[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 179 (Monday, November 13, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E2168-E2169]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           A BILL TO AMEND THE INDIAN SELF-DETERMINATION ACT

                                 ______


                       HON. ENI F.H. FALEOMAVAEGA

                           of american samoa

                    in the house of representatives

                       Monday, November 13, 1995

  Mr. FALEOMAVAEGA. Mr. Speaker, today I am introducing a simple bill 
that would amend titles III and IV of the Indian Self-Determination and 
Education Assistance Act. Just last Congress and under the aegis of my 
colleague, Bill Richardson, we amended this act in response to the 6-
year refusal of the Departments of the Interior and Health and Human 
Services to promulgate rules to carry out this act. Through the Indian 
Self-Determination Act Amendments of 1994, we streamlined the 
contracting and compacting process, curbed the department's rulemaking 
authority, and required the departments to negotiate new regulations 
with the Indian tribes.
  We also enacted a new title IV to the act, known as the Tribal Self-
Governance Act of 1994, which made permanent a demonstration project, 
the Tribal Self-Governance Demonstration Project Act currently 
contained in title III of the act. Title IV as enacted, the permanent 
Self-Governance program applies to functions within the Department of 
the Interior. Title III, which still remains a demonstration project, 
now applies to functions within the Department of Health and Human 
Services.
  The amendments to title I and title IV of the act proceeded on 
different tracks in the 103d Congress. It was not until late in the 
Congress that both were incorporated into a single bill.
  Since the passage of the 1994 amendments, tribes and tribal 
organizations, the Indian Health Service, and the Department of the 
Interior have all worked on implementation of titles I, III, and IV of 
the act. Unfortunately, the departments' interpretation and 
implementation of the act has not been in accordance with congressional 
intent.
  Specifically, the agencies have taken the position that the 
provisions of title I, governing Self-Determination Act or ``638'' 
contracts, that are advantageous to tribes may not be included in Self-
Governance compacts and annual funding agreements negotiated under 
titles III and IV. In addition, the position of the two departments, 
HHS and Interior, has not always been consistent, so that in certain 
instances, one department has permitted inclusion of a Self-Governance 
clause reflective of a title I provision while the other has not.
  The result has been an inconsistent treatment of Self-Governance 
issues by the two departments, and the denial to Self-Governance tribes 
of the substantial advantages afforded to the tribes under title I of 
the Indian Self-Determination Act. This is particularly puzzling, since 
it has always been the intent of Congress that the Self-Governance 
initiative should be at least as broad and favorable to the tribes as 
the original title I contracting mechanism.

[[Page E 2169]]

  My bill, which has been requested by the tribes and specifically 
incorporates 31 provisions of title I of the Indian Self-Determination 
Act into titles III and IV, is designed to remedy this situation.

                                H.R. --

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled, That 
     section 403 of the Indian Self-Determination and Education 
     Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 458cc) is amended by adding at the 
     end the following:
       ``(l) Incorporation of Title I Provisions.--For the 
     purposes of the following sections of title I of this Act, 
     the term `contract' also includes agreements authorized by 
     this title and title III: 5(f)(1), 7(b), 7(c), 8, 102(d), 
     103, 104, 105(a)(3), 105(f), 105(k), 105(n) (at the election 
     of, and subject to any phase-in period established by, any 
     compact tribe, or any consortium of tribes that is a party to 
     an annual funding agreement, in Alaska), 106(a), 106(b), 
     106(d), 106(e), 106(f), 106(j), 106(k), 106(m), 106(n), 110 
     and 111; and subsections (b)(5), (b)(6)(B)(iii), (b)(7)(A), 
     (b)(8)(D) through (G), (b)(9) and (b)(10) of section 1 of the 
     model agreement set forth in section 108(c).''.

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