[Congressional Record Volume 159, Number 29 (Thursday, February 28, 2013)]
[House]
[Page H805]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                       TRIBAL PROVISIONS IN VAWA

  (Mr. SCHWEIKERT asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. SCHWEIKERT. Mr. Speaker, this is one of those moments where you 
come up here for 1 minute, and I wanted to share a certain frustration, 
particularly the votes we just had here in the House.
  I come from Arizona. We have 22 tribal communities, 21 actual 
designated reservations. I lived almost my entire life alongside the 
Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian community. It's a sophisticated tribe 
with wonderful outreach into the community. They've come light years in 
the last 10. They've done amazing things.
  We have been working with that community and Congressman Cole's 
office trying to work on language that would work with them in VAWA, 
and yet Congressman Cole and Congressman Issa were not allowed in the 
process to offer their amendments. That's of great frustration to me 
because there was months of months of labor and work put into that.
  But there was also another irony here. I heard some folks on