some good words about Mr. Washburn,
Lillian Sparks and Marian McMullen, the Administration of
Children and Families from your office, from Senator Heaven's
office and from Native American Youth. All these guys have
volunteered resources to help us pull this together. The
National Resource Center for Children helped us do an
assessment so we could see where we are.
I am a former researcher and because of the training, we
have an assessment of where we and develop that plan and move
forward. Failure to plan is planning to fail. If we put a good
plan in place and build that foundation, I think we will be in
a better position to do right for our children.
We are doing two things at the same time. One is trying to
fix what has happened in the past and build that foundation
while trying to build something for the future. We are doing
double duty when that foundation should have already been
built.
I think we have quite a bit of work in front of us. I think
the important part of a bill such as this is that it helps to
ensure that the laws are going to be followed, and the laws are
going to be in place in order to help build that foundation.
Senator Heitkamp. I am out of time but I want to make the
point that no one should be so discouraged that we are looking
at safety in foster homes. That is critical and is an important
part of that network. The goal here of a broader look is to
prevent children from going into foster homes.
We forget that children are in foster homes for a reason.
They are coming out of a situation that is not safe or they
wouldn't be seeking homes in foster care. This should not in
any way diminish our goal that we are trying to avoid children
having to be placed in foster care long term.
Senator Begich. Mr. Chairman, next in line was Senator
Hoeven and then Senator Murkowski had a couple quick questions
and then back to you because you are the Chairman.
The Chairman. [Presiding]. Thank you.
Senator Hoeven. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
Chairman McDonald, thank you for coming today and thank you
for your willingness to testify on the Native American
Children's Safety Act.
We actually put this legislation together because of
reports of child abuse on the Spirit Lake Reservation prior to
your serving as chairman. In fact, there was an article in the
New York Times in September 2012 which detailed an incident in
which a woman tried to burn down her house with her five year
old daughter inside. The daughter was then put into a foster
home where a registered sex offender was living. The same
article identified several convicted rapists who have been in
custody of children.
This legislation is about making sure foster homes are
safe, not only on our reservations in North Dakota, but across
the Country. This is legislation we passed in the State for
non-Indians when I was governor. It is all about making sure
that we have background checks on all adults in a foster home
before children are placed in that foster home, but also having
recertification by the BIA to ensure if new adults move into
that foster home that they are checked as well and that all
reservations have a standard to ensure children's safety.
If you could comment for a minute on what you are doing on
the Spirit Lake Nation right now to ensure that these
background checks are done and then talk for a minute about how
your relationship is going with the BIA as you work with them
in terms of administration of the tribal social services
program.
Mr. McDonald. I lost the first part.
Senator Hoeven. The first part is talk about how you are
doing the background checks now, what you are doing to make
sure the background checks are done. The second part is talk
about the relationship with the BIA.
Mr. McDonald. We have been following this for a while. What
happened about the timeline was not the incident that you spoke
about but another incident where a child was placed in a
relative care home and when they did the background check on
the relative, the grandfather whose home the grandchild was
being placed in, but they didn't do the background check on the
rest of the adults in the home.
The wife of the grandfather was a younger lady and had some
charges on her and assault was one of them. Then there were
some alcohol-related charges. What happened is she ended up
throwing this kid down an embankment and the kid ended up
dying. She was sentenced in September and I believe she got 30
years.
The other part is we still lost a child. If background
checks had been done on the entire household, that would never
have happened.
Since I have been there, we nailed that down. We did hire a
social service director who did implement those policies or
followed those policies to make sure the whole household was
background checked which was happening in the State of North
Dakota but not on our reservation because it was relative care.
We said not only for foster care placement should this
occur, we follow State guidelines because we want to get the
Title IV youth funds in order to provide foster care some
resources to take care of these kids, but on the relative care
side, we weren't doing that because we were just placing them
in relative care.
I am an example of that. We got called from social services
about six years ago and they said, we are going to place these
kids off the reservation some place unless you guys are able to
take them, so we took them. As far as I know, there were no
background checks conducted. They placed them with us and they
to a safe home and they are with us yet.
They came and did a home assessment on our house. That was
about it and we didn't see them. We went back to court a couple
times and the parents didn't show up, so they are still with
us. We are not questioning that because they are our kids now.
We don't want to go back to court and the parents haven't
approached us, so they are still with us.
I think there are some cases where these kids have gone
into safe homes such our example, but I think for the most
part, we want to be sure that is the case for all of our kids.
That is the importance of this bill.
Another example happened in coordination with the State and
that is why I shared what I shared in the testimony that State
background checks, not with the former foster care placement
person, but the previous one, the State background check was
done but she didn't do the tribal records, she only did the
State database.
Because she didn't the tribal records, and they don't
share, so the kid was placed or a foster care license was
granted to a foster care home but there were some questionable
charges on this individual who received a license. We didn't
know that. We placed kids in that home. Luckily the kid was
safe in the home but there should have been background checks
across the board in all jurisdictions.
That is why again it is so important for us to make sure
this happening and there is some kind of comprehensive database
accessible to everybody to ensure the safety of our children.
On the second part, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, I met
with Mr. Washburn just recently at the NCAI meeting. For the
most part, I think we have had good interactions with them. I
think locally we are in the same boat because they can't fill
those positions. The tribal council asked that they lift the
American Indian preference on those positions in order for us
to get the positions filled but they are still not filled.
Senator Hoeven. Again, I want to thank you for being here
today and thank you for your work on the Spirit Lake
Reservation. That is something we will get a chance to talk to
Secretary Washburn about.
Thank you again for being here and for your efforts.
The Chairman. Senator Murkowski?
Senator Murkowski. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
I have said in this Committee, in writing and before the
Committee and repeat again, how much I support the policy
position that our tribal court's protective orders should be
honored in our Native villages. Natasha, the words you used
were it appears that there is more hesitancy to issue
protective orders out there on our non-Natives.
I know that you are working TCC and continuing its
discussions, you mentioned in conversation with Senator Begich,
between the State regarding diverting misdemeanors and felony
cases to tribes for remedies. Can you give me some indication,
I know you are still underway in discussions, so if you haven't
clearly defined it yet, I understand, have you been able to
determine what kinds of crimes the State would be willing to
divert to tribes?
Ms. Singh. Sure. We have a list I would be willing to share
with you. It is pretty low level domestic violence and alcohol
related offenses. I know don't see an Assault 4 charge in there
right now, so we will be speaking to the State about including
that.
I think it is a modest start but we are positive. We know
it is a small step. The difference between an agreement we are
working out with the State and some of the amendments we have
proposed is that the amendments would be concurrent
jurisdiction. The agreement is just delegated authority where a
defendant would in effect admit guilt and then the tribal court
would sentence, admit guilt with State violations. It is a
pretty good list.
Senator Murkowski. Is the State willing to work with you on
the assault piece?
Ms. Singh. I think so. They have been very open in the
discussion altogether. It has been a learning curve for them.
The first draft of the agreement is significantly different
than what we have now.
Senator Murkowski. Again, I appreciate all that you are
doing on behalf of so many, not only on the issue as it relates
to the public safety piece but what you are doing to help
advance the legislation we are talking about with 477, advance
appropriations. Your leadership is greatly appreciated.
I know that you have been working with both our staffs to
really keep us apprised of all the events. Thank you. Keep at
it.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Murkowski.
I apologize for not being here, there was another hearing I
had to get to. I want to thank you for your testimony and thank
you for making yourselves available for questioning. I thank
you for your commitment to Indian Country. Hopefully we can
call on you again for your perspectives and input as we take up
important pieces of legislation for Indian Country.
Thank you all for your time.
I would like to welcome the final panel of the day which
consists of Assistant Secretary, Indian Affairs, Kevin Washburn
and Commissioner of the Administration for Native Americans,
Lillian Sparks.
Mr. Washburn and Ms. Sparks will be offering the
Administration's perspective on legislation today. Both are
regulars here in the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. We
appreciate their flexibility and their perspective as we look
to the Administration for their perspective on these five
bills.
I think we will start with you, Kevin. You can give your
testimony and then Lillian, you can give yours. Then we will
have some questions. You may proceed.
STATEMENT OF HON. KEVIN WASHBURN, ASSISTANT
SECRETARY--INDIAN AFFAIRS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF THE
INTERIOR
Mr. Washburn. Chairman Tester and Senator Heitkamp and
other members of the Committee, thank you. You have a bunch of
important bills before you today.
This is an interesting experience for me because my co-
witness was my intern a few years back and now she is a
presidentially-appointed, Senate confirmed official over at
HHS. It makes me proud to be sitting here. As a teacher, it is
a neat thing.
Let me go through the bills we have. I apologize, we got
our testimony to you very, very late. There was a lot of
negotiation back and forth within the Administration over these
bills. We try to cooperate as best as we can with the
Administration and speak with one voice. Sometimes the
cooperation goes on and on and on. That is where we were today,
so I apologize. I know that has been an issue for the Chairman.
The Chairman. You can pause the clock for a second.
I am glad you brought that up. It is an issue. I have been
pretty nice about it. I will get crankier as time goes on if it
doesn't change. I appreciate you bringing it up. I was going to
bring it up in my opening statement, so thank you for reminding
me because I would have remembered before time went on.
For a number of reasons, it helps us help you and if we
don't have it, we cannot do that. Thank you.
Mr. Washburn. We know that. Thank you, Chairman. You are
very gracious. If you wouldn't file controversial bills, it
wouldn't be so hard. Thank you.
[Laughter.]
Mr. Washburn. S. 1474, introduced by Senators Begich and
Murkowski, the Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act, the
Administration supports this bill. We are grateful for both the
Alaskan Senators' leadership on this.
As the Indian Law and Order Commission report recently
showed, we have serious problems in Alaska and really need to
work on fixing those. In law enforcement, coordination is
everything between State, Federal and tribal officials, so we
strongly support that effort.
Within the BIA, we have been doing a lot. We have actually
started bringing village public safety officers to our Indian
Police Academy in Artesia, New Mexico to help the State police
in training those people. That is not an adequate solution so
we are grateful to support that bill.
I don't need to say a whole lot more about that since we
support it.
Let me now turn to S. 1574, the bill that would modify the
477 program. You just had Margaret Zientek before you and
Natasha Singh. They have both exercised great leadership on
these issues. Margaret has been working tirelessly on our
Administrative Flexibility Workgroup to help move these issues
forward. We are grateful for her support and her testimony here
today.
We have a lot of interest in this bill and strongly support
tribal self determination. And 477 is one of our important
tribal self governance, self determination programs.
Public Law 102-477 was enacted in 1992 as a demonstration
project. It has clearly demonstrated that it is a good
approach, so it no longer needs to be a demonstration project.
It has established itself. It has granted tribal governments
much more flexibility to apply government programs through a
lot of important tribal Federal programs such as temporary aid
to needy families, TANF, child care and various other programs
that address education and joblessness.
So 477 has definitely demonstrated its value. More than 265
tribes and Native villages are participating in 477. That
doesn't sound like a demonstration project anymore; it is
something that is firmly established. We give out more than $80
million a year in grants to tribes through the 477 programs.
Let me explain a bit about the programs. Through 477,
tribes offer roughly ten different Federal programs they can
bring under one umbrella. That means that a tribal citizen that
needs these programs doesn't have to go to ten different tribal
offices to apply for each of these programs.
Someone who needs TANF, job training and maybe need to get
their GED can go to one office, fill out one application and
those services can come to them through that one office. Rather
than having these siloed in multiple different offices within
the tribe, they can bring all these together. That is the value
of 477. It is a beautiful thing and really does support tribal
self governance and tribal flexibility in addressing serious
problems.
I believe it strongly improves service to Indian Country to
Indian citizens.
A frequent challenge in all these programs, especially when
you grant flexibility to tribes, is getting the data to show
the work is doing good, that you can show each of these
programs is effective and when you blend them together, it
makes a lot harder to collect that data.
You all ask for that data, Congress asks for that data and
OMB asks for that data, so it is an important subject to
collect that data so we can prove these programs work so we can
justify greater appropriations to the appropriations
committees. That is a challenge that has always been there.
You heard Senator Dorgan a bit ago talk about how he found
there were two Federal programs on one reservation that weren't
even talking to each other. This is the kind of program that
solves that problem. It puts most social programs under one
roof, so it is a very good thing. We have some issues with the
bill but are delighted to work with you to solve some of those
problems.
Let me turn to S. 1622, the Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter
Soboleff Commission on Native Children Act. Senator Heitkamp,
we are proud to say that we strongly support your bill. There
is no area that needs greater attention than this.
There has been recent evidence. The Indian Law Commission
provided some good attention on important issues and has helped
provide some potential solutions to those problems. This kind
of commission we think can do exactly the same thing and
provide further suggestions.
We are working very hard to update our Indian child welfare
guidelines at the BIA and also our child protection handbook.
Those are two ideas that are sort of complementary to what you
are doing, along with some of the stuff Senator Dorgan talked
about.
We thank you for your bipartisan leadership with Senator
Murkowski to try to move this forward and get some bright minds
looking at this to find solutions. We strongly support your
bill.
I did hear you say in your opening statement that you now
have to point your finger at yourself to get things done. You
have never been shy about pointing the finger at us either but
we welcome that. We are grateful for your leadership on these
issues, especially the ones related to children.
I have gone way over my time, Mr. Chairman. Let me say one
final thing. S. 2160, Senator Hoeven's Native American
Children's Safety Act, we are going to withhold judgment on the
exact details of this bill but we certainly support Senator
Hoeven's intentions in introducing this bill. We need a bit
more time to look at it.
Senator Hoeven has worked really hard on the Spirit Lake
issue, as has Senator Heitkamp, so he has a sense of the
problems out there. We would like to work with him on this bill
as we move forward.
Why don't I stop there and await your questions.
[The prepared statement of Mr. Washburn follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Kevin Washburn, Assistant Secretary--Indian
Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior
Chairman Tester, Vice-Chairman Barrasso, and Members of the
Committee, my name is Kevin K. Washburn and I am Assistant Secretary-
Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior (Department). Thank
you for the opportunity to present the Department's views, on S. 1474,
S. 1574, S. 1622, and S. 2160.
S. 1474, the ``Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act of 2013''
The Department supports S. 1474, a bill to encourages the State of
Alaska to enter into intergovernmental agreements with Indian tribes in
the State relating to the enforcement of certain State laws by Indian
tribes, to improve the quality of life in rural Alaska, and to reduce
alcohol and drug abuse. This bill involves matters that are under the
jurisdiction of the Department of Justice and we defer to the
Department of Justice's testimony on this bill.
S. 1574, the ``Indian Employment, Training and Related Services
Consolidation Act of 2013''
S. 1574 is a bill to ``amend the Indian Employment, Training and
Related Services Demonstration Act of 1992 to facilitate the ability of
Indian tribes to integrate the employment, training, and related
services from diverse Federal sources.'' As discussed below, the
Department supports the goals of Indian self-determination. We would
like to work with the Committee to address certain provisions of the
bill, as described more fully below.
Public Law 102-477 is a self-determination statute that allows
tribes greater control over delivery of social-welfare and workforce-
development services. It permits eligible tribes and Alaska Native
organizations to consolidate into a single plan employment-and-
training-related, formula-funded federal grant monies from ten
different programs within our Department's Bureau of Indian Affairs and
Bureau of Indian Education, and the Departments of Labor (DOL) and
Health and Human Services (DHHS). The ``477'' program allows
participating tribes to save administrative time and expense because
they are no longer required to submit individual program plans and
reports-affording more support for job placements and case management.
Public Law 102-477 designated our Department to be the lead agency
to administer this program. We are proud, too, that in FY 2013, we
disbursed approximately $87 million in grants for this program to 265
participating tribes, most of which are tribes in Alaska.
The Public Law 102-477 program has operated for over two decades as
a demonstration project and has demonstrated that it should be
permanent. When agencies collaborate to surmount bureaucratic
obstacles, consolidate programs, and deliver desperately-needed
services on a one-stop basis, we can more promptly and efficiently
address joblessness and social distress in Native communities.
To provide additional flexibility to tribes under P.L. 102-477, the
P.L. 102-477 federal partners have worked in cooperation with tribal
representatives since November 2011 as a ``Public Law 102-477
Administrative Flexibility Work Group'' (AFWG). Between November 2011
and January 2014, the AFWG met by teleconference or in person
approximately 30 times and we are happy to report on the group's
accomplishments: (1) a streamlined plan-approval process that uses an
agreed upon checklist for tribes and the federal agencies; (2)
simplified financial reporting based on agreed-upon cost categories
instead of dollar for dollar reporting; (3) an agreed upon narrative
report allowing tribes to highlight their program activities; (4)
agreement that a Tribe with a 477 plan may use funds made available
under the law for economic development, including providing private
sector training placement.
During the last face-to-face meeting on January 24, 2014, the AFWG
agreed to move forward to consultation on the reporting forms. DOI held
consultation on Thursday, March 13, 2014, at the National Congress of
American Indians Executive Council Winter Session. AFWG federal and
tribal members attended the consultation and tribal workgroup members
commented on the forms and listed the many accomplishments of the
workgroup. The 60-day period to comment on the proposed reporting forms
closes on April 15, 2014.
We are pleased to support the goals of Indian self-determination,
and we would like to work with the Committee to address concerns in S.
1574 to this end.
S. 1574 provides a 90-day time limit for an affected federal agency
to decide on a tribal request for a waiver of statutory, regulatory, or
administrative requirements that prevent the tribe or tribal
organization from efficiently implementing its plan. We understand why
tribal governments would want to have a fixed time limit for such
decisions. However, this provision gives us pause. In light of our need
to interact not just with tribal governments, but also other federal
partners, we believe that 90 days may not be a sufficient amount of
time for proper deliberation and collaboration among the federal
partners. We would like to discuss this with our federal partners.
We look forward to working with Senator Murkowski and the Committee
to modify S. 1574 to achieve its goal of further streamlining federal
delivery of employment, training and related services to tribes that
urgently need them.
One of the reasons that the 477 program is so successful is that it
requires federal agencies to cooperate to better deliver services to
tribes. The Department would like to work with the Committee to modify
certain provisions of S. 1574 that seem to subvert that spirit of
cooperation by giving the Secretary of the Interior the exclusive
authority to approve or disapprove a proposed plan without the input of
other affected federal partners. This also pertains to the provisions
that would approve a plan if the Secretary took no action on it within
90 days of receiving it.
