[Congressional Record Volume 153, Number 1 (Thursday, January 4, 2007)]
[Senate]
[Pages S92-S93]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mr. McCAIN (for himself, Mr. Dorgan, Mr. Baucus. Mr. Grassley, 
        Mr. Reid, Mrs. Feinstein, and Mr. Feingold):
  S. 85. A bill to amend the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act 
of 1968 to clarify that territories and Indian tribes are eligible to 
receive

[[Page S93]]

grants for confronting the use of methamphetamine; to the Committee on 
the Judiciary.
  Mr. McCAIN. Mr. President, today I am introducing the Indian Tribes 
Methamphetamine Reduction Grants Act of 2007. This bill is identical to 
S. 4113, a bipartisan measure that was passed by unanimous consent in 
the Senate on December 8, 2006, the last day of the 109th Congress. The 
legislation would allow Indian tribes to be eligible for funding 
through the Department of Justice to eradicate the scourge of 
methamphetamine use, sale and manufacture in Native American 
communities. I am pleased to be joined by Senators Dorgan, Baucus, 
Grassley, Reid, Feinstein, and Feingold in introducing this important 
legislation.
  The impacts of methamphetamine use on communities across the Nation 
are well known and cannot be overstated. Methamphetamine is the leading 
drug-related law enforcement problem in the country. Unfortunately, the 
meth crisis is affecting Indian Country most severely. Very serious 
concerns have been raised by the U.S. Department of Justice, States, 
and other non-tribal law enforcement agencies over the rapidly growing 
levels of methamphetamine production and trafficking on reservations 
with large geographic areas or tribes adjacent to the U.S.-Mexico 
border. But because of the sovereign status of the tribes, criminals 
are generally not subject to state jurisdiction in many cases. As a 
result, local law enforcement often has no jurisdiction in Indian 
country, and tribal law enforcement agencies bear the brunt of most law 
enforcement functions.
  The problem of meth in Indian country, which the National Congress of 
American Indians identified last year as its top priority, is 
ubiquitous, and has strained already overburdened law enforcement, 
health, social welfare, housing, and child protective and placement 
services on Indian reservations. Last year a former tribal judge on the 
Wind River Reservation in Wyoming pled guilty to conspiracy to 
distribute methamphetamine and other drugs. The day before, the Navajo 
Nation police arrested an 81 year old grandmother, her daughter, and 
her granddaughter, for selling meth. One tribe in Arizona had over 60 
babies born with meth in their systems. In 2005, the National Indian 
Housing Council expanded its training for dealing with meth in tribal 
housing: the average cost of decontaminating a single residence that 
has been used a meth lab is $10,000.
  During the 109th Congress, as the Chairman of the Senate Indian 
Affairs Committee, I held hearings on this serious matter. Committee 
witnesses testified that the methamphetamine epidemic in Indian country 
has contributed to a rise in child abuse and neglect cases, among other 
social ills, and some tribes reported dramatic increases in suicide 
rates among young people linked to methamphetamine use. Following our 
hearings, I was pleased to work with Senators Dorgan, Sessions, 
Bingaman and others in improving upon our legislation to assist Indian 
Country in fighting this terrible drug crisis.
  To avoid any potential misinterpretation of the intent of this 
legislation, this bill includes language developed and agreed to during 
the last Congress that is designed to clarify the intent of the bill. 
This clarifying language, provided in section 2(a)(4) of the bill, is 
intended to make it clear that by authorizing the Department of 
Justice's Bureau of Justice Assistance to award grant funds to a state, 
territory or Indian tribe to ``investigate, arrest and prosecute 
individuals'' involved in illegal methamphetamine activities, the 
legislation does not somehow authorize a grantee state, territory or 
Indian tribe to pursue law enforcement activities that it otherwise has 
no jurisdiction to pursue. And similarly, this provision also clarifies 
that an award or denial of a grant by the Bureau of Justice Assistance 
does not somehow allow a state, territory or Indian tribe to pursue law 
enforcement activities that it otherwise lacks jurisdiction to pursue. 
For example, a law enforcement agency in one state, territory or Indian 
reservation is not somehow enabled by this section, or by an award made 
pursuant to this section, to prosecute a methamphetamine crime arising 
in some other jurisdiction unless that agency already has such 
jurisdiction.
  The legislation further clarifies that authority under the bill to 
award grants would have no effect beyond simply authorizing, awarding 
or denying a grant of funds to a state, territory or Indian tribe. So, 
for example, if a state, territory or Indian tribe is awarded or denied 
a grant of funds under this section, that award or denial has no 
relevance to or effect on the eligibility of the state, territory or 
Indian tribe to participate in any other program or activity unrelated 
to the award or denial of grants as permitted under this legislation. 
The award or denial of a grant under this subsection, in other words, 
is relevant only to the award or denial of the grant under this 
subsection, and nothing else.
  The measure I am introducing today takes but a small step on the long 
journey toward our fight against methamphetamine. I encourage my 
colleagues to support it.
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