[Congressional Record Volume 148, Number 98 (Thursday, July 18, 2002)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Pages E1301-E1302]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




  DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR AND RELATED AGENCIES APPROPRIATIONS ACT, 
                                  2003

                                 ______
                                 

                               speech of

                           HON. MAXINE WATERS

                             of california

                    in the house of representatives

                        Wednesday, July 17, 2002

       The House in Committee of the Whole House on the State of 
     the Union had under consideration the bill (H.R. 1854) making 
     appropriations for the legislative branch for the fiscal year 
     ending September 30, 1996, and for other purposes:

  Ms. WATERS. Mr. Chairman, the United States government has a history 
of leasing lands belonging to Indian tribes and individual Indians. The 
government has been receiving grazing, timber and mineral royalties 
from the lease of these lands--royalties that the government was 
supposed to hold in trust for the rightful owners of the lands.
  Unfortunately, the United States government has admitted that it 
mismanaged these trust funds for decades and lost the money of our 
nation's first peoples. Federal courts have ruled that the government 
owes Indians an historical accounting of all Indian trust funds going 
back to the date the funds were deposited.
  This bill includes provisions to restrict the ability of the Federal 
government to provide an accounting of Indian trust funds. The bill 
even presumes that all trust fund records prior to 1985 were correct. 
These provisions defy court decisions and have no place in an 
appropriations bill.

[[Page E1302]]

  I urge my colleagues to strike these unjust provisions and let Native 
Americans know what happened to their money.

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