The plan-approval process has been an issue in the past. However,
this issue recently has been addressed through a cooperative process
between federal partners and tribal representatives. The AFWG met
extensively on the plan-approval process and streamlined the P.L. 102-
477 plan-review process by creating a checklist for tribes and federal
agencies to use when developing, renewing, and approving plans. The
checklist is already in use. Under this new process, our agency has
twenty days to review a plan for completeness, after which we submit it
to the other affected federal agencies for their review. Each of them
has 30 days to submit its comments and recommendations to us. After we
receive those comments, we organize a teleconference that includes all
of the relevant tribal and federal stakeholders. The point of that
discussion is to ensure that the plan is approvable. We then have 30
days to render a partial or full approval of the plan.
We also look forward to discussing further to provisions in the
bill that would prohibit a tribe or tribal organization from being
required to submit any additional budget, report, audit, supplemental
audit, or other documentation after its plan is approved. There are a
number of reports that are not contemplated in an approved plan that
must later be submitted. One example is the year-end Financial
Assistance and Social Services Report, which is critical for
determining welfare assistance payments. This provision could be
clarified to specify the kinds of documentation that could not be
solicited from a tribe once a plan is approved to ensure that they are
not otherwise required by law. We note that the AFWG has worked on this
issue as well, and has adopted measures to ensure that plans are
complete.
We look forward to working with the Committee to modify the
provision of S. 1574 that eliminates certain conditions on tribes or
tribal organizations using funds under this Act for job-creation and
economic-development activities and would require instead, that those
expenditures be consistent with their plans. This provision is
unnecessary if the bill also contains the provision limiting waiver
decisions to 90 days.
We are fully supportive of the objective that employers who provide
work-based training should be incentivized to provide permanent
employment to people who successfully complete a training program.
However, we are concerned that compelling employers to hire a ``work
experience'' or ``on-the-job'' trainee could be a disincentive for them
to take part in these programs. Thus, we would like to work with the
Committee on provisions needed to strike the proper balance here.
We also look forward to working with the Committee on the provision
limiting the timeframe for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to
transfer funds to participating tribes after receiving the funds from
the originating federal agency. Once these funds are electronically
transferred to our agency, we are diligent in disbursing them as
quickly as possible. We note that we cannot disburse these grant funds
until we obtain a signed grant amendment from the grantee's tribal
chairman. This exchange can take time depending on a number of factors,
including tribal leadership's availability.
We would also like to note that roughly half of 477 grantees
receive funding that is disbursed, not through Public Law 93-638
contracts but through Annual Funding Agreements administered by our
Department's Office of Self-Governance. Because the Office of Self-
Governance disburses money through Annual Funding Agreements, not grant
amendments, allowances would have to be made for that office's
particular funding regime and disbursement timeline.
S. 1622, the ``Alyce Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on
Native Children Act''
The Department supports S. 1622 which would establish the Alyce
Spotted Bear and Walter Soboleff Commission on Native Children.
Children are a most sacred and valuable resource for Tribes and Indian
families. Tribal preservation depends on protection and support of
Indian families and children.
Native American children are the most at-risk population in the
United States and are in that vulnerable position because of
unaddressed poverty; insufficient access to services in health,
education, social services, mental health, legal and other needs. The
rates of suicide, foster care, and exposure to violence for Native
American children are unacceptable.
We are currently working on initiatives that are complementary to
the goals of S. 1622. The Department is presently working with DHHS,
the Department of Justice, and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health
Services Administration on updates to the BIA Child Protection Handbook
which is used by social workers, health care providers, law
enforcement, courts, and educators in Indian Country. The Handbook
provides guidance on indicators of child abuse, reporting requirements,
and the assembly and function of child protection teams in Indian
Country.
The Department is also re-examining the Bureau of Indian Affairs
Guidelines for State Courts, providing guidance to state courts in
interpreting the 1978 Indian Child Welfare Act (ICWA). The guidelines,
now more than 30 years old, have not been updated since there were
originally enacted, shortly after passage of ICWA. We hosted a
listening session with tribal leaders on March 11, 2014 and have
another listening session scheduled at the National Indian Child
Welfare Association's National Conference on April 15, 2014. Our
comment deadline is April 30.
These two updates are important pieces of the overall effort to
address Indian child welfare issues, but S. 1622 goes beyond these
efforts. This bill recognizes the need for a more collaborative and
holistic approach across the federal government and the private sector
to better define the issues and make recommendations for meaningful and
lasting solutions. The bill includes a plan for measurable outcomes,
stronger data, and implementation of best practices. It also includes
Tribal youth voices that need to be heard.
We are happy to work with Senator Heitkamp and the Committee on
this bill as it moves forward.
S. 2160, the ``Native American Children's Safety Act''
The Department supports the principles S. 2160, which amends the
Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act to require
background checks before foster care placements are ordered in tribal
court proceedings.
The safety of Native children is a Department priority. The Native
American Children's Safety Act recognizes the importance of the safety
of Native children through establishing standards in background checks.
We note that all placements made with Bureau of Indian Affairs funds
require a background check. This bill would expand the requirement to
all placements made through the tribal courts. We look forward to
working with the committee to create consistency in the requirements of
background checks. The IV-E background-check requirements are slightly
inconsistent with those in this bill. The Department of Health and
Human Services also notes the difference. We are happy to work with the
Committee to align the requirements to avoid creating two different
standards.
This concludes my prepared statement. I will be happy to answer any
questions the Committee may have.
The Chairman. Lillian, you are up.
STATEMENT OF HON. LILLIAN SPARKS ROBINSON,
COMMISSIONER, ADMINISTRATION FOR NATIVE
AMERICANS, U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH AND HUMAN
SERVICES
Ms. Robinson. Thank you. Good afternoon, Chairman Tester
and Senator Heitkamp.
It is my honor to appear before the Committee on behalf of
the Department of Health and Human Services to provide
testimony on bills that affect American Indian and Alaska
Native children and families.
I serve as the Commissioner for the Administration for
Native Americans which is part of the Administration for
Children and Families at HHS. I am also a member of the Rosebud
Sioux Tribe.
My testimony will focus on two of the bills before the
Committee today, S. 1574, the Indian Employment Training and
Related Services Consolidation Act of 2013 and S. 2160, the
Native American Children's Safety Act.
Since November 2011, tribal representatives of 477
projects, along with our Federal partners, have been meeting to
address issues concerning the law, reporting requirements and
auditing requirements related to 477 projects. We have always
said we must find a way to balance the need for flexibility and
accountability to accomplish the goals of 477 projects.
I am pleased to report that in January, the 477 Workgroup
agreed to submit new reporting forms and instructions to the
Paperwork Reduction Act review process as well as to convene a
concurrent tribal consultation.
Our joint collaborative effort has resulted in developing a
checklist to help facilitate the process of reviewing proposed
477 plans making it possible for tribes to submit a single
plan, identifying flexibilities within the law to allow tribes
to consolidate a significant amount of their 477 funds for the
purpose of supporting economic development, developing a
financial reporting form that moves away from the dollar for
dollar reporting and moves to reporting based on functional
categories including child care, education, employment and
training services and also fostering a much improved and
strengthened trust based relationship between the tribes and
the Federal partners.
This represents a significant achievement for all parties
and resolves many of the differences of opinion over operation
of the 477 projects.
S. 1674 would amend the 477 program in several ways we
would like to flag for your attention for additional
consideration.
The Secretary of Interior will have exclusive authority to
approve or disapprove a plan submitted by an Indian tribe or
tribal organization versus collaboration that currently
happens. Tribes will have the authority to incorporate any
provision of the Indian Self Determination and Education
Assistance Act into their 477 plans, although ISDEAA is not
applicable to the types of HHS grant funds included in the 477
demonstration projects.
There is language in the bill that suggests that S. 1574
would allow funds to be spent for purposes other than their
statutory purposes of the underlying program. Once a plan has
been approved, S. 1574 would allow tribes to operate approved
consolidated programs without being required to submit any
documentation.
The limitation on reporting requirements could prevent
agencies from understanding the types of services being offered
with the funds, what service gaps remain and whether the
programs have a positive impact in Indian Country.
We have worked with our colleagues at Interior and other
Federal agencies on a report which was submitted to Congress on
April 1. This report outlines the main accomplishments we have
made as well as a plan for regular 477 discussions with the
tribes.
HHS and our partners would welcome input from the Committee
on ways in which we can continue to improve the 477 program.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing
Adoptions Act of 2008 provides tribes the opportunity to apply
to operate a Title IV-E program. Since passage of the law, we
have approved the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe of Kingston,
Washington, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of
Pablo, Montana and the South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency
of Shelton, Washington to operate a Title IV-E program.
The Fostering Connections Act also authorized one-time
grants of up to $300,000 for tribes to assist in development of
tribally operated Title IV-E planning. Twenty-two tribes or
consortia of tribes have received those grants so far.
Tribes that receive funds through Title IV-B and IV-E for
child welfare programs are required to license foster family
homes and child care institutions and conduct criminal and
child abuse background checks.
S. 2160 would require tribes to operate programs under both
Title IV-E and the Department of Interior authorities to apply
two separate sets of criteria for background checks for foster
family homes. For example, Title IV-E does not exempt emergency
placements from the requirement that prospective foster family
providers complete a fingerprint-based check of the National
Crime Information Database.
We would be happy to work with the Committee to align these
important requirements and to ensure the safety of children
placed in out of home care.
I very much appreciate the Committee's interest in the
issues raised by both bills. I look forward to working together
on both bills and to continue finding ways to improve services
provided in our American Indian and Alaska Native communities
and to ensure the safety of children.
I would be happy to answer any questions.
[The prepared statement of Ms. Robinson follows:]
Prepared Statement of Hon. Lillian Sparks Robinson, Commissioner,
Administration For Native Americans, U.S. Department Of Health And
Human Services
Chairman Tester, Vice Chairman Barrasso, and members of the
Committee, it is my honor to appear before this Committee on behalf of
the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) to provide testimony
on bills that would affect American Indian and Alaska Native children
and families. I am a member of the Rosebud Sioux Tribe which is located
in South Dakota, and I serve as the Commissioner for the Administration
for Native Americans (ANA), which is part of the Administration for
Children and Families (ACF) at HHS.
My testimony will focus on two of the bills before the Committee
today: S. 1574, the ``Indian Employment, Training and Related Services
Consolidation Act of 2013'', and S. 2160, the ``Native American
Children's Safety Act.'' We continue to review S. 1570, ``to amend the
Indian Health Care Improvement Act to authorize advance appropriations
for the Indian Health Service (IHS) by providing 2-fiscal-year budget
authority.''
Public Law 102-477
HHS participates in the demonstration program established under
Public Law (P.L.) 102-477, the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Demonstration Act of 1992. This program allows tribes to
establish demonstration projects to coordinate their Department of the
Interior (DOI), HHS, Department of Labor (DOL), and Department of
Education employment, training, and related services programs into a
single, comprehensive program with consolidated administrative
functions. The Department of Education does not currently participate.
The law authorizes, but does not require, Federal agencies to allow
grant-funded programs to be included in ``477'' projects.
In 2014, there are 62 grantees, representing 265 tribes, operating
demonstration projects that include DOI, HHS, and DOL programs. HHS has
three participating programs: the Temporary Assistance for Needy
Families (TANF) program, the Child Care and Development Fund (CCDF)
program, and the Native Employment Works (NEW) program. The great
majority of funding in 477 projects comes from TANF and CCDF grant
funds. While the specific amounts vary across projects, total funding
in FY 2013 was $60 million with approximately 55 percent of those funds
coming from TANF ($33 million), 40 percent coming from CCDF ($24
million), and five percent coming from NEW ($2.8 million).
Since November 2011, tribal representatives of 477 projects, along
with officials of the Office of Management and Budget, DOI, HHS, and
DOL have been meeting to address issues concerning the law, reporting
requirements, and auditing requirements related to 477 projects. I am
pleased to report that, in January, the 477 work group agreed to submit
new reporting forms and instructions to the review process governed by
the Paperwork Reduction Act, as well as to convene a concurrent tribal
consultation. This represents a significant achievement for all parties
and resolves many of the differences of opinion over operation of the
477 projects. As a result of this agreement, tribes will benefit from
consistency in the way in which 477 projects are reviewed and will be
subject to more flexible reporting requirements. The Federal agencies
will benefit from strengthened relationships and greater assurance that
public funds are being spent in the best interest of tribal members and
the public.
The workgroup's accomplishments include: (1) identifying
flexibilities within the law that allow tribes to consolidate a
significant amount of their 477 funds for the purpose of supporting
economic development; (2) fostering a much-improved and a strengthened
trust-based relationship between the tribes and participating Federal
agencies; and (3) developing a financial reporting form with
instructions that move away from dollar-for-dollar reporting and move
to reporting based on functional categories, including child care,
education, and employment and training services for example.
For a number of years, there has been disagreement between the
tribes and some Federal agencies about auditing and reporting
requirements governing P.L. 477 projects. The disagreement stems from
the fact that the Federal agencies, including HHS, have interpreted the
program statute to mean that, when a program participates in a project,
program funds must be used for the purposes for which they were
authorized, and program statutory and regulatory requirements apply,
unless waived.
In contrast, a number of tribes interpret the statute to mean that,
when a program participates in a 477 project, its funds can be used for
any allowable activity under an approved 477 plan. A number of tribes
also assert that 477 projects fall under at least some of the terms of
P.L. 93-638, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act
(ISDEAA), which could allow for redesign and reallocation of funds and
could make the projects qualify for contract support costs, among many
other benefits of the ISDEAA; but the ISDEAA does not apply in this
context for HHS funding. The ISDEAA allows tribes to take over
Federally-run programs, not to contract for grant programs that were
never carried out directly by the Federal Government. The HHS programs,
functions, services, and activities that tribes can contract for under
the ISDEAA are those that certain Federal agencies administer for the
benefit of Indians because of their status as Indians. The application
of the ISDEAA to the TANF program was litigated in Navajo Nation v.
Department of Health and Human Services, in which the Ninth Circuit
Court of Appeals found in favor of HHS and determined that the ISDEAA
does not apply to TANF funds, primarily because tribes are not the
exclusive beneficiaries of the funds and so TANF is not a program ``for
the benefit of Indians because of their status as Indians''. The same
would apply to CCDF funds. In fact, this applies to all ACF programs,
including Head Start and foster care, with the possible exception of
the ANA programs that I administer as Commissioner.
Tribal Early Learning Initiative (TELI)
ACF is pursuing additional ways, beyond the 477 demonstration
program, to coordinate and simplify programs. Since the fall of 2012,
ACF has been implementing the Tribal Early Learning Initiative (TELI).
The TELI is a partnership between ACF and four American Indian tribes
that have Head Start/Early Head Start, Child Care, and tribal Home
Visiting grants. The four participating tribes are the Choctaw Nation
of Oklahoma, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes in Montana,
the Pueblo of San Felipe in New Mexico, and the White Earth Nation in
Minnesota. The purposes of the TELI are to support tribes that wish to
coordinate tribal early learning and development programs; create and
support seamless, high-quality early-childhood systems; and raise the
quality of services to children and families across the prenatal-to-
age-five continuum.
Over the past year and a half, TELI grantees have made major
strides in improving their early-childhood systems and services.
Grantee activities have included jointly creating a community-based
resource directory, convening joint professional-development
opportunities and trainings for staff, reviewing and agreeing on common
assessment tools, creating a single tribal early-learning program-
enrollment form, conducting joint dental services across programs, and
investing in a data system to allow for better coordination and sharing
of relevant data across programs. TELI tribes' fruitful partnerships
across Home Visiting, Head Start, and Child Care have made them models
for other tribes and Federal programs.
The Indian Employment, Training and Related Services Consolidation Act
of 2013
S. 1574 would amend the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Demonstration Act of 1992 to give the Secretary of the
Interior the exclusive authority to approve or disapprove a plan
submitted by an Indian tribe or tribal organization to integrate
Federal employment, training, and related services, including services
under programs that Interior does not administer, into a consolidated
and comprehensive program. The provisions in legislation expand the 477
program well beyond the initial purpose of integrating employment and
training programs. For example, it could permit the use of Head Start
funding to support job training instead; and appears that it would
allow for opting out of the important bipartisan reform of Head Start
that requires low-performing programs to improve or face grants being
put out for competition. We believe that this policy should be
maintained as part of the Administration's effort to improve and expand
early-learning programs for all children.
The bill would give tribes the authority to incorporate any
provision of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act
(ISDEAA) into their 477 plans and, at the request of tribes, to
disburse the funds through ISDEAA contracts (bill, 5; proposed 5(b)
of the 1992 Act). Since its inception, the ISDEAA has not been
applicable to the types of HHS grant funds that are included in 477
demonstration projects. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals has already
ruled that that the ISDEAA does not apply to grants like TANF grants
because tribes are not the exclusive beneficiaries and so it is not a
program ``for the benefit of Indians because of their status as
Indians'', as the ISDEAA requires. The ISDEAA allows tribes to take
over Federally-run programs (for example, when a tribe contracts to run
a hospital that IHS had been operating), not to contract for grant
programs never carried out directly by the Federal government. Under
the ISDEAA, tribes receive Contract Support Cost funding because the
Congress sought to avoid reductions in program resources when Federal
programs are transferred to tribal operation. For HHS grant programs,
the Federal government has never carried out the programs, and the
grants are not designed to be all-inclusive of costs. States and tribes
already have broad flexibility to carry out the TANF and CCDF programs.
Providing contract support costs, along with program redesign authority
and other benefits, to a tribe administering block grant funds to
provide cash assistance and other support services to its program
recipients would not be consistent with how these grants have been used
historically or the current statutory purpose of contract support
costs.
Third, S. 1574 would give agencies with programs involved in a 477
demonstration project broad waiver authority. That authority currently
exists under P.L. 102-477 but S. 1574 would take it a step further by
requiring an agency dispute-resolution process as well as potentially
creating a right to appeal a waiver denial to Federal district court.
The language is unclear but there is some suggestion that the same
appeal right applies to the denial of a 477 plan itself. We would like
to work with the Committee to better define how waiver disputes would
be resolved and the flexibility necessary to create economic
development projects under the 477 program.
Fourth, S. 1574 would allow tribes to operate approved consolidated
programs without being required to submit any additional budget,
report, audit, supplemental audit, or other documentation ( 4 of bill;
proposed 4(b) of the 1992 Act). We note that there is language in the
bill that refers to the Department of the Interior creating a single
report but it is difficult to reconcile that concept with the broad
language providing that no report or audit is required. Prohibiting
agencies from obtaining supplemental reports or audits could
significantly limit our ability to be responsible stewards of public
funds for important programs such as TANF, CCDF and NEW. The limitation
on reporting requirements could prevent agencies from understanding the
types of services being offered with the funds, what service gaps
remain, and whether the programs have a positive impact in Indian
country. Fundamentally, taxpayers deserve to know how their funds are
being used and what outcomes they are getting for these investments.
As instructed by the Congress in the explanatory statement
accompanying the Consolidated Appropriations Act, 2014, we have worked
with our colleagues at DOI and other Federal agencies on a report,
submitted to Congress on April 1, that outlines the many
accomplishments we have made, an explanation for why we could not come
to full agreement on several issues, and laying out a plan for regular
discussions on 477 issues with tribes. HHS and our partner agencies
would welcome input from the Committee on ways in which we can continue
to improve the 477 program.
Children's Bureau Grants to Tribes
Today, many tribes operate some form of child-protection service
programs and many have tribal codes, court systems, and child-welfare
programs. Historically, tribes have obtained much of their child-
welfare funding through the states, or through grants from the
Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs. However, the
Children's Bureau, within ACF, now offers more direct funding
opportunities for tribes than ever before through several grant
programs.
The Fostering Connections to Success and Increasing Adoptions Act
of 2008 provided Federally- recognized Indian tribes, tribal
organizations, and consortia of Indian tribes with the option to apply
to operate a title IV-E program. Since passage of the law, we have
approved the Port Gamble S'Klallam Tribe of Kingston, Washington; the
Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes of Pablo, Montana; and the
South Puget Intertribal Planning Agency of Shelton, Washington to
operate a title IV-E program.
The Fostering Connections Act also authorized one-time grants of up
to $300,000 to tribes to assist in the development of a tribally
operated title IV-E plan. Twenty-two tribes or consortia of tribes have
received those grants, totaling approximately $6.4 million, since 2009.
The Fostering Connections Act also provided both tribes that
operate a title IV-E program and tribes that have a title IV-E
cooperative agreement or contract with the state title IV-E agency, the
option to apply to receive funds directly from HHS to operate a John H.
Chafee Foster Care Independence (CFCIP) and/or Educational Training
Voucher Program (ETV). The CFCIP and ETV programs provide funds to help
older youth in foster care and youth who were formerly in foster care
acquire training and independent living skills so they can become self-
sufficient. In fiscal year (FY) 2014, four tribes will receive a total
of $111,500 in funds through the CFCIP and ETV programs.
Additional funds, under the Stephanie Tubbs Jones Child Welfare
Services Program, are available to tribes to improve their child-
welfare services with the goal of keeping families together. In FY
2014, 189 tribes will receive a total of $6.3 million in funds through
the program.
Funds are also available for eligible tribes under the Promoting
Safe and Stable Families (PSSF) Program to assist with family support,
family preservation and support, time-limited family reunification
services, and services to support adoptions. In FY 2014, 135 tribes
will receive $10.3 million in funding through the program.
S. 2160, the ``Native American Children's Safety Act''
Tribes that receive funds through title IV-E and IV-B for child-
welfare programs are required to license foster family homes and child-
care institutions and conduct criminal and child-abuse background
checks. The ``Native American Children's Safety Act'' would require
tribes that operate programs under both title IV-E and Department of
the Interior authorities to apply two separate sets of criteria for
background checks for foster family homes. Having to implement two
different laws and regulations for licensing and background checks for
foster-care placements is likely to cause confusion for tribes that
operate a title IV-E or IV-B program or have a IV-E agreement with the
state. For example, title IV-E does not exempt emergency placements
from the requirement that prospective foster family providers complete
a fingerprint-based check of the National Crime Information Database.
We would be happy to work with the Committee to align these important
requirements and to ensure the safety of children placed in out-of-home
care.
I very much appreciate the Committee's interest in the issues
raised by both bills. I look forward to working together on both bills
and to continuing to find ways to improve services provided in our
American Indian and Alaskan Native communities and to ensure the safety
of their children. I would be happy to answer any questions.
The Chairman. Thank you both very much for your testimony.
Correct me if I am wrong. S. 1474, you support?
Mr. Washburn. We support the principles behind 1474. Yes,
we support that.
The Chairman. The IHS Advanced Appropriations Act, S. 1570,
you support that?
Ms. Robinson. Sir, we are currently reviewing that and
would be happy to take back any questions and get back to you
with regards to our position.
The Chairman. I will get back to that in a second.
S. 1574, you like the ideas but you want to flush them out
some more, is that pretty much what I gather?
Mr. Washburn. Yes, sir.
The Chairman. S. 1622, you support?
Mr. Washburn. Yes, absolutely.
The Chairman. S. 2160, you want more time to review, is
that correct for both of you? I don't want to put words in your
mouth.
Ms. Robinson. Right. We agree with the priority review, we
agree with the goals. We just want to make sure that it is in
line with the IV-E and IV-B programs.
The Chairman. Thank you very much.
I will touch very briefly on advanced appropriations
because it is the simplest of all the bills. It is advanced
appropriations. In my opinion, it makes perfect sense. As I
said before, I serve on the VA Committee and they have advanced
appropriations. Quite frankly, it works pretty darned well. The
only way that bill got through the process was with support not
only from the veterans' service organizations but from the
department.
This has been out there for a while. It is not so
complicated. I would really like to get your opinion on whether
it is a yea or a nay as we move forward. It will help with
issues like sequestration and government shutdowns and give
some certainty to a budget that needs certainty.
I could put a time frame on it if you want but as soon as
possible, okay.
Lillian, is the Administration afraid that tribes will
divert program funds to other tribal 477 programs for other
purposes? Why would the Administration approve the plan in the
first place?
Ms. Robinson. I think that is a great question. I think it
is not so much a fear that we are afraid program dollars will
be used for purposes outside the program, but we want to make
sure we are accountable with regards to the types of services
we provide, not just in the plan but we are also accountable to
the community we are serving as well.
We would be able to reject the plan but at the same time,
we feel there is additional pressure within S. 1574 to approve
plans that would include programs outside 477. In particular, I
would be happy to give examples and follow up with you.
The Chairman. You have a responsibility for oversight but
the bottom line is that if that is a concern, we ought to be
able to figure it out before going in.
Ms. Robinson. I agree. I think that is something we would
be willing to work with the workgroup to figure out how we
would be able to incorporate those types of plans.
The Chairman. On the 477 issue, if filing one application
for client services is a good idea, why doesn't wanting tribes
to report financial data all together, why isn't that a good
idea, either one of you?
Ms. Robinson. I believe that through the workgroup we have
begun looking at how we might be able to have not just one plan
but also one report. We do think that is a good idea. We think
477 is a success and want to be able to have one report that
has the data as well as one plan.
The Chairman. Senator Murkowski?
Senator Murkowski. Following up on the 477 conversation, as
far as the independent audits go, do you agree that the
independent audits required by the single agency audit and that
apply to all these funds, including 477, is the right
accounting method for these funds?
Mr. Washburn. Senator Murkowski, I believe I would say yes.
I think we do feel we do a good job auditing these programs.
Senator Murkowski. If they do a good job auditing, then why
do these funds need to be audited more rigorously than funds
that go into patient health care or trust resources? What is
the difference there in terms of how they are treated?
Mr. Washburn. There are a lot of regulatory aspects of this
whole 477 program. We have to have plan approval in the first
place. We have an annual report from each tribe describing what
they did during the year. We have a single audit which is
really careful to look at all the financial aspects and we
occasionally do program reviews and site visits also.
We feel like there is a pretty strong approach to how we
regulate these programs. We believe they are well regulated.
Senator Murkowski. Doesn't it appear there is a level of
inconsistency if you are auditing some more rigorously than
other accounts? We want to have a level of accountability, most
certainly, but I think we also want to make sure it is not
unduly burdensome at the same time I think is where I am going
with this point.
Let me ask you would you agree that self governance and
self determination tribes have achieved sufficient
accountability to be responsible for the redesign and the re-
budget of their programs and funds within a Title IV compact or
Title I contract, either of you?
Mr. Washburn. They absolutely have demonstrated these
programs work and they do a very good job with these programs.
Each of the programs has to give up something. When these
programs go under a 477 plan, the agency that owns that program
has to give up some control. That is a hard thing because they
feel a lot of ownership for those programs. It is hard to give
up that ownership and that control. We are at various stages in
sort of being able to do that.
Senator Murkowski. I think you can see where I am going
with it. If we are saying that we are agreeing with our self
governance and self determination tribes we have this level of
accountability, it is tough to discern whether there is any
real policy reason why tribes shouldn't have the exact same
authority for 477 funds within a 477 plan.
We appreciate the good work that the task force and the
working group have put together but this is something I would
sure like to find some result for. I would certainly agree with
the Chairman with regard to his comments about the advance
appropriations within IHS.
As you point out, Mr. Chairman, it is working on the
veterans' side, we see that benefit. The trust responsibility,
the obligation that we have to our first peoples, and seems to
me that we ought to be able to advance this.
Secretary Washburn, I mentioned in my questions to Natasha
that I was going to pose somewhat the same question about
funding for our tribal courts. I have asked you before about
BIA's policy about not funding tribes in Public Law 280 States.
We have tribal courts in Alaska and they are making
tremendous advances and advantages but with very little
funding. Again, our tribal court judges train alongside our
State court judges. Our tribes really need to have annual
funding for operation of their courts.
As I mentioned, I am going to be looking within the
Interior Appropriations Subcommittee as to how we might be able
to facilitate this and I would urge you to put together some
kind of action plan regarding funding for our tribal courts in
Alaska on an annual basis.
If you and I want to sit down and have a bit more
conversation about this, it is something we have to address.
The issues of jurisdiction are very difficult and complicated
but I worry a great deal that we might be able to resolve that
and yet if we haven't done anything to help facilitate the
operations and administration of these tribal courts, we are
not going to be nearly as far along as we should.
If you don't have an action plan in our back pocket you
want to present right now, I am happy to work with you and your
folks more on this but it is something I really think we need
to get to work on.
Mr. Washburn. Senator Murkowski, thank you for your
leadership on this. Justice needs to come to Alaska too for
sure. Again, I think the Indian Law and Order Commission report
demonstrated that we have some issues there.
You did mention you are the Ranking Member on Interior
Appropriations. If I were to go back to the office and say,
let's fund tribal courts, my people and OMB would say, give me
some data, explain the problem to me. Frankly, it is a little
bit influx right now. We do have some tribal courts but we have
this fledging sort of idea about criminal jurisdiction in those
tribal courts that Natasha talked about and your bill may help,
so things are a bit in flux.
What would help me, I think, and I am not really authorized
to ask for this so I am not asking for it, I am giving you
drafting service, I guess.
Senator Murkowski. Understood.
Mr. Washburn. You are the Ranking Member on Interior
Appropriations, one thing you could do is ask us for a study
and provide a little bit of money to fund that study because it
is quite complicated. There are 229 Alaska Native villages. How
many courts do we need?
One thing the tribes in Alaska do really well is work well
together, they cooperate on some many things and would that be
a model we could use? We don't know unless we talk to them. It
is a huge new initiative. One step to addressing it would be to
fund a study for this coming fiscal year and go from there and
the following year see what does this look like.
If I walked back and said I need $15 million to start
funding tribal courts in Alaska, they would say, where is your
data. I am sort of recommending baby steps. I think that might
be a path.
Senator Murkowski. I appreciate that. I think it is
something we need to continue to visit. I kind of asked Natasha
for a little homework on her end too, so I think we have some
work but I would like to continue to pursue this with you in
greater detail.
Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
The Chairman. Senator Heitkamp?
Senator Heitkamp. Thank you.
I have just a couple comments and a couple of points.
I obviously really appreciate your support of our
commission bill. Lillian, you were a great help when we were
drafting and obviously we are very grateful for all of the
support and all the input that went into it.
I want to talk a bit about the 477 program. It is not
something I am all that familiar with but when I hear people
say, well, they liked their programs and they feel proprietary
towards their programs, that raises our awareness and we say,
you know what, we all have enough problems, we don't need to
hog them.
If the Native American Commission bill is going to work, we
know we are going to have to be much more collaborative to hear
37 agencies. When you spread the responsibility, there is no
accountability. We are trying to get an arm around how do we
hold agencies accountable when we hear things like we like our
programs, we don't and they don't want to collaborate.
I think we are only here because internal discussions
haven't worked. If there is one thing that we can take out of
this on the 477 program is if you don't feel under fire when
you get here because there were lots of opportunities to
collaborate before you got here to present a plan. As a result
of this hearing, I hope what will happen is exactly that.
I want to talk a little bit about forward funding because I
didn't worry during the shutdown one bit about what was going
to happen at the VA or with our Medicare and Medicaid
recipients because they are forward funded.
Why is it that every program we look at, when the short end
of the lollipop comes, it is always in the Native American
programs? What we are saying is, health care is too critically
important to not forward fund it. Once again, you get the sense
that is a second class citizen because we are not going to fund
you the way we would veterans, the way we would seniors or
people under the Medicaid programs. We are quite serious about
a forward funding for Indian health and for health care.
With that said, I think once again the need to look not
only at forward funding but parity and I know, Lillian you
probably looked at number after number about parity per Native
American who is served in the Indian Health Service compared to
someone who is at Medicare levels, at Medicaid levels, at
veteran service levels.
We know that Native American health care programs are
grossly under funded and the population is unserved leading to
tons of other problems. When we look at catching up, whether it
is background checks for foster care or forward funding, we
have to step back and say, how can we do this better. I would
suggest that having 30 agencies looking at Native American
children programming is not doing it better.
My final comment is, I hear over and over again this is
broader to the Administration and maybe to us a little bit.
There are nonprofits in my State who are deathly afraid of
applying for a four, five or fifty thousand dollar grant
because they tell me the cost of compliance will be half of
that.
We have not come to grips with how we balance the cost of
compliance against the risk of fraud. I think in some ways we
have maybe overreached on the fraud side and as a result, we
have people going unserved. Yes, it is important that we have
accountability but it also is important that this money gets
spent where the Congress intended and where the American people
intended it to be spent and not on compliance burdens and
unnecessary overhead.
I think you see that discussion all the way through what we
have talked about today. I look forward to hearing more
collaboration on the 477 program. I even look forward to
getting a final commitment on forward funding. I appreciate
your support and your passion for Native American children.
The Chairman. Thank you, Senator Heitkamp. I very much
appreciate those comments.
We have two votes starting right now so we will wrap this
up.
There are five bills on today's docket we dealt with in
this hearing: 1474, support; 1622, support. It is April 2. I
would like to get the applicable departmental response back on
1570, 1574 and 2160 by the end of the month as to what needs to
be done with those bills to get the departmental support if
anything.
With that, I want to thank Senator Begich for taking over
the chairmanship while I was gone. I want to thank all the
witnesses today. I appreciate all of your commitment to the
issue. I want to thank Kevin Washburn and Lillian Robinson for
their service and what you do every day. We very much
appreciate it.
I would note the hearing record will remain open for two
weeks from today.
With that, the hearing is adjourned.
[Whereupon, at 4:34 p.m., the Committee was adjourned.
A P P E N D I X
Prepared Statement of Dimitri Philemonof, President/CEO, Aleutian
Pribilof Islands Association
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
______
Prepared Statement of Ralph Andersen, President/CEO, Bristol Bay Native
Association
S. 1474, the Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act
Chairman Tester and Committee Members: my name is Ralph Andersen,
and I am President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bristol Bay
Native Association (BBNA), which is a consortium of 31 tribes in the
Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska. On behalf of BBNA and its
member tribes, I submit this written testimony in support of S. 1474,
the Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act, and more specifically to
support a set of amendments to that bill proposed by the Alaska
Federation of Natives, BBNA, and other tribal entities in Alaska. Our
understanding is that Senator Begich is prepared to introduce such
amendments.
BBNA, the Alaska Federation of Natives, our sister regional non-
profits, and Alaska tribes have been requesting federal legislation to
affirm and clarify tribal civil jurisdiction in Alaska since at least
the mid-1990s. In successive Congresses there have been different
versions of proposed bills and different approaches to the scope of
tribal jurisdiction, but we have been very consistent for the last 20
years in urging that the single best and most effective thing Congress
could do to address the serious social ills in rural Alaska is to
simply confirm that our tribal governments and tribal courts have the
authority to regulate and address social problems at home. That
necessarily means confirming tribal judicial power--the authority to
adjudicate domestic relations, juvenile matters, and lower-grade
offenses that might be considered ``criminal'' in the state system but
which can also be handled as civil violations subject to restorative
justice style remedies.
We have consistently and repeatedly asked for jurisdictional
legislation not because we seek to undo the ANCSA settlement or to
create ``Indian Country'' in Alaska or as some kind of power grab. We
seek jurisdictional legislation because our real-life experience in
rural villages over the last 30 years tells us that the State of
Alaska's unified, top-down system for providing law enforcement and
judicial services doesn't extend very far or work very well in rural
Alaska. It is often culturally inappropriate. It is unlikely to ever
work well because of funding limitations and the sheer geographic
challenges to service delivery in rural Alaska. Social problems ranging
from underage drinking and substance abuse to domestic violence to
sexual assaults continue to occur in our villages at unacceptably high
rates.
In the meantime, the tribes are where they always have been, with
human resources on the ground and with tribal governments already
providing a wide range of services either directly or via regional
tribal organizations. Although Alaska Native tribes have been excluded
from Bureau of Indian Affairs funding for courts and law enforcement,
some Department of Justice funding has been available for these
functions. For other categories of service delivery--such as social
workers and case managers--tribes and tribal organizations have more
resources to bear in rural Alaska than the state agencies do.
Why is Legislation Needed?
In short, because there is a huge gap in judicial and quasi-
judicial services and law enforcement in remote rural villages. In most
areas, tribes aren't filling that gap in large part because of
perceived lack of authority and the lack of clarity about tribal
jurisdiction. There are also funding constraints, with relatively few
grants specifically for tribal courts. Yet the state courts only exist
in hub communities. The Alaska State Troopers are based in the hubs.
Given the expense of investigating cases and of transporting people for
trials in hub communities, and the expense of incarcerating offenders,
it seems to be a pattern in the state system that only the most serious
crimes are prosecuted, that even serious crimes sometimes fall through
the cracks, and that nothing much happens at all in regard to what
might be called entry level offenses such as minors consuming alcohol,
other drug offenses, vandalism and similar problems. This gap in
services could be filled, in part, and we believe should be filled by
tribal courts, using culturally appropriate and relevant models of
justice delivery which may not look much like western-style courts at
all.
We sometimes hear from different points of the political spectrum
that ``tribes can already do that''--i.e., that they already have
jurisdiction to handle minor civil-type cases, so federal legislation
shouldn't be necessary. In reality, the extent of tribal jurisdiction
in Alaska is very grey at best, and the State of Alaska relentlessly
litigates against tribal authority at almost every opportunity. The
likely limit of tribal jurisdiction to ``tribal members'' is very
problematic in the context of our villages for a variety of reasons.
Alaska attracts ``end of the roaders''--people who are escaping bad
situations in the Lower 48 and think they can remake themselves and/or
do as they please in rural Alaska. Some have criminal records. It only
takes one outsider with violent or anti-social tendencies to make life
difficult in a small village.
There are also a lot of mixed marriages, and it simply doesn't make
sense for tribes to be able to assert authority in regard to one spouse
but not the other. Even all-Native families may derive from different
villages, with the spouses being members of different tribes. Tribal
membership itself can be very fluid in Alaska. Tribal members can
simply resign their tribal membership with no particular penalty or
loss of service. Eligibility for Native programs in Alaska is not based
solely on tribal membership but alternatively can be based on ANCSA
descendancy, and proven by obtaining a Certificate of Indian Blood from
the BIA.
Tribes in Alaska clearly have jurisdiction over child neglect and
adoption cases and they have jurisdiction over other types of domestic
relations cases involving their members, including domestic violence
protective orders. Beyond that it is very unclear what subject matter
jurisdiction tribes may have and where and to whom it may apply.
Although some tribes have been more assertive than others and some
tribal courts may do a variety of things in different parts of the
state, the sheer lack of clarity in regard to tribal authority has had
a huge chilling effect on tribal courts in Alaska. In the Bristol Bay
region there is little court activity at present beyond ``child in need
of aid'' cases, where tribal authority is clear under the Indian Child
Welfare Act (ICWA). More often than not in our region, the tribal
involvement is limited to intervention in state court proceedings.
In our view, ICWA is perhaps the best illustration of why tribal
jurisdictional legislation is needed in Alaska. While ICWA created some
procedural protections for Native American families and tribes and
created a ranked order of preference for the placement of Native
children, from a jurisdictional perspective ICWA didn't change pre-
existing law much at all. Tribes already had jurisdiction over child
abuse and neglect cases and over adoptions. State courts already had
the authority to transfer children's cases to tribal courts, and
sometimes did so. But from the perspective of tribal governments and
tribal courts, the big impact of ICWA was that it provided clarity and
a firm legal basis for asserting tribal authority. To this day, ICWA--
related cases remain the predominant activity of tribal courts in
Alaska. It is very doubtful this tribal involvement in children's cases
would have occurred without federal legislation. ICWA provided a road
map.
The amendments Senator Begich has developed for the Alaska Safe
Families and Villages Act will serve very much the same function for
the limited subject matter areas they cover: child abuse and neglect,
domestic violence, and alcohol and drugs.
The Alaska Safe Families and Villages Act
Although we appreciate that S. 1474 was introduced, except for the
repeal of the ``Alaska exclusion'' in Section 910 of the Violence
Against Women Act our support for the bill as introduced is lukewarm. I
will stress that we strongly support the repeal of the VAWA Alaska
exclusion, and urge that the repeal go forward through any available
legislative vehicle. Anecdotally, we have heard that in some regions
the VAWA Alaska exclusion has already had a large chilling effect as
measured by the number of tribal domestic violence protective orders
registered with the state courts. Some tribes have apparently just
stopped issuing protective orders. The Alaska exclusion is harming
people and should be repealed as quickly as possible.
Otherwise, however, S. 1474 as introduced is limited to encouraging
state-tribal agreements, principally for the diversion of state
criminal cases to tribal courts in situations where there is complete
agreement by everyone, including the defendant. We have some
reservations about such legislation, because nothing prohibits the
state and tribes from entering such agreements now or even broader
cross-jurisdictional agreements. There have been some state-tribal
agreements and municipal-tribal agreements on jurisdictional matters
over the years. Our fear is that if Congress enacts legislation
``authorizing'' agreements for pre-trial diversion, it may imply to
some future court that the tribes had no underlying authority at all.
Although we know this is not the intent, as we read the bill it comes
very close to implying that tribes only have derivative authority,
coming from either Congress or the state.
What is actually needed, and what will make a huge positive
difference in the safety and quality of life in rural Alaska, is
legislation that clearly recognizes that tribes can adopt and enforce
laws addressing the most serious social problems in the villages.
Amendment Package
We support a package of amendments developed as a substitute for
the existing S. 1474 language. The amendments actually keep the
existing provisions S. 1474, but adds a jurisdictional section very
similar to a bill introduced by Senator Begich in the last Congress.
The proposed amendment package would confirm that tribes can exercise
civil jurisdiction in the subject matter areas of child abuse and
neglect, domestic violence, and drug or alcohol related matters. It
establishes a process whereby tribes can develop appropriate ordinances
and tribal court procedures, and provides for review and approval of
the tribal code by the Department of Justice. It specifies some
remedies that can be imposed by tribes, all of which are ``civil'' in
nature.
The bill is limited to tribal civil authority; it does not extend
criminal jurisdiction to tribes. It does not in any way undercut or
reduce state criminal or civil authority; tribal jurisdiction under the
bill is concurrent with state jurisdiction.
We recognize this bill will be no panacea; it might even be
considered a mere baby step in the direction of tribal self-
empowerment. It will still be up to the state system to deal with
serious crimes, including the epidemic level of sexual assaults in
Alaska. It remains up to the state and federal governments to
adequately fund law enforcement and courts.
But still this legislation will give tribes some of the tools they
need to handle behavioral problems at home, particularly among young
people, without involving the state systems at all. If intervention
occurs early and is effective in heading off worse problems, then
everyone benefits--including individual offenders who might otherwise
end up with criminal records that follow them for life.
I will mention in passing the recent Indian Law and Order
Commission Report: A Roadmap for Making Native American Safer, which I
understand was the subject of an oversight hearing by this Committee.
The report was highly critical of the current state-centric system of
providing justice and law enforcement services in rural Alaska.
Although there have been some quibbles about the accuracy of some
aspects of the report, from BBNA's perspective the gist of the report--
that the state system has failed rural Alaska and that it is time for a
major change of approach towards fostering tribal governments--is not
just true, but obviously true. The statistics regarding sexual assault,
Native incarceration rates, alcohol abuse, and many other social
indicators speak for themselves.
The ILOC report did not really say much that was new--every single
report or study regarding Alaska Natives in the last 30 years has said
much the same thing and concluded that more reliance should be placed
on tribes. But for tribally-based solutions to work, the tribes need
the necessary tools. One critical tool, which this legislation will
provide, is clear authority to act.
S. 1574, the Indian Employment, Training and Related Services
Consolidation Act
Chairman Tester and Committee Members: My name is Ralph Andersen,
and I am President and Chief Executive Officer of the Bristol Bay
Native Association (BBNA), which is a consortium of 31 tribes in the
Bristol Bay region of Southwest Alaska. On behalf of BBNA and its
member tribes, I submit this written testimony in support of S. 1574,
the Indian Employment, Training and Related Services Consolidation Act.
BBNA has operated a consolidated workforce development program,
combining services under P.L. 102-477 plans, since the 1990s. Our
Workforce Development Director, Rae Belle Whitcomb, is a Co-Chair of
the 477 Tribal Work Group, and BBNA has closely tracked national
developments regarding P.L. 102-477.
The 477 law authorizes tribes and tribal organizations to
consolidate funding streams from thirteen separate programs within the
Departments of the Interior (DOI), Health & Human Services (DHHS), and
Labor (DOL). The law provides that participating tribes develop a
single ``477 Plan'' which is approved by the Secretary of the Interior
and which enables the tribe to use a single budget and reporting
system. The funds are transferred from the other agencies to DOI, and
the award mechanism used to transfer funds from DOI to the tribes is
either a ``Title I contract'' or a ``Title IV Compact'' under the
Indian Self-Determination Act, P.L. 93-638.
Since the 477 Initiative's inception, tribes and tribal
organizations have used the P.L. 93638 funding mechanism and have
reported (and been audited) based on their 477 Plans, which by
definition is tribally created. In BBNA's experience, 477 has been
highly successful. The flexibility of the 477 Initiative have been key
to the efficient and cost-effective provision of our employment
training, job placement, child care and related programs. The 477
Initiative reduces redundancies in administrative effort and personnel
costs. BBNA operates in an extremely high cost area, and within a large
geographic area--31 small tribal communities with no connecting roads
scattered in an area the size of Ohio. We have a bare bones staff
relative to the demands placed on them, and every dollar we can save by
freeing staff from redundant grant requirements is a dollar used on
client services.
Disagreements with DHHS
Beginning in 2008 actions by DHHS and to a certain extent by DOI
threatened an almost complete rollback of the success of the 477
Program. First DHHS concluded unilaterally it would no longer allow its
program funds to be administered under P.L. 93-638 contracts and
compacts. The DOI acquiesced in this, and announced that DHHS funds
within 477 would be awarded by ordinary grants. At a stroke, this would
have undercut much of the purpose of P.L. 102-477 by effectively
keeping DHHS funds out of consolidated tribal programs. DHHS then had
audit guidelines issued that required tribes and tribal organizations
operating 477 Programs to separately report and account for each
funding stream within the 477 Plan. Essentially, the 477 Initiative
would no longer authorize the true consolidation of programs but rather
would just bundle disparate grants together with all their separate
requirements intact. The tribes believed this undercut the intent of
the law.
Although these policy changes were held in abeyance by the agencies
pending further dialogue, there was no agreement between the agencies
and the tribes. In 2011 the 477 Tribal Work Group, BBNA, and many other
individual tribes and tribal organizations asked Congress to intervene.
As a result, the FY 2012 Interior appropriations bill instructed the
federal agencies, including OMB, to consult with the 477 tribes and
tribal organizations to reach consensus and ``permanently resolve''
these issues. The agencies and the 477 Tribes agreed to try to resolve
their differences over these new issues, and this led to the formation
of the P.L. 102477 Administrative Flexibility Work Group (AFWG)
The AFWG included representatives from DOI, DHHS, DOL, and OMB, and
a good cross-section of interested tribes and tribal organizations
including the co-chairs of the 477 Tribal Work Group. The AFWG met for
more than two years. It conducted a comprehensive review of the 477
Act, the history of program implementation, the process of submitting
and approving 477 Plans, the consolidated reporting system, and other
matters. In the meantime the agencies temporarily suspended their
proposed changes, allowing the 477 Program to operate as it had from
its inception under P.L. 93-638 mechanisms and without supplemental
reporting.
Eventually, although the tribes and agencies represented on the
AFWG came to consensus on some issues and reached a better mutual
understanding regarding the 477 Act and 477 Programs, its was not
possible to ``permanently resolve'' their disagreements over fund
transfer and reporting issues. This was because DHHS has interpreted
the 477 Act in a manner that is distinctly at odds with the
interpretation tribes have had of it since it was enacted.
Need for Amendments to 477 Act
Although progress was made in reaching mutual understandings during
the AFWG process, it is clear that it is time for Congress to update
and clarify the law. The remaining disagreements appear to be based on
different interpretations of terms Congress used in the law, so
clarifying amendments by Congress should resolve them. Even in some
areas where there has been agreement, such as the continued use of P.L.
93-638 contracts and agreements, there has been no binding agreement or
commitment in writing by the agencies. The agencies could simply walk
away from the AFWG consensus items in the future.
The testimony of DHHS at this hearing illustrates the problem.
Commissioner Lillian Sparks Robinson of the Administration for Native
Americans within DHHS, stated at various points in her testimony that
participation in the 477 Initiative is discretionary with the agencies
(rather than the tribes), that it doesn't actually allow the tribes to
consolidate programs and funding, and that the 477 law doesn't bring
the included programs within the tribe's P.L. 93-638 contracting
authority. The foregoing is a paraphrase, but I believe it is a fair
reading of parts of her testimony. BBNA would certainly disagree with
all of these points, and we have no wish to engage an in an endless
debate with the agencies over whether we have the authority to do
things we've been doing successfully for 20 years.
For the above reasons, BBNA believes it is time for Congress to
amend the 477 Act. It is time P.L. 102-477 became permanent
legislation, and we thank Senator Murkowski and Senator Begich and the
other co-sponsors of S. 1574.
We agree with other commenters that one area of improvement would
be to clarify what is meant by the word ``program'' within the 477
context. One suggestion with which we concur is that the term
``program'' be used to describe the individual federal programs or
funding streams that are included within a 477 Plan, that the 477
``Plan'' refer to the tribe's consolidated program and operations, and
that the term 477 ``Initiative'' be used to describe the federal level
477 operations.
We believe the bill will resolve the disagreements that remain with
the agencies and improve the delivery of services to the tribes' client
community. We specifically support the following:
1. Reaffirming the intent of Congress's intent that Tribes and
tribal organizations with an approved 477 Plan may receive
their funds through P.L. 93-638 contracts and agreements.
2. Reaffirming that tribes may continue to use 477 funds on
allowable activities authorized pursuant to each Tribe's
approved 477 Plan, and to report and be audited based on the
Plan.
3. Reaffirming that Tribes and tribal organizations are not
required to maintain separate records tracking services or
activities conducted under an approved Plan back to individual
federal program sources, nor are they required to audit
expenditures by original program source. Congress should
reiterate that Single Agency Audit Act audits, which audit
funds on a consolidated basis, are sufficient to assure
accountability in the expenditure of these funds, as has long
been the case.
4. Reaffirming that federal program funds can be combined and
integrated in order to achieve the program goals set forth in
an approved 477 Plan.
The above provisions would ``permanently resolve'' the outstanding
disputes that have arisen between the 477 Tribes and the federal
agencies, and also ensure that issues that have been discussed and at
least partially resolved in the AFWG process do not return whenever
there is a change of administration.
Additionally, we suggest the 477 Act should be amended to address
timely approval of 477 Plans, regulation waivers and dispute
resolution, so that there are clear rules and a clear process to follow
for resolution of disagreements about the 477 Act. Finally, we suggest
that 477 be expanded to other employment, training and related programs
in other agencies.
Thank you for holding this hearing and providing the opportunity to
testify on S. 1474 and S. 1574.
We deeply appreciate the Committee's work and its long-standing
support for the 477 Initiative.
______
Prepared Statement of Hon. Bill John Baker, Principal Chief, Cherokee
Nation
Osiyo. My name is Bill John Baker, and I am honored to serve as
Principal Chief for the largest sovereign Indian Nation in the United
States, the great Cherokee Nation. Our more than 300,000 citizens live
in our jurisdiction in Oklahoma and across the country. Our tribe and
related business ventures employ more than 9,000 workers, and we are
proud of the opportunities we provide our people and the communities of
northeast Oklahoma. In FY 2012, the Cherokee Nation had a $1.33 billion
impact on the State of Oklahoma's economy.
The Cherokee Nation fully supports legislation to amend the Indian
Employment, Training and Related Services Demonstration Act of 1992
(P.L. 102-477). We have operated a P.L. 102-477 Plan since 2002 and
appreciate the flexibility opportunities P.L. 102-477 provides.
However, we believe it is time to make the demonstration project a
permanent program and to clarify Congressional intent in regards to the
flexibility offered under this law.
In FY 2012, the Cherokee Nation's P.L. 102-477 program provided
employment and training services to 355 individuals, over 66 percent of
them cash assistance recipients from such programs as TANF or BIA-
General Assistance. We also provided child care services for 3,040
children in 1,841 families, allowing their parents to work or attend
school when they might not have otherwise. Through our P.L. 102-477
program, we assisted 173 businesses and created 82 new jobs in mostly
rural areas.
Unfortunately, this proven demonstration project is endangered.
Federal agencies that are partners in the P.L. 102-477 project (the
Department of the Interior, the Department of Labor, the Department of
Health and Human Services, and the Office of Management and Budget) do
not recognize the most fundamental aspects of the law--the flexibility
to integrate programs into one comprehensive program in a manner
necessitated by local circumstances as determined by the tribal
government, and the ability to reallocate these funds according to an
approved 477 Plan.
Tribes have tried to resolve issues with their federal partners
since November 2011 through the Administrative Flexibility Workgroup.
Cherokee Nation had two staff members on the Workgroup, Vickie Hanvey,
Government Resources Administrator, and Kim Carroll, Career Services
Director of Grants and Compliance and P.L. 102-477 Tribal Workgroup
Executive Committee Secretary. Although much progress was made, the
tribal representatives and federal representatives on the Workgroup
were unable to come to agreement on the basic issues discussed below.
The federal partners have unilaterally published for comment a new
reporting system for the P.L. 102-477 program despite objections from
the tribal members of the Administrative Flexibility Workgroup. The
proposed new reporting system provides no benefit to the federal
agencies or their respective programs, and instills an increased
administrative burden on tribal programs, contrary to the intent of
P.L. 102-477. They refuse to acknowledge the ability of tribes to
integrate programs and funds under a 477 Plan and have set arbitrary
rules for tribes wishing to integrate programs into a 477 Plan,
effectively discouraging the expansion of the program.
Legislation to amend P.L. 102-477 can address these issues and
protect the integrity of the law. The Cherokee Nation supports S. 1574
because it:
Clarifies that tribes are not required to maintain separate
records tracing funds to individual federal programs, but are
allowed to integrate separate programs into one 477 program and
reallocate funds as needed to accomplish the goals and
objectives identified in their approved 477 Plan;
Makes P.L. 102-477 a permanent program;
Clarifies transfer of funds to tribes through contracts and
agreements pursuant to the Indian Self Determination and
Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA);
Clarifies that annual reporting should be based on each
tribe's approved 477 Plan and the accomplishment of their
stated goals and objectives; and
Expands the 477 program by insisting federal agencies
currently identified as partners (i.e., the Department of
Education, which has never participated as a partner)
participate in good faith and develop a mechanism for the
addition of other employment, training and related service
program to be included.
The Cherokee Nation believes P.L. 102-477 embodies the ideas of
self-governance and self-determination. It has proven successful for
over 20 years and demonstrates how tribes can effectively consolidate
limited funding to address the unique needs of their tribal members and
accomplish their individual tribal goals.
Thank you for the opportunity to present this written testimony in
support of S. 1574. I appreciate your consideration of my testimony and
your commitment to fostering self-sufficiency for Indian people.
______
Prepared Statement of Hon. Gregory E. Pyle, Chief, Choctaw Nation
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma supports legislation to amend the
Indian Employment, Training and Related Services Demonstration Act of
1992 (P.L. 102-477). We believe it is time to make this demonstration
project a permanent program and to clarify Congressional intent
regarding these programs.
Public Law 102-477, commonly known as the ``477 Program,''
authorizes tribal governments to consolidate up to thirteen different
programs from the Department of Interior, Department of Labor,
Department of Education, and Department of Health and Human Services
into a single plan, approved by the Secretary of the Interior. These
consolidated programs all foster employment and economic development in
Indian Country. P.L. 102-477 is still technically a ``demonstration
project,'' which has existed for over two decades, and there are
currently over 250 tribes that consolidate multiple programs into a
single 477 Plan. Tribes' success with these programs demonstrates why
this should become a permanent program, not just a demonstration
project.
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma has operated P.L. 102-477
programming since 2007. Our programming combines both WIA and higher
education. These programs have provided Choctaws job training and
assisted numerous businesses employing our tribal citizens. Some
program highlights are below:
Serve 1,600+ 14-21 year olds yearly through the summer youth
work experience
--Summer youth workers are placed in 1,400+ businesses annually.
This provides businesses with free summer help, and helps the
business contribute back to the community.
Assist 200+ adults annually with classroom and on-the-job
training.
5,000+ students served annually by higher education
scholarships and grants.
The 477 Program provides tribal governments with the flexibility to
design employment, training and economic development plans that utilize
funding from several federal programs to best meet the needs of their
local communities, while reducing administrative burden by streamlining
program, statistical, and financial reporting requirements. Tribes
operating under 477 Plans complete a single narrative, statistical, and
financial report based on their approved 477 Plan rather than
completing multiple reports for individual programs. This reduced
administrative burden allows for more time and money to be spent on
direct services rather than duplicative reporting requirements.
Tribes and Tribal organizations depend on the 477 Program to ensure
efficient use of federal funding for employment training, job
placement, childcare and related programs. It increases cooperation
between agencies, reduces administrative burden and maximizes federal
dollar where they are most needed.
Unfortunately, this proven demonstration project is endangered.
Actions proposed by DHHS and DOI have created extensive and expensive
duplications in implementation that conflict with congressional intent
in establishing the 477 Program. Federal agencies that partner in the
P.L. 102-477 project do not recognize the most fundamental aspects of
the law--the flexibility to integrate programs into one comprehensive
program in a manner necessitated by local circumstances as determined
by the tribal government, and the ability to reallocate these funds
according to an approved 477 Plan.
These challenges led to the formation of the so-called P.L. 102-477
Administrative Flexibility Work Group. Tribes have tried to resolve
issues with their federal partners since November 2011 through the
Administrative Flexibility Workgroup. Much progress has been made, but
the tribal representatives and federal representatives on the Workgroup
were unable to come to agreement on the basic issues discussed.
We question the need for the proposed changes. The current
reporting system is appropriate and satisfies all reporting
requirements. The proposed new reporting system provides no benefit to
the federal agencies or their respective programs, and instills an
increased administrative burden on tribal programs, contrary to the
intent of P.L. 102-477. Furthermore, this does not acknowledge the
ability of tribes to integrate programs and funds under a 477 Plan. It
also sets arbitrary rules for tribes wishing to integrate programs into
a 477 Plan, effectively discouraging the expansion of the program.
The Choctaw Nation supports S. 1574 because it allows legislation
to amend P.L. 102-477 and will address these issues to protect the
law's integrity.
The legislation clarifies that tribes are not required to maintain
separate records tracing funds to individual federal program, but are
allowed to integrate separate programs into one 477 program and
reallocate funds as needed to accomplish the goals and objectives
identified in their approved 477 Plans. It also clarifies the transfer
of funds to tribes through contracts and agreements pursuant to the
Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. Additionally,
it reinforces that annual reporting should be based on each tribe's
approved 477 plan and the accomplishment of their stated goals and
objectives. This legislation will also expand the 477 program by
insisting that federal agencies currently identified as partners
participate in good faith and develop a mechanism for the addition of
other employment, training and related service programs to be included.
The Choctaw Nation of Oklahoma fully supports legislation to amend
the Indian Employment, Training and Related Services Demonstration Act
of 1992 (P.L. 102-477). We believe it is time to make the demonstration
project a permanent program and to clarify Congressional intent in
regards to the flexibility offered under this law.
Thank you for this opportunity to address S. 1574.
______
Prepared Statement of Gloria O'Neill, CEO/President, Cook Inlet Tribal
Council
Chairman Tester and Members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to provide testimony on the proposed S. 1574. My name is
Gloria O'Neill and I am the Chief Executive Officer and President of
Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC), an Alaska Native tribal non-profit
organization which serves as the primary education and workforce
development center for Native people in Anchorage. CITC has been
designated tribal authority through Cook Inlet Region Inc., organized
through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and recognized under
Section 4(b) of the Indian Self-Determination Act and Education
Assistance Act, P.L. 93-638. CITC builds human capacity by partnering
with individuals to establish and achieve both educational and
employment goals that result in lasting, positive change for
themselves, their families, and their communities.
Demographics and Expanding Service Population
CITC's programs serve Alaska Native and American Indian people in
the Cook Inlet Region, which includes Alaska's most urbanized and
populated communities, and is home to an Alaska Native/American Indian
population of more than 40,000, approximately 40 percent of the Native
population of the state of Alaska. In Anchorage alone, the Native
population is approximately 22,000, about 20 percent of the total
Native population in the state. CITC's programs address many of the
social, economic, and educational challenges faced by Alaska Native
people. For example, Alaska Native students are twice as likely to drop
out as their non-Native peers; 33 percent of Alaska's unemployed are
Alaska Native people, and almost 20 percent of Alaska Native people
have incomes below the federal poverty line--nearly three times the
rate of non-Native people.
In-migration from rural, largely Alaska Native communities to the
urban areas in the Cook Inlet Region is accelerating as Alaska Native
people find it increasingly difficult to make a living in rural Alaska.
59 percent of CITC's participants have been in Anchorage for five years
or less; and employment, training, and education are frequently cited
as reasons for moving to Anchorage. In contrast, the current Bureau of
Indian Affairs funding formula for CITC is based on the population
figure of 14,569--from the 1990 Census--which leaves CITC with a
funding shortfall to meet the needs of the 40,000 Alaska Native and
American Indian people currently residing in our service region. CITC
is able to create and maintain successful programs, despite this
shortfall, due to flexibility granted by the 477 program that allows us
to leverage our existing funding and maximize efficiencies.
Public Law 102-477 is Essential to Effective Service Provision
The Indian Employment Training and Related Services Demonstration
Act, Pub. L. 102-477, as amended, 25 U.S.C. 3401-3417 (or the ``477
program''), currently administered by the Office of Indian Energy and
Economic Development in the Department of the Interior, provides a
critical foundation for maximizing the effectiveness of CITC's
programs. The law allows the consolidation of funding streams from the
U.S. Departments of Interior, Health and Human Services, and Labor into
a single education, employment and training program. The 477 program
enables flexibility on the part of the receiving organization to plan
the programming to best fit the needs of the community and minimize
administrative redundancy by merging reporting requirements, while
still adhering to the Government Performance Results Act's stringent
accountability standards. 267 tribes and tribal organizations operate
through 63 plans under the 477 program, making this a program of
national significance.
CITC 477 Programs
The 477 Program is essential to the success of our program as it
allows CITC to increase effectiveness and innovation, enhance
interoperability, and eliminate inefficiency while maximizing program
outcomes. CITC's Employment & Training Services Department (ETSD)
provides comprehensive services to assist Native job seekers, including
job training and placement, TANF, and child care. CITC's employment and
training programs are based on the premise that effective solutions to
workforce development require integrated approaches to ensuring job
readiness, training, and placement. By working closely with state and
federal programs, community and tribal non-profits, universities,
vocational training centers, employers, and Native corporations, CITC
is able to provide a wide array of training and employment assistance,
coupled with supportive services, to help overcome many barriers to
employment and self-sufficiency for our people.
CITC is the sole provider of Tribal TANF in Anchorage, a key
component of our 477 program. Our TANF program is built on an
integrated service model that connects participants to the range of
programs offered throughout CITC's departments. Through our integrated
service model, CITC has reduced caseloads as well as effectively
implemented TANF prevention. This is precisely the type of innovation
and interoperability that would be impossible without the flexibility
provided by the 477 program.
Furthermore, efficiencies gained within the TANF program resulted
in a 5-year savings of $8.4 million--savings that have been re-invested
in supportive services and programs going directly to TANF
participants. 477 allows Tribes and Tribal entities (e.g. CITC) to
administer federally funded employment and job training programs as a
single program, with a single budget and single set of reporting
requirement. CITC relies on the 477 program to provide our people more
effective and integrated services while reducing costly administrative
redundancy.
Over the Past 5 Years CITC 477-supported Programs Have:
Provided 8,989 job seekers with career exploration, training
and job search assistance; 4,671 (52 percent) of these
individuals were placed in jobs. The average hourly wage (AHW)
of a job seeker coming to CITC for services increased by $6.66
per hour.
Transitioned over 2100 TANF recipients from welfare to work,
entering with no job experience or income, and leaving with an
AHW of $11.53.
Provided training opportunities and job placement in
critical employment sectors, including: Customer Service/Retail
Management (AHW $11.01); Driver's Education (AHW $14.16) and
CDL Driver's Certification (AHW $16); Weatherization Training
(AHW $14.77-$22.15); Healthcare: CNA, LPN, RN, Medical Coding
(AHW $13.79).
CITC has demonstrated that the 477 program is very successful in
connecting people to long term, meaningful jobs. In short, the 477
program is a ``win-win'' for the federal funders and CITC, since it
eliminates wasteful inefficiency while maximizing program outcomes. In
addition to being successful on the ground, the 477 program is fully
accountable. It achieved the highest Office of Management and Budget
PART (Program Assessment Rating Tool) rating in Indian Affairs. The 477
program is critical to our effectiveness, especially in this
environment of shrinking funding sources.
Similarly, the 477 program on a national level has excellent
results. These programs provide tribes and tribal organizations the
ability to leverage their federal job training and job placement
funding for DOI, HHS and DOL--including TANF, Childcare other programs.
As a result, the 2012 477 national report shows that tribal programs
served almost 44,000 people, of whom over 99 percent completed their
education or employment objectives. More importantly, of those who
obtained employment: (1) Adults gained $7 per hour over their previous
hourly wage; (2) Youth gained $6.80 per hour over their previous hourly
wage; and (3) people on cash assistance gained $5 per hour over their
previous hourly wage. As you can see, the 477 program is critical to
our effectiveness, especially in this environment of shrinking funding
sources.
Support for 477
In 2011 and again in 2012, the Tribes sought assistance from the
House and Senate Appropriations Committees regarding two problematic
changes the agencies proposed to the administration of the 477 program
that would significantly undermine its success: (1) ending the practice
of transferring 477 program funds to participating Tribes and Tribal
organizations through P.L. 93-638 contracts or SelfGovernance
agreements, as authorized by the Indian Self-Determination and
Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA); and (2) a new requirement that 477
Tribes and Tribal organizations report their 477 expenditures
separately by funding source number for audit purposes.
The federal agencies and 477 Tribes agreed to try to resolve their
differences over these issues, which led to the formation of the P.L.
102-477 Administrative Flexibility Work Group. This group met almost
weekly for 18 months and included policy and program representatives
from the Departments of the Interior (DOI), which administers the 477
program, Health and Human Services (HHS), Labor (DOL) and the Office of
Management and Budget (OMB), as well as representatives from 10
affected Tribes and Tribal organizations. In the meantime, the agencies
agreed to temporarily allow funds to continue to be transferred through
ISDEAA and have suspended the reporting requirements instituted in the
March 2009 OMB Circular.
The House/Senate Appropriations conferees on the FY 2013 Interior
Appropriations bill instructed the federal agencies to continue to
engage in consultations with the 477 Tribes and Tribal organizations to
reach consensus on the transfer and reporting of funds administered by
Tribes through program plans adopted by Tribes and approved by the
Department of the Interior under the 477 program.
The Work Group has had some successes: (1) effectively
collaboration on interim OMB circular language that has kept the status
quo while discussions continue; (2) new draft 477 program guidelines
for the agencies in reviewing tribal plan proposals; (3) certain
components of the draft narrative, statistical and financial reporting;
(4) representatives agreed that 477 funds would be transferred through
P.L. 93-638 contract(s) or Self-Governance funding agreement(s); and
(5) agreement that funds in a 477 Plan were eligible for use for
economic development. However, in spite of this progress, it has become
clear that the agencies continue to question one of the fundamental
purposes of the 477 program--to allow tribes and tribal organizations
to re-budget and reallocate their funds within their approved 477
program in order to address local issues and programmatic needs in the
most effective manner. From our perspective, this authority for and
responsibility of tribes to meet their own needs is exactly the point
and strength of the 477 program. It is precisely this flexibility that
has allowed us to be so successful.
Given this disagreement of fundamental principle, we urge the
expeditious review and mark-up of S. 1574, which lays the groundwork to
resolve these issues and achieve long term workforce development goals
for which the Tribes and tribal organizations have been working. This
is particularly important because the federal agencies are moving
forward with reporting guidelines that will dramatically alter the way
that Tribes and tribal organizations have been successfully managing
their programs for over two decades. The Tribes and tribal
organizations have consistently argued for the status quo:
1. reporting in aggregate and not by fund source;
2. tribal authority to re-budget and reallocate funds as
specified in an approved Plan;
3. implementation that does not require Tribes to create or
maintain new or additional records or to incur new
administrative costs;
4. accountability against the requirements of the Plan;
5. continued funding through self-determination contracts and
compacts that allows for contract support costs only for funds
that qualify for contract support costs; and
6. permanent elimination of any OMB requirement to do
supplemental accounting by fund source.
During the course of the negotiations with the federal agencies
over the past two years, the use of the word ``program'' in the 477
context has surfaced as an area of confusion and disagreement. To clear
up the terminology, we propose using the term ``Initiative'' for the
federal program operated by the Department of Interior, using the term
``Plan'' for tribal operations under the 477 law, and using the term
``program'' for the federal programs constituting the components of
each Tribe's or tribal organization's Plan. This clarification would
help to resolve disagreement over interpretation of the law that has
arisen recently.
Therefore, we urge that the legislation reaffirm Congress' intent
that Tribes and tribal organizations operating consolidated programs
under the Act through an approved Plan continue to receive funds
through contracts and compacts awarded under the Indian Self-
Determination Act, and use those 477 funs on allowable activities
authorized under each Tribe's approved Plan. We urge that Congress also
reaffirm its original intent that Tribes and tribal organizations are
not required to keep separate records tracing services, activities or
funding back to original program source, and that the Single Agency
Audit Act audits continue to be sufficient to ensure accountability in
the expenditure of those funds. Thirdly, we urge that the legislation
eliminates any ambiguity that federal program funds can be combined and
integrated in order to achieve the program goals set forth in an
approved 477 Plan. Finally, the 2000 amendment to 477 added the
authority to allocate funds in an approved 477 Plan to directly support
economic development and job creation, and we urge that S. 1574
reaffirm that very important and successful opportunity. These
provisions will permanently resolve the issues that the federal
agencies and tribes have attempted to resolve and will ensure that the
spirit and intent of the original 477 Act, so successful for over two
decades, will continue and be implemented consistently regardless of
administrative shifts moving forward.
In addition, the experience of the last two decades has resulted in
several goals for enhancing work force development in Indian Country
that S. 1574 can also address, including (1) a mechanism to identify
eligible employment, training and related social service programs from
other federal agencies which Tribes and tribal organizations might
include to increase outcomes in their Plans; (2) expand the 477
Initiative to include a wider range of departmental and agency funds,
including competitive, formula and designated funds as well as block
grants; (3) amendments to ensure timely approval of 477 Plans,
regulation waivers and dispute resolution and (4) options for Tribes
and tribal organizations to use their negotiated indirect cost rate,
rather than applying separate administrative caps to each funding
source.
Conclusion
Mr. Chairman, as a 477 Tribal organization, CITC is grateful for
this Committee's interest in and support for the 477 program. This
program is essential to our ability to meet the needs of our people in
innovative and efficient ways that allow us to provide wrap around
services designed on a model of integration and maximum efficiency,
leveraging funds and human resources to make the greatest impact for
our people. We agree that the time is right for specific legislative
authorization as provided above, which will make this innovative
program permanent, expand the types and sources of funding eligible to
be included in a 477 plan, to establish protective review procedures
and address new issues that have only arisen in response to agency
resistance to tribal self-determination. The legislation will also
ensure that the spirit, the letter and the opportunities of the P.L.
102-477 law will provide for the next century's success in meeting the
employment and training needs of Alaska Native and American Indian
people across the country.
Thank you for your time and consideration.
Supplementary Testimony by Gloria O'Neill
Chairman Tester and Members of the Committee, thank you for the
opportunity to provide supplemental testimony on the proposed S. 1574
on behalf of Cook Inlet Tribal Council (CITC), an Alaska Native tribal
non-profit organization which serves as the primary education and
workforce development center for Native people in Anchorage. CITC has
been designated tribal authority through Cook Inlet Region Inc.,
organized through the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and
recognized under Section 4(b) of the Indian Self-Determination Act and
Education Assistance Act, P.L. 93-638.
Testimony from Kevin Washburn and Lillian Sparks Robinson on behalf
of the Departments of Interior and Health and Human Services,
respectively, demonstrates exactly why amendments to the current
statute are necessary to make this innovative program permanent, expand
the types and sources of funding eligible to be included in a 477 plan,
to establish protective review procedures and address new issues that
have only arisen in response to agency resistance to tribal self-
determination. The legislation is also necessary to ensure that the
spirit, the letter and the opportunities of the P.L. 102-477 law will
provide for the next century's success in meeting the employment and
training needs of Alaska Native and American Indian people across the
country.
We appreciate the Department of the Interior's support for 477 and
for this legislation, and its candor in identifying areas of concern.
We look forward to working with the Committee to address what questions
remain to guarantee that the way in which the 477 Initiative has worked
in terms of operating on one plan, one budget and one report for the
last twenty-plus years to continue to offer the success of employment
and training and lifelong sustainability in Indian country. Three
statements in Mr. Washburn's testimony require clarification: First, we
do not agree that the financial reporting system developed by the
Administrative Flexibility Work Group (AFWG) is ``simplified,'' because
the current system of reporting and the dictates of the Single Audit
Act are more simple than the proposal and more than adequate to cover
both accountability and the streamlined, simple process contemplated by
the statute. Secondly, while we agree that the 477 plan approval
process has improved in the recent past, an articulated legislative
structure will ensure that changes in administration in the future do
not undermine the accomplishments of the last two years. Finally, the
section in the proposed legislation that ``would prohibit a Tribe or
tribal organization from being required to submit any additional
budget, report, audit or supplemental audit or other documentation
after its plan is approved'' is necessary precisely to clarify that
Congress does not intend multiple reports as part of the elegant
success that has operated so successfully for over two decades.
We also appreciate the Department of Health and Human Services'
willingness to participate in the lengthy conversations and meetings
over the duration of the AFWG, and the leadership within the Department
that looked for ways in which the HHS programs could support the
flexibility and successes of the 477 Initiative across the nation. The
AFWG did indeed ``identify. . .flexibilities within the law that allow
tribes to consolidate. . .477 funds for the purpose of supporting
economic development'' and strengthened the relationships both between
the tribes and the federal agencies, as well as between the agencies
participating in the program. However, the Department's testimony
contains several statements that require response and clarification.
First, the federal agencies made the decision to submit the reporting
forms and instructions for the review process and notified the tribal
representatives of this course of action at the January 2014 meeting.
Secondly, tribal representatives on the AFWG never advocated that the
contract support cost provisions of the Indian Self-Determination and
Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) accrued to Tribes as a product of
utilizing the contracts and compacts under ISDEAA as the vehicle by
which 477 funds were distributed to Tribes and tribal organizations. On
the contrary, tribal representatives specifically stated and assured
that only the contract support costs to which Tribes and tribal
organizations were already entitled under the Department of Interior
programs were retained under their agreements. Other attributes of
contracting, such as using matching funds to match other federal
programs, have been part of the 638 contract process; however, this
disagreement in interpretation of the law shows one area that needs to
be clarified by legislation. Third, the tribal representatives asserted
that the 477 Initiative already authorizes the ability to re-budget and
re-program within an already approved Plan, contrary to the agencies'
interpretation of the law. Finally, the legislation does not remove the
requirement for any report or audit--for over twenty years, Tribes and
tribal organizations have provided in-depth reports of the activities
and outcomes of the funds they manage under the 477 Initiative, and 477
received the highest OMB PART rating in Indian Country. Accountability
to the public for the funds placed in the Tribes' and tribal
organizations' trust has a proven track record. The current reporting
system has ensured that accountability. Clarifying these disagreements
is a primary goal of the legislation before this Committee.
Particular response is necessary for the testimony related to the
purpose of the ISDEAA and the reference to Navajo Nation v. Department
of Health and Human Services. In October 2008 DOI and HHS announced
that they would end the practice of transferring 477 Program funds to
participating tribes through agreements under ISDEAA. As a basis for
the action the agencies cited the court's ruling in Navajo Nation v.
Department of Health and Human Services, 325 F.3d 1133 (9th Cir. 2003),
a case that did not involve the administration of the 477 Program. In
that case the court held that an Indian tribe could not administer TANF
under a 638 contract. The court did not address the administration of
TANF under 477. The court simply concluded that TANF is not a
contractible program under the ISDEAA because it is (1) not a program
or service ``otherwise provided'' to Indians under federal law, 25
U.S.C. 450b(j), and (2) not a program ``for the benefit of Indians
because of their status as Indians,'' 25 U.S.C. 450f(a)(1)(E).
There is an enormous difference between being compelled under the
ISDEAA to contract the TANF program, and choosing to transfer TANF 477
funds through such contracts. For over 20 years HHS has transferred 477
funds in this manner--not because the ISDEAA mandated it but because
doing so made sense and was not prohibited by law. The 477 Tribes have
consistently argued that 477 plans can be funded through the ISDEAA,
and that the Navajo Nation case in particular does not bar the fund
transfers currently implemented for the Program. The relevant law is
the 477 Act, administered by the BIA, not the numerous and varied
agency programs (such as TANF) that can be integrated into a tribal 477
Plan. In fact, the Act provides for administration of the program
through the Department of the Interior, including transfer of HHS and
DOL agency program funds to the BIA, which then transfers the funds to
the tribes.
The key to understanding the 477 Act is that the 477 Act is
administered by the Department of the Interior under the Secretary of
the Interior. The Secretary of the Interior has the authority to
approve or disapprove a tribal plan, which must be done within 90 days
of submittal. 25 U.S.C. 3407. The Act provides for the Secretary of
the Interior to ``cooperate'' with and ``consult'' with other affected
agency Secretaries, \1\ but it is the Secretary of the Interior who
``shall, upon receipt of a plan acceptable to the Secretary of the
Interior submitted by an Indian tribal government, authorize the tribal
government to coordinate, in accordance with such plan, its federally
funded employment, training, and related service programs in a manner
that integrates the program services involved into a single,
coordinated, comprehensive program and reduces administrative costs by
consolidating administrative functions.'' 25 U.S.C. 3403 (emphasis
added).
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\1\ See 25 U.S.C. 3403 (integration of services authorized) and
3406 (plan review).
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Moreover, the 477 Program is an Interior ``program, service,
function or activity'' that is available to tribes with consolidated
funds from Interior and appropriations from other agencies. The federal
programs that may be integrated into a tribal 477 Plan ``include any
program under which an Indian tribe is eligible for receipt of funds
under a statutory or administrative formula for the purpose of
assisting Indian youth and adults to succeed in the work force,
encouraging self-sufficiency, familiarizing Indian youth and adults
with the world of work, facilitating the creation of job opportunities
and any services related to these activities.'' 25 U.S.C. 3404
(emphasis added).
The 477 Act thus fits the Navajo Nation Court's criteria that
ISDEAA-eligible programs are those ``specifically targeted to
Indians.'' The 477 Program is one provided for tribes by virtue of
their status as Indians because only tribes can take advantage of it.
Its targeted purpose is to facilitate employment opportunities for
Indian youth and adults, as well as to encourage tribal self-
sufficiency consistent with self-determination principles.
The fact that HHS has again raised this issue further identifies
the need for amendments to the current law. First of all, as described
above, the Navajo Nation case does not apply to funds transferred from
the Department of Interior under the 477 Initiative. Secondly, all
three HHS programs currently participating in the 477 Initiative are
``tribal'' programs: ``Tribal TANF,'' ``Tribal Child Care,'' and
``Native Employment Works.'' Finally, Congress has the authority to
authorize the fund transfer mechanism under the ISDEAA if necessary,
and as proposed in S. 1574.
Conclusion
As a 477 Tribal organization and a constant member of the
Administrative Flexibility Work Group, CITC is grateful for the work
that the federal agencies put into improving relations and operations
of the 477 Initiative. We appreciate the opportunity to address
particular points raised in their testimony before this Committee, and
to further articulate the necessity for clarifying why S. 1574 is so
important to the continued success of the 477 Initiative to improve the
lives of American Indian and Alaska Native people throughout the
country. This program is essential to our ability to meet the needs of
our people in innovative and efficient ways that allow us to provide
wrap around services designed on a model of integration and maximum
efficiency, leveraging funds and human resources to make the greatest
impact for our people. Immediate markup and passage of S. 1574 will
assure the realization of the 477 Initiative's potential now and into
the future.
______
Prepared Statement of Rhonda Pitka, Chairwoman, Council of Athabascan
Tribal Governments (CATG)
The Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments (CATG), a tribal
consortium of ten Athabascan Indian Villages in the Yukon Flats,
Alaska, is pleased to submit this statement in support of S. 1570,
legislation to authorize advance appropriations for the Indian Health
Service (IHS). We thank Senators Murkowski and Begich for introducing
this legislation.
Our region encompasses a large amount of federal public lands
including all of the Yukon Flats National Wildlife Refuge and portions
of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Gwich'in Athabascan Indian
population of Alaska, occupies about 55,000 square miles in the
Northern Interior of Alaska on the Yukon River drainage--this is 11,000
square miles larger than the state of Pennsylvania. The villages are
scattered over the vast valley called the Yukon Flats--half of them
above the Arctic Circle.
The Council of Athabascan Tribal Governments provides essential
services to our member villages, including health care, natural
resource protection and enhancement, and economic development
opportunities. We focus on utilization of our own people's knowledge
and talents to make better lives for ourselves through assumption of
activities previously done only by outsiders and have Self-Governance
agreements with the Indian Health Service, the Bureau of Indian Affairs
and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
The Yukon Flats Health Center provides primary health care, dental,
diagnostic, behavioral health, radiology, telemedicine consultation,
diabetic and medical travel assistance services. We have clinics in
Arctic Village, Beaver, Birch Creek, Fort Yukon, and Venetie and a
Community Health Aide Program. Our dental team travels one week out of
the month to each of the CATG villages.
S. 1570, Advance Appropriations for the Indian Health Service. The
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is well aware of the frustrations
and inefficiencies caused by funding the Indian Health Service and
other federal agencies via a series of start and stop Continuing
Resolutions and final funding decisions being made months into the
fiscal year. We are grateful to the Alaska delegation--Senators Begich
and Murkowski and Representative Young--for taking the leadership in
addressing the IHS portion of the problem by introducing legislation
that would authorize advance appropriations for the IHS.
The current (FY 2014) fiscal year funding was enacted 3 \1/2\
months after the beginning of the fiscal year; in FY 2013 enactment was
6 months into the fiscal year. And following enactment, there is a
couple month process of clearance through the agency and the Office of
Management and Budget and then allotment to the Area Offices and
finally to the tribes. Both the tribal and IHS programs suffer under
this situation. It is no way to run a railroad. Tribal government and
tribal health care employees want to do the best job possible in
planning, decisionmaking and administering programs but are limited by
not knowing how much funding will be available or when it will be
available. It also requires constant re-working of our budget, time we
would much rather devote to providing health care services. Especially
affected are recruiting and hiring decisions.
Congress has provided the authority for the Veterans Administration
medical accounts funding (over $50 billion) to be appropriated on an
advance basis. In the first year of an advance appropriations schedule
Congress appropriates two years of funding, and thereafter funds are
appropriated one year at a time, but one year in advance. So even if
there are Continuing Resolutions, the IHS budget--if it were advance
appropriated--would not be affected by them. The Appropriations
Subcommittees on Interior, Environment and Related Agencies would not
have their spending caps affected by advance appropriations as it
counts against the Subcommittee's caps only in the year for which it is
authorized to be obligated. Admittedly there would be a transition
phase with regard to consultation, but that is doable and well worth
the effort. We are already consulting with the IHS on the FY 2016
budget in any event.
The fact that Congress in 2010 enacted legislation (P.L. 111-81) to
authorize advance appropriations for the Veterans Administration
medical programs and that the Appropriations committees provided such
funding is a compelling argument for tribes and tribal organizations to
be given equivalent status with regard to IHS. Both systems provide
direct medical care and both are the result of federal policies.
Veterans organizations were alarmed at the impact of delayed and
sporadic funding for veterans health services and led the charge for
Congress to provide advance appropriations, and now tribes and tribal
organizations are doing the same with regard to the IHS budget. We
thank the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs for holding this hearing
on legislation to authorize advance appropriations for the Indian
Health Service and ask you to do everything possible to make the actual
provision of advance appropriations a reality.
Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of Robert TwoBears, Representative, Ho-Chunk Nation
Introduction
Chairman Tester, Vice Chairman Barrasso and members of the
Committee, I am pleased to submit this written statement on behalf of
the Ho-Chunk Nation of Wisconsin (``Nation'') and its ``477'' Federal
Program Division in support of the Indian Employment, Training and
Related Services Consolidation Act (S. 1574).
My name is Robert TwoBears, and I serve in the Nation's
Legislature. The Nation, also known as ``People of the Big Voice,'' has
a tribal enrollment of 7,200 members and our tribal headquarters is
located in Black River Falls, Wisconsin. The Nation's lands are
scattered across twelve counties in Wisconsin, Minnesota and Illinois.
Thank you for the opportunity to submit written testimony for the
Committee's consideration as it considers S. 1574. I also want to thank
Senator Murkowski for taking the lead in developing and introducing the
necessary changes to Pub.L. 102-477 (the Act of the ``477'' program)
contained in S. 1574.
Summary of the Nation's ``477'' Federal Program Division
The ``477'' program was launched in 1992 and authorized Indian
tribes and tribal consortia to reach across the entire spectrum of
federal employment training and related programs and administer them as
a single, consolidated program. Using the ``477'' program, tribes are
able to combine funding from thirteen programs from various
departments, including Interior, Labor, and Health and Human Services
into a single employment and training program for their members.
The ``477'' program does not carry with it administrative or
overhead funding, but it does enable them to reduce administrative,
accounting, and reporting burdens and costs, and tailor employment and
training programs to the needs of their local populations. Training
without the prospect of a job does not help many people.
To help tribes and consortia bridge the gap between employment
training and job placement, Congress, in 2000, made the Act permanent
and amended it to authorize the use of ``477'' funding for job creation
activities such as development of business plans by individual
entrepreneurs.
Since 2001, the Nation's ``477'' program has provided employment
services to enhance the Nation's tribal members' job skills by
assisting them in becoming self-sufficient and providing workplace
safety programs. On average, our program serves 294 clients each year.
For instance, the program provides employability assessments combined
with goal and objective planning and referral services.
It also carries out training and classes to enable participants
with little or no work experience to become ``Job Ready,'' thereby
improving their chances of securing good-paying jobs. In addition, the
program serves at-risk youth and helps them obtain their GED/HSED
through a vocational experience program. The program works
cooperatively with the Nation's Tribal Employment Rights Ordinance
(TERO) Division to maximize job opportunities to tribal members by
utilizing TERO case managers to conduct program intake and assessments.
Recently-offered classes provided by the program include Cost
Accounting, Economics, Powered Industrial Truck, Welding Certification,
Roofing, Computer Graphic Design, Resume Writing, Certified Nurse Aide,
CDL Training, Paralegal Prep, Grants Writing, Security, Cement
Finishers Pre-Apprenticeship, and Real Estate Law, to name a few.
Ho-Chunk Nation's Success and Need for Congressional Action
In recent years, a turn-over in program directors has slowed the
program's progress. However, with a new program director now in place,
services to tribal members are stabilizing and making real progress.
Last year, 99 out of 141 participants received training from the
program and secured gainful employment. While our ``477'' program is
improving, the Nation's unemployment rate remains high at 31.6 percent.
In addition, the lack of a driver's license for tribal clients is one
of the single largest barriers to employment for our clients, and one
of the most difficult to overcome.
While the 1992 Act and amendments made in 2000 are valuable tools
for tribal participants, the ``477'' program can be improved upon. We
see S.1574 as providing much-needed statutory clarifications and
program expansions to assist tribes across the country with their
never-ending need for training and job placement.
The Indian Employment, Training and Related Services Consolidation Act
(S. 1574)
Given the success of the Nation's ``477'' program, we strongly
support provisions of the Indian Employment, Training and Related
Services Consolidation Act (S. 1574).
If enacted, this legislation would broaden the kind of programs and
funding that can be combined into a single plan to include job
training, welfare-to-work, job opportunities, skill development, Indian
youth into the workplace, and the creation of opportunities.
S. 1574 would also establish an interagency dispute resolution
process, set deadlines for plan approval, grant tribes and Indian
organizations hearing and appeal rights if the plan is not approved,
reaffirm the current single agency audit process, and augment authority
in the Act to use funds to support direct economic development and job
creation.
We respectfully urge swift consideration of S. 1574 by the
Committee so that it can be considered by the full Senate.
______
Prepared Statement of Timothy Schuerch, President/CEO, Maniilaq
Association
The Maniilaq Association is an Alaska Native regional non-profit
organization representing twelve tribes in Northwest Alaska, providing
health services through an Indian Self-Determination Act Self-
Governance agreement with the Indian Health Service (IHS). We have been
active for some time in advocating for legislation that would bring
stability and certainty to the Indian Health Service budget by changing
its funding to an advance appropriations basis, and thus we support S.
1570, legislation that would make this possible. This is what Congress
has done with regard to the Veterans Administration medical accounts,
and we ask for comparable treatment with regard to the IHS. We prepared
in 2012 a white paper on the issue of IHS advance appropriations and
attach it.
We are so proud and thankful to our Alaska delegation--Senators
Murkowski and Begich and Representative Young for introducing
legislation, S. 1570 and H.R. 3229, to authorize advance appropriations
for the IHS. And we thank Senate Committee Chairman Tester (D-MT) and
Committee members Schatz (D-HI) and Udall (D-NM) along with Senator
Heinrich (D-NM) and former Senator Baucus (D-MT) for cosponsoring S.
1570.
There is momentum in Indian Country in recognizing and supporting
advance appropriations for the IHS and point to resolutions in support
of it by the National Indian Health Board, National Congress of
American Indians, United South and Eastern Tribes and a steadily
increasing number of individual tribes enacting supportive resolutions.
The Need for Indian Health Service Advance Appropriation
The Federal health services to maintain and improve the health of
American Indians and Alaska Natives are consonant with and required by
the Federal Government's historical and unique legal relationship with,
and resulting responsibility to, the American Indian and Alaska Native
people. Since FY 1998 there has been only one year (FY 2006) when the
Interior, Environment and Related Agencies appropriations bill has been
enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year. The lateness in enacting a
final budget during that time ranges from 5 days (FY 2002) to 197 days
(FY 2011). In the last four fiscal years, the IHS appropriations have
been signed into law far beyond the beginning of the fiscal year by--
197 days late for FY 2011; 84 days late for FY 2012; 178 days late for
FY 2013 and 109 days late for FY 2014.
Even after enactment of an appropriations bill, there is an
apportionment process involving the Office of Management and Budget and
then a process within the IHS for allocation of funds to the IHS Area
Offices and then to the tribes and tribal organizations.
Late funding causes the IHS and tribal health care providers great
challenges in planning and managing care for American Indians and
Alaska Natives. It significantly hampers tribal and IHS health care
providers' budgeting, recruitment, retention, provision of services,
facility maintenance and construction efforts. Receipt of funds late
also severely impacts Maniilaq's ability to invest the funds and
generate interest which can be used to offset the chronic underfunding
of the region's health programs. Providing sufficient, timely, and
predictable funding is needed to ensure the Government meets its
obligation to provide health care for American Indian and Alaska Native
people.
In the case of the Maniilaq Association, we draft our budget for
the coming fiscal year in the Spring--a budget which must be reviewed,
amended, and approved during the ensuing months. However, if we find
out that come October, as has been the case for far too many years,
that Congress has not enacted an IHS appropriations bill, we are in
limbo and must spend considerable staff time re-doing our budget,
perhaps multiple times. We--and all tribes and tribal organizations--
are hampered by the uncertainty as to whether Congress will provide
funding for built-in costs, including inflation and pay increases, what
amount of funding we might have with regard to signing outside vendor/
and or medical services contracts, ordering supplies, and making
crucial hiring decisions.
Advance Appropriations Explanation
As you know, an advance appropriation is funding that becomes
available one year or more after the year of the appropriations act in
which it is contained. For instance, if FY 2016 advance appropriations
for the IHS were included in the FY 2015 Interior, Environment and
Related Agencies Appropriations Act, those advance appropriations would
not be counted against the FY 2015 Interior Appropriations
Subcommittee's funding allocation but rather would be counted against
its FY 2016 allocation. It would also be counted against the ceiling in
the FY 2016 Budget Resolution, not the FY 2015 Budget Resolution.
To begin an advanced appropriations cycle there must be an initial
transition appropriation which contains (1) an appropriation for the
year in which the bill was enacted (for instance, FY 2015) and (2) an
advance appropriation for the following year (FY 2016). Thereafter,
Congress can revert to appropriations containing only one year advance
funding. If IHS funding was on an advance appropriations cycle, tribal
health care providers, as well as the IHS, would know the funding a
year earlier than is currently the case and would not be subject to
Continuing Resolutions. We note that advance appropriations are subject
to across-the-board reductions.
The Veterans Administration Experience
In FY 2010 the Veterans Administration (VA) medical care programs
achieved advance appropriations. This came after many years of
veterans' organizations advocating for this change, including enactment
of the Veterans Health Care Budget Reform and Transparency Act of 2009
(PL 111-81) which authorized advance appropriations and specified which
appropriations accounts are to be eligible for advance appropriations.
The Act required the Secretary to include in documents submitted to
Congress in support of the President's budget detailed estimates of the
funds necessary for the medical care accounts of the Department for the
fiscal year following the fiscal year for which the budget is
submitted.
The fact that Congress has implemented advance appropriations for
the VA medical programs provides a compelling argument for tribes and
tribal organizations to be given equivalent status with regard to IHS
funding. Both systems provide direct medical care and both are the
result of federal policies. Just as the veterans groups were alarmed at
the impact of delayed funding upon the provision of health care to
veterans and the ability of the VA to properly plan and manage its
resources, tribes and tribal organizations have those concerns about
the IHS health system. We also note that there is legislation (H.R.
813) pending in this Congress that would expand advance appropriations
to the VA beyond its medical accounts.
We thus request this Committee's active support for any legislation
that may be needed to authorize IHS advance appropriations, to protect
such funding from a point of order in the Budget Resolution, and to
appropriate the necessary funds.
Attachment
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
______
Prepared Statement of Cathy Abramson, Chairperson, National Indian
Health Board (NIHB)
Chairman Tester, Vice Chairman Barrasso, and Members of the
Committee, thank you for holding this important hearing on the proposed
legislation. All of these proposed bills address issues of paramount
importance to Indian Country and we sincerely appreciate the attention
that this committee has given to the discussion of these key concerns.
On behalf of the National Indian Health Board (NIHB) \1\ and the 566
federally recognized Tribes we serve, I submit this testimony for the
record, specifically addressing S. 1570--Indian Health Service Advance
Appropriations Act.
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\1\ The National Health Board (NIHB) is a 501(c) 3 not for profit,
charitable organization providing health care advocacy services,
facilitating Tribal budget consultation and providing timely
information and other services to all Tribal Governments. Whether
Tribes operate their own health care delivery systems through
contracting and compacting or receive health care directly from the
Indian Health Services (IHS), NIHB is their advocate. Because the NIHB
serves all federally-recognized tribes, it is important that the work
of the NIHB reflect the unity and diversity of Tribal values and
opinions in an accurate, fair, and culturally-sensitive manner. The
NIHB is governed by a Board of Directors consisting of representatives
elected by the Tribes in each of the twelve IHS Areas. Each Area Health
Board elects a representative and an alternate to sit on the NIHB Board
of Directors.
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First, I would like to emphasize the importance of the Federal
Trust responsibility, when it comes to the health of American Indian/
Alaska Native (AI/AN) people. The United States assumed this
responsibility in a series of treaties with Tribes, exchanging
compensation and benefits for Tribal land and peace. The Snyder Act of
1921 (25 U.S.C. 13) legislatively affirmed this trust responsibility.
To facilitate upholding its responsibility, the federal government
created the Indian Health Service (IHS) and tasked the agency with
providing health services to AI/ANs. Since its creation in 1955, IHS
has worked toward fulfilling the federal promise to provide health care
to Native people. In passing the Affordable Care Act, Congress also
reauthorized and made permanent the Indian Health Care Improvement Act
(IHCIA). In renewing the IHCIA, Congress reaffirmed the duty of the
federal government to American Indians and Alaska Natives, declaring
that ``it is the policy of this Nation, in fulfillment of its special
trust responsibilities and legal obligations to Indians--to ensure the
highest possible health status for Indians and urban Indians and to
provide all resources necessary to effect that policy.''
Despite this responsibility, AI/ANs still experience greater health
disparities than other races. For instance, the AI/AN life expectancy
is 4.2 years less than the rate for the U.S. all races population.
According to IHS data from 2006-2008, AI/AN people die at higher rates
than other Americans from chronic liver disease and cirrhosis (368
percent higher), diabetes (177 percent higher), unintentional injuries
(138 percent higher), homicide (82 percent higher) and suicide (65
percent higher). Additionally, AI/ANs suffer from higher mortality
rates from cervical cancer (1.2 times higher); pneumonia/influenza (1.4
times higher); and maternal deaths (1.4 times higher).
Sadly, these statistics have become all too familiar in our
communities. IHS is currently funded at only 59 percent of total need.
In 2013, the IHS per capita expenditures for patient health services
were just $2,849, compared to $7,717 per person for health care
spending nationally. Medicare spending per patient was over $12,000 and
Medicaid spending was over $6,000/per person. Clearly, the federal
government is not doing a good job of fulfilling its legal and moral
obligations to Indian Country. Additionally, Medicare and Medicaid are
mandatory spending accounts, meaning that the health delivery to these
groups is known well in advance of the actual care needed.
This is why the NIHB strongly supports S. 1570--The Indian Health
Service Advance Appropriations Act and the House companion bill H.R.
3229. While S. 1570 will not solve the severe lack of funding that the
agency experiences, advance appropriations would allow IHS/Tribal and
urban (I/T/U) health programs to effectively and efficiently manage
budgets, coordinate care, and improve health quality outcomes for AI/
ANs. This change in the appropriations schedule creates an opportunity
for the federal government to come closer to meeting the trust
obligation owed to Tribal governments and bring parity to federal
health care system by brining IHS in line with other federal health
programs.
Funding Delays and Impact on Care
Since FY 1998, there has been only one year (FY 2006) when the
Interior, Environment, and Related Agencies budget, which contains the
funding for IHS, has been enacted by the beginning of the fiscal year.
The lateness in enacting a final budget during that time ranges from 5
days (FY 2002) to 197 days (FY 2011). In FY 2014, there was a 108 day
delay on the enactment but it was 140 days before the FY 2014 operating
plan which allocates specific accounts was known. These delays make it
very difficult for Tribal health providers and IHS to adequately
address the health needs of AI/ANs. Even once appropriations is
enacted, there is an administrative process of apportionment involving
the Office of Management and Budget that causes delay in actually
getting funding down to the local level. Advance appropriations will
allow IHS and Tribal health professionals time to plan and tackle many
other administrative hurdles, thereby improving access to care.
Additionally, it will result in costs savings through lower
administrative costs as significant staff time, at all levels, is
required each time Congress decides to pass a continuing resolution.
Nothing underscores this need more clearly than the federal
government shutdown at the start of FY 2014. Not only did this period
prevent Tribal and IHS facilities from providing care, it came at a
time when programs were already operating with minimal budgets due to
the draconian, and irresponsible FY 2013 across- the- board
sequestration cuts. The two week government shutdown forced Tribally-
run health programs to close their doors and deny care to thousands of
AI/ANs. The Crow Nation furloughed 300 Tribal employees during this
time. Others were only able to treat ``life or limb'' cases due to the
lack of an operating budget. As a result, AI/AN population experienced
additional suffering. Other Americans do not have to live with this
reality. The First people of the United States should not be last in
line when it comes to receiving their health care.
Even without events as extreme as a federal government shutdown,
funding delays contribute to other health risks for AI/ANs. Sadly, it
is often a saying in our communities, ``Don't get sick after June 1''
because this is often when dollars to treat patients through the
Purchased/Referred Care program run out. However, if Tribal and IHS
programs had advance appropriations, they could better plan their
patients' care over a longer period of time. Currently, when funding
becomes scarce, I/T/U medical professionals often prescribe treatments
that address only symptoms, and not the disease. This `Band-Aid' type
of care contributes to a wide variety of other medical risks that are
more costly and can be detrimental to the person over the long term.
Advance appropriations would mean better ability to plan programmatic
activity over several years, thereby leading to better health outcomes
for AI/AN people and decreased long-term healthcare costs.
Funding delays also often impact recruitment and retention of IHS
medical professionals. Many IHS and Tribal health facilities are
located in remote, rural areas where staff recruitment is especially
difficult. This is true throughout the rural United States, not just in
Indian Country. However, it becomes impossibly difficult to recruit
staff if it is not known whether a position will be funded in two
months. Giving medical professionals attractive job opportunities that
spans longer than a year benefits Tribal communities by providing
stability for AI/ANs and the quality that comes with medical
professionals familiar with their patients. Additionally, these
professionals can provide a higher level of cultural competency which
is learned over a sustained amount of time.
Veterans Administration Advance Appropriations
In FY 2010, the Veterans Health Administration (VHA) achieved
advance appropriations. IHS, like the VHA provides direct medical care
to fulfill legal promises made by the federal government. In the 111th
Congress, which ultimately enacted the advance appropriations for the
VHA, the House bill (H.R. 1016) had 125 bi-partisan cosponsors. The
Senate bill (S. 423) had 56 co-sponsors. Importantly, the Congressional
Budget Office ruled at the time that the act ``would not affect direct
spending or revenues.''
IHS, like the VHA, provides direct care to patients as a result of
contractual obligations made by the federal government. To NIHB and
Tribes, enacting S. 1570 is a civil rights issue and a matter of
equality. Like Veterans, Tribal communities have made sacrifices for
this country, both historically and contemporarily. However, under the
current funding mechanism, AI/ANs do not have the same stability in the
care they are provided.
Unity in Indian Country
Tribes and organizations are supporting advance appropriations for
IHS. Attached to this testimony are resolutions and letters from the
United South and Eastern Tribes; the California Rural Indian Health
Board; Alaska Native Health Board; Midwest Alliance of Sovereign
Tribes; the Northwest Portland Area Indian Health Board; the Oklahoma
City Area Inter-Tribal Health Board; the Inter Tribal Council of the
Five Civilized Tribes; and the Three Affiliated Tribes. NIHB will
continue to share these supportive documents with the committee as they
are received.
It should also be noted that Tribes are ready and willing to engage
with the government in advance consultation for the IHS budget should
S. 1570 be enacted. The IHS Tribal Budget Formulation Workgroup already
proposes its budget two years in advance, so this transition would not
be difficult for Tribes. IHS officials have also stated publicly that
they are engaged in conversations with the VHA on how this budgeting
mechanism will work.
Conclusion
Medicare and Medicaid provide health care to millions of Americans,
but these individuals do not have to worry on September 30 of each year
if they will be treated on October 1 because they are considered
``mandatory spending.'' The VHA provides care through discretionary
spending, but still knows its budget a year in advance. Despite being
founded on contractual treaty obligations and federal law, the
requirement to fund the IHS is still discretionary. Our people must
still wait on the whims of Congress before they can know if their
health care is funded. Advance appropriations will be one important
step forward toward improving the health of AI/ANs.
NIHB would like to again thank Senator Murkowski for introducing
this important legislation and Chairman Tester for holding this hearing
on S. 1570. We urge the Committee to quickly markup and favorably
report this critical bill as quickly as possible.
Thank you.
______
Prepared Statement of Hon. Delores Pigsley, Tribal Chairman,
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians
My name is Delores Pigsley and I am the Tribal Chairman of the
Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians. The purpose of this testimony is
to respectfully support S. 1574, the Indian Employment, Training and
Related Services Consolidation Act of 2013, introduced by Senator
Murkowski on October 16, 2013. The bill will make permanent the
demonstration project begun in 1992 with Pub. L No. 102-477 and will
clarify the congressional intent that Tribes and tribal organizations
carrying out consolidated programs under the Act may continue to
receive funds through the Indian Self-Determination and Education
Assistance Act (ISDEAA), Pub. L 93-638, as amended, and may continue to
use and account for those funds pursuant to each Tribe's approved
consolidated (477) plan.
In making P.L. 102-477 a permanent part of Indian Country
legislation, S. 1574 introduces several changes that will enhance the
opportunities for Tribes and tribal organizations to take advantage of
diverse resources in order to produce locally appropriate programs that
facilitate real employment in Indian County. One significant change
will add eligible employment related programs from the Departments of
Agriculture, Commerce, Education, Energy, Transportation and other
agencies that Tribes will be able to draw on in designing their own
employment-related programs consolidated in an approved 477 plan.
S. 1574 will streamline the process for plan approval, and includes
important language in regards to consolidation and reallocation of
funds that Tribes have requested for years. This bill will enhance the
ability of Tribes to obtain waivers from regulatory impediments and
will allow Tribes to recover indirect costs for all programs that are
included in a 477 plan. At the same time, it eliminates administrative
redundancy by merging program and financial reporting requirements, all
while still adhering to the Government Performance Results Act's
stringent accountability standards. The Confederated Tribes of Siletz
Indians strongly supports these changes. Tribes, alone, decide which
programs or combination of programs to combine into a 477 Plan. This
structure affords maximum local flexibility and full accountability,
which accounts for the fact that the 477 Initiative has to date,
received the highest OMB PART rating of any program in Indian Country.
The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians has operated a successful
477 Program since 1997. Our approved 477 plan incorporates funding from
the Department of Health and Human Services (TANF), Bureau of Indian
Affairs (General Assistance) and the Department of Labor (WIA Adult and
Youth). The ability to consolidate funding into one plan and budget has
allowed the Siletz Tribe to reduce administrative costs, streamline
services and provide a quality ``one stop shop'' for education and
employment related services for not only Siletz Tribal members, but
members of many other Tribes as well. We served at total of 559
participants in 2013 and showed significant success rates. The program
reported that 70 participants entered unsubsidized employment and the
overall earnings gain was $11.54/hr in wages. Participants throughout
our eleven county service area are benefiting greatly from our 477-Self
Sufficiency Program.
Enactment of S. 1574 will confirm the successful and innovative
employment initiatives embodied in P.L. 102-477, and enhance the
ability of the Siletz Tribe to carry out the consolidated programs as
intended under the Act. The 477 program has worked well for over 20
years by allowing the design of tribe-specific employment, education
and economic development programs that meet the needs of the people we
serve.
The Confederated Tribes of Siletz Indians requests your support for
S. 1574 to assist us in lowering the unemployment rate in Indian
Country and we appreciate your continued support of tribal self-
determination and self-governance.
______
Prepared Statement of the United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc.
The United South and Eastern Tribes, Inc. (USET) is pleased to
provide the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs with the following
testimony in support of S. 1570, legislation that would authorize
advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service (IHS). Advance
appropriations is funding that becomes available one year or more after
the year of the appropriations act in which it is contained, allowing
for increased certainty and continuity in the provision of services.
USET is a non-profit, inter-tribal organization representing 26
federally recognized Indian Tribes from Texas across to Florida and up
to Maine. \1\ Both individually, as well as collectively through USET,
our member Tribes work to improve health care services for American
Indians. Our member Tribes operate in the Nashville Area of the IHS,
which contains 36 IHS and Tribal health care facilities. Tribal members
may receive health care services at IHS facilities, as well as in
Tribally operated facilities operated under contracts with IHS pursuant
to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA),
P.L. 93-638.
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\1\ USET member Tribes include: Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians of
North Carolina, Chitimacha Tribe of Louisiana, Mississippi Band of
Choctaw Indians, Cayuga Nation of New York, Coushatta Tribe of
Louisiana, Miccosukee Tribe of Florida, Saint Regis Mohawk Tribe of New
York, Passamaquoddy Tribe at Pleasant Point of Maine, Passamaquoddy
Tribe at Indian Township of Maine, Penobscot Indian Nation of Maine,
Seminole Tribe of Florida, Seneca Nation of New York, Houlton Band of
Maliseet Indians of Maine, Poarch Band of Creek Indians of Alabama,
Tunica-Biloxi Tribe of Louisiana, Narragansett Indian Tribe of Rhode
Island, Mashantucket Pequot Indian Tribe of Connecticut, Wampanoag
Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah) of Massachusetts, Alabama-Coushatta Tribe
of Texas, Oneida Nation of New York, Aroostook Band of Micmac Indians
of Maine, Catawba Indian Nation of South Carolina, Jena Band of Choctaw
Indians of Louisiana, Mohegan Tribe of Connecticut, Mashpee Wampanoag
Tribe of Massachusetts and the Shinnecock Indian Nation of New York.
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Background
As recognized in statute and upheld through the courts, the United
States government has a trust responsibility to provide for the health
and welfare of federally recognized American Indian Tribes. The IHS is
the primary agency tasked with ensuring that the federal government
fulfills its promise to provide health care to American Indians and
Alaska Natives (AI/AN). Unfortunately, as this Committee well knows,
the IHS remains funded at only 56 percent what is required to fulfill
its mission. Although the IHS budget has grown 29 percent since Fiscal
Year (FY) 2008, this funding is barely able to meet non-medical
inflation rates and is completely unable to meet the rates of medical
inflation.
In addition to chronic underfunding, the Agency and the Tribes
operating facilities under ISDEAA face the problem of discretionary
funding that is almost always delayed. In fact, since FY 1998, there
has only been one year (FY 2006) in which appropriated funds for the
IHS were released prior to the beginning of the new fiscal year. Delays
range from 5 days in FY 2002 to 197 days in FY 2011. Appropriations for
this year, FY 2014, were over three months late and precipitated by a
full government shutdown. As the Committee is aware, delays are most
often caused by a Congressional failure to enact prompt appropriations
legislation.
Consequences of Delayed Appropriations
Late funding has severely hindered IHS and Tribal health care
providers' ability to administer the care to which AI/AN are legally
entitled. Budgeting, recruitment, retention, the provision of services,
facility maintenance, and construction efforts all depend on annual
appropriated funds. IHS and Tribal facilities must continue to operate
while Congress engages in philosophical debates about federal spending.
However, they are forced to do so at a severely reduced capacity. In a
world where it is not unusual to exhaust funding before the end of the
Fiscal Year, surgeries are delayed, services are reduced, and
employment is in jeopardy.
USET Tribes report tangible impacts from longer delays, including
the suspension of transportation services and youth programs, and
having to lay off staff. Facilities with limited or no funds remaining
in purchased/referred care programs must defer care for many Tribal
citizens who are truly in need of services; those in need of joint
replacement, for example. In these cases, patients are given
prescription pain medication and told to wait. By the time funding is
finally appropriated, our people have become sicker and in some cases,
dependent on prescription drugs.
Parity With the Veteran's Administration
Congress has recognized the difficulties inherent in the provision
of direct health care that relies on the appropriations process and
traditional funding cycle. When it became clear that our nation's
veterans were not able to receive the quality health care earned in the
protection of this country due to funding delays, advance
appropriations were enacted for the Veterans Administration (VA)
medical care accounts. Advance appropriations serve to mitigate the
effect of delayed and, at times, inadequate funding for the VA. As the
only other federal provider of direct health care and a consistently
underfunded agency, IHS should be afforded this same consideration and
certainty.
Conclusion
Funding for Indian health care should not fall victim to Congress'
inability to successfully pass appropriations, as the lives of AI/AN
across the country quite literally hang in the balance. USET strongly
supports S. 1570, which presents a no-cost \2\ solution to the effects
of delayed funding on the Indian Health System. With certainty in
funding, IHS and Tribal facilities are able to plan and budget
appropriately, allowing for a greater focus on patients and the
continuity of care that they deserve.
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\2\ CBO Cost Score, H.R. 1016, Veterans Health Care Budget Reform
and Transparency Act of 2009, June 16, 2009.
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We thank the Committee for holding a hearing on S. 1570 and the
many Members of the Committee who support the bill. As always, please
count USET as a willing partner in your efforts to see that advance
appropriations for the Indian Health Service are enacted. Together, we
can help raise the health status of and provide healthier futures for
our nation's first people.
______
Supplemental Testimony by Margaret Zientek
Chairman Tester and Members of the Committee: Thank you for the
opportunity to provide supplemental testimony on the proposed S. 1574
on behalf of the P.L. 102-477 Tribal Work Group and the Citizen
Potawatomi Nation.
Testimony from Kevin Washburn and Lillian Sparks Robinson on behalf
of the Departments of Interior and Health and Human Services,
respectively, demonstrates exactly why amendments to the current
statute are necessary to make this innovative program permanent, expand
the types and sources of funding eligible to be included in a 477 plan,
to establish protective review procedures and address new issues that
have only arisen in response to agency resistance to tribal self-
determination. The legislation is also necessary to ensure that the
spirit, the letter and the opportunities of the P.L. 102-477 law will
provide for the next century's success in meeting the employment and
training needs of Alaska Native and American Indian people across the
country.
We appreciate the Department of Interior's support for 477 and for
this legislation, and its candor in identifying areas of concern. We
look forward to working with the Committee to address what questions
remain to guarantee that the way in which the 477 Initiative has worked
in terms of operating on one plan, one budget and one report for the
last twenty-plus years continues to offer the success to employment and
training and lifelong sustainability in Indian country.
Kevin Washburn Assistant Secretary Testimony
Agree with Mr. Washburn's testimony and support:
It is time to make this program permanent which as operated
for over two decades as a demonstration program. When agencies
collaborate to surmount bureaucratic obstacles, consolidate
programs, and deliver desperately-needed services on a one-stop
basis, we can more promptly and efficiency address joblessness
and social distress in Native communities.
One of the reasons that the 477 program is so successful is
that it requires federal agencies to cooperate to better
deliver services to tribes.
Statements in Mr. Washburn's testimony require clarification or
response:
1. We do not agree that the financial reporting system
developed by the Administrative Flexibility Work Group (AFWG)
is ``simplified''. In fact, the current system of reporting and
the dictates of the Single Audit Act are more simple than the
proposal and more than adequate to cover both accountability
and the streamlined, simple process contemplated by the
statute. This is substantiated by the OMB PART scores received
in a review of the 477 Reporting.
2. We agree that the approval process has improved in the
recent past, but legislative structure will ensure that future
changes in administration do not undermine the accomplishments
of the last two years AFWG collaboration.
3. The section of the proposed legislation that ``would
prohibit a Tribe or tribal organization from being required to
submit any additional budget, report, audit or supplemental
audit or other documentation after its plan is approved'' is
necessary precisely to clarify that Congress does not intent
multiple reports from a program that has operated so
successfully for over two decades. (emphasis added).
4. Mr. Washburn expresses concerns with a 90-day time limit
for federal response to a tribal request for a waiver of
statutory, regulatory, or administrative requirements that
prevent the tribe or tribal organization from efficiently
implementing its plan. However, he also outlines an 80 day plan
approval process that agencies are now using. This would
certainly lend support that the 90-day time limit is feasible.
5. Mr. Washburn also stated: That certain provisions of S.
1574 that seem to subvert that spirit of cooperation by giving
the Secretary of the Interior the exclusive authority to
approve or disapprove a proposed plan without the input of the
other affected federal partners. This also pertains to the
provisions that would approve a plan if the Secretary took no
action on it within the 90 days of receiving it. It is
unfortunate but history makes this clause necessary. Some
tribes have experienced significantly longer delays in
responses and/or never received responses. This provision only
reaffirms that DOI has the leadership role.
Lillian Sparks Robinson Commissioner Testimony
Agree with Ms. Sparks Robinson testimony and support:
We appreciate the Department of Health & Human Services'
willingness to participate in the lengthy conversations and meetings
over the duration of the AFWG, and the leadership within the Department
that looked for ways in which the HHS programs could support the
flexibility and successes of the 477 Initiative across the nation. The
AFWG did indeed ``identify. . .flexibilities within the law that allow
tribes to consolidate. . .477 funds for the purpose of supporting
economic development'' and strengthened the relationships both between
the tribes and the federal agencies, as well as between the agencies
participating in the program.
Statements in Ms. Sparks Robinson testimony require clarification
or response:
1. The federal agencies made the decision to submit the
reporting forms and instructions to the review process under
the Paperwork Reduction Act. The changes in the reporting forms
and instructions are not due to the Paperwork Reduction Act.
These changes reflect an increase in reporting not a reduction.
2. Tribal representatives on the AFWG never advocated that the
contract support cost provisions of the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (ISDEAA) accrued to
Tribes as a product of utilizing the contracts and compacts
under ISDEAA as the vehicle by which 477 funds were distributed
to Tribes and tribal organizations. On the contrary, tribal
representatives specifically stated and assured that only the
contract support costs to which Tribes and tribal organizations
were already entitled under the Department of Interior programs
were retained under their agreements. Other attributes of
contracting, such as using matching funds to match other
federal programs, do continue as part of the 638 contract
process, but due to this disagreement in interpretation of the
law, need to be clarified by legislation.
3. The tribal representatives disagreed with the agencies'
interpretation that the 477 Initiative did not already grant
the ability to re-budget and re-program within an already
approved Plan.
4. The legislation does not remove the requirement for any
report or audit--for over twenty years, Tribes and tribal
organizations have provided in-depth reports of the activities
and outcomes of the funds they manage under the 477 Initiative,
and 477 received the highest OMB PART rating in Indian Country.
Accountability to the public for the funds placed in the
Tribes' and tribal organizations' trust has a proven track
record. The current reporting system has ensured that
accountability. Clarifying these disagreements is a primary
goal of the legislation before this Committee.
5. For a number of years, there has been disagreement between
the tribes and some Federal agencies about auditing and
reporting requirements governing P.L. 477 projects. The only
agency which has raised any question was HHS. In fact over many
years, 477 Tribes were unsuccessful in getting HHS to provide
detail as to what was their concern? During the AFWG, it was
finally highlighted that HHS had ``concerns with the financial
reporting.'' This was despite no intervening problems. And with
the highest OMB PART rating of any DOI program.
6. The provisions in legislation to expand the 477 program ,
HHS believes is well beyond the initial purpose of integrating
employment and training programs and related social service
programs. This provision is critical for the continued success
of the 477 initiative. Programs operated under a 477 Plan are
actually reviewed on a more frequent basis than programs
operated outside of 477 and have demonstrated a more efficient
and tribally driven approach to address the needs of our
communities.
Last, in regard to the testimony related to the purpose of the
ISDEAA and the reference to Navajo Nation v. Department of Health and
Human Services: In October 2008 DOI and HHS announced that they would
end the practice of transferring 477 Program funds to participating
tribes through agreements under ISDEAA. As a basis for the action the
agencies cited the court's ruling in Navajo Nation v. Department of
Health and Human Services, 325 F.3d 1133 (9th Cir. 2003), a case that
did not involve the administration of the 477 Program. In that case the
court held that an Indian tribe could not administer TANF under a 638
contract. The court did not address the administration of TANF under
477. The court simply concluded that TANF is not a contractible program
under the ISDEAA because it is (1) not a program or service ``otherwise
provided'' to Indians under federal law, 25 U.S.C. 450b(j), and (2)
not a program ``for the benefit of Indians because of their status as
Indians,'' 25 U.S.C. 450f(a)(1)(E).
There is a enormous difference between being compelled under the
ISDEAA to contract the TANF program, and choosing to transfer TANF 477
funds through such contracts. For over 20 years HHS has transferred 477
funds in this manner--not because the ISDEAA mandated it but because
doing so made sense and was not prohibited by law. The 477 Tribes have
consistently argued that 477 plans can be funded through the ISDEAA,
and that the Navajo Nation case in particular does not bar the fund
transfers currently implemented for the Program. The relevant law is
the 477 Act, administered by the BIA, not the numerous and varied
agency programs (such as TANF) that can be integrated into a tribal 477
Plan. In fact, the Act provides for administration of the program
through the Department of the Interior, including transfer of HHS and
DOL agency program funds to the BIA, which then transfers the funds to
the tribes.
The key to understanding the 477 Act is that the 477 Act is
administered by the Department of the Interior under the Secretary of
the Interior. The Secretary of the Interior has the authority to
approve or disapprove a tribal plan, which must be done within 90 days
of submittal. 25 U.S.C. 3407. The Act provides for the Secretary of
the Interior to ``cooperate'' with and ``consult'' with other affected
agency Secretaries, \1\ but it is the Secretary of the Interior who
``shall, upon receipt of a plan acceptable to the Secretary of the
Interior submitted by an Indian tribal government, authorize the tribal
government to coordinate, in accordance with such plan, its federally
funded employment, training, and related service programs in a manner
that integrates the program services involved into a single,
coordinated, comprehensive program and reduces administrative costs by
consolidating administrative functions.'' 25 U.S.C. 3403 (emphasis
added).
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\1\ See 25 U.S.C. 3403 (integration of services authorized) and
3406 (plan review).
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Moreover, the 477 Program is an Interior ``program, service,
function or activity'' that is available to tribes with consolidated
funds from Interior and appropriations from other agencies. The federal
programs that may be integrated into a tribal 477 Plan ``include any
program under which an Indian tribe is eligible for receipt of funds
under a statutory or administrative formula for the purpose of
assisting Indian youth and adults to succeed in the work force,
encouraging self-sufficiency, familiarizing Indian youth and adults
with the world of work, facilitating the creation of job opportunities
and any services related to these activities.'' 25 U.S.C. 3404
(emphasis added).
The 477 Act thus fits the Navajo Nation Court's criteria that
ISDEAA-eligible programs are those ``specifically targeted to
Indians.'' The 477 Program is one provided for tribes by virtue of
their status as Indians because only tribes can take advantage of it.
Its targeted purpose is to facilitate employment opportunities for
Indian youth and adults, as well as to encourage tribal self-
sufficiency consistent with self-determination principles.
The fact that HHS has again raised this issue further identifies
the need for amendments to the current law. First of all, as described
above, the Navajo Nation case does not apply to funds transferred from
the Department of Interior under the 477 Initiative. Secondly, all
three HHS programs currently participating in the 477 Initiative are
``tribal'' programs: ``Tribal TANF,'' ``Tribal Child Care,'' and
``Native Employment Works.'' Finally, Congress has the authority to
authorize the fund transfer mechanism under the ISDEAA if necessary,
and as proposed in S. 1574.
Conclusion
As a 477 Tribal organization and a constant member of the
Administrative Flexibility Work Group, on behalf of the Citizen
Potawatomi Nation and as Co-Chair of the P.L. 102-477 Tribal Work
Group, I am grateful the work that the federal agencies put into
improving relations and operations of the 477 Initiative. We appreciate
the opportunity to address particular points raised in their testimony
before this Committee, and to further articulate the necessity for
clarifying why S. 1574 is so important to the continued success of the
477 Initiative to improve the lives of American Indian and Alaska
Native people throughout the country. This program is essential to our
ability to meet the needs of our people in innovative and efficient
ways that allow us to provide wrap around services designed on a model
of integration and maximum efficiency, leveraging funds and human
resources to make the greatest impact for our people.
______
Letter in Support of S. 1570, Submitted by Hon. Scott N. BigHorse,
Principal Chief, Osage Nation
Dear Chairman Tester and Vice Chairman Barrasso:
On behalf of the Osage Nation we offer this letter of support for
S. 1570, the Indian Health Service Advance Appropriations Act of 2013
which provides advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service
(IHS), and urge you to co-sponsor this legislation. Osage Nation
believes that providing appropriations one year in advance will enable
the IHS to better serve American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN)
communities and would help ensure that the Government meets its trust
obligation to native people. Specifically, IHS and Tribally run
programs would benefit from improved budgeting, retention, recruitment
provision of services, facility maintenance and construction efforts.
Since FY 1998, appropriated funds for medical services and
facilities through IHS have not been provided before the commencement
of the new fiscal year, causing IHS and Tribal providers great
challenges in planning and managing care for AI/ANs. Although the IHS
budget has increased by a historic 29 percent since 2008, this equates
to an average of 7.25 percent per year, barely enough to cover medical
and non-medical inflation and the cost of contract health care for our
growing population. Additionally, when automatic budget rescissions and
sequestration are taken into account, IHS has lost $240 million since
FY 2011. Both serious budgetary increases and changes to resources
supporting this health care system are necessary if we are going to
effectively address the growing gap in health disparities, which has
resulted in early death, and preventable, expensive chronic care costs
for AI/ANs of all ages.
The lateness in enacting a final budget ranges from five days (FY
2002) to 197 days (FY 2011), making quality budget planning almost
impossible. Health care services in particular require consistent
funding to be effective. In FY 2010, the Veterans Administration (VA)
medical care programs achieved advance appropriations. The fact that
Congress has implemented advance appropriations for the VA medical
programs demonstrates the importance of advance appropriations for
direct health service agencies. Just as the veterans groups were
alarmed at the impact of delayed funding upon the provision of health
care to veterans and the ability of VA to properly plan and manage its
resources, Tribes and Tribal organizations have those concerns about
the IHS health system.''
If IHS funding was on an advance appropriations cycle, Tribal
health care providers, as well as the IHS, would know the funding a
year earlier and their health care services would not be stymied by
continuing resolutions. This would lead to greater outcomes for
patients in IHS, Tribal and Urban (I/T/U) programs. For example,
hospital administrators would have the ability to continue treating
patients without wondering if they had to de-fund facilities or
programs. Additionally, IHS administrators would not waste valuable
resources in an agency funded at only 56 percent of need by re-
allocating the budget each time Congress passed a continuing
resolution. Tribal health providers would know in advance how many
physicians and nurses they could hire without wondering if funding for
positions would be available from month to month.
Osage Nation relies heavily on funding from Indian Health Services
for the operations of our health program and departments. These funds
are vital to our constituents who have no other means of meeting their
health needs on a daily basis. These constituents, as well as the Osage
Nation Health programs, budget and plan on the funds we receive from
Indian Health Services. Any delay in these funds has an immediate
impact on the health and welfare of our constituents. Many of our
diabetic patients cannot wait weeks or months for their diabetic
supplies or to be seen and monitored. Delay in funding, has a direct
impact on the lives of these patients and many others that depend
solely on the Osage Nation Health programs as their only source of
medical treatment and outreach.
We appreciate the opportunity to offer this letter of support for
S. 1570.
______
Letter in Support of S. 1570, Submitted by Diana Autaubo, Chair,
Oklahoma City Area Inter-Tribal Health Board
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
______
Letter in Support of S. 1570, Submitted by Hon. Robert Shepherd, Tribal
Chairman, Sisseton-Wahpeton Oyate
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]
______
Letter in Support of S. 1570, Submitted by Hon. Tex G. Hall, Chairman,
Mandan, Hidatsa, and Arikara Nation
On behalf of the MHA Nation we offer this letter of support for the
provision of advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service (IHS)
as address in S. 1570 that will be heard before the Senate Indian
Affairs Committee on April 2, 2014. MHA believes that providing
appropriations one year in advance will enable the IHS to better serve
American Indian/Alaska Native (AI/AN) communities and would help ensure
that the Government meets its trust obligation to native people.
Specifically, IHS and Tribally run programs would benefit from improved
budgeting, retention, recruitment provision of services, facility
maintenance and construction efforts.
Since FY 1998, appropriated funds for medical services and
facilities through IHS have not been provided before the commencement
of the new fiscal year, causing IHS and Tribal providers great
challenges in planning and managing care for AI/ANs. Although the IHS
budget has increased by an historic 29 percent since 2008, this equates
to an average of 7.25 percent per year, barely enough to cover medical
and non-medical inflation and the cost of contract health care for our
growing population. Additionally, when automatic budget rescissions and
sequestration are taken into account, IHS has lost $240 million since
FY 2011. Both serious budgetary increases and changes to resources
supporting this health care system are necessary if we are going to
effectively address the growing gap in health disparities, which has
resulted in early death, and preventable, expensive chronic care costs
for AI/ANs of all ages.
The lateness in enacting a final budget ranges from five days (FY
2002) to 197 days (FY 2011), making quality budget planning almost
impossible. Health care services in particular require consistent
funding to be effective. In FY 2010, the Veterans Administration (VA)
medical care programs achieved advance appropriations. The fact that
Congress has implemented advance appropriations for the VA medical
programs demonstrates the importance of advance appropriations for
direct health service agencies. Just as the veterans groups were
alarmed at the impact of delayed funding upon the provision of health
care to veterans and the ability of VA to properly plan and manage its
resources, Tribes and Tribal organizations have those concerns about
the IHS health system.
If IHS funding was on an advance appropriations cycle, Tribal
health care providers, as well as the IHS, would know the funding a
year earlier and their health care services would not be stymied by
continuing resolutions. This would lead to greater outcomes for
patients in IHS, Tribal and Urban (I/T/U) programs. For example,
hospital administrators would have the ability to continue treating
patients without wondering if they had to de-fund facilities or
programs. Additionally, IHS administrators would not waste valuable
resources in an agency funded at only 56 percent of need by re-
allocating the budget each time Congress passed a continuing
resolution. Tribal health providers would know in advance how many
physicians and nurses they could hire without wondering if funding for
positions would be available from month to month.
We appreciate the opportunity to offer this letter of support for
the advance appropriations for the IHS.
______
Letter in Support of S. 1570, Submitted by Robert Polasky, CEO, Sun'aq
Tribe of Kodiak
[GRAPHIC(S) NOT AVAILABLE IN TIFF FORMAT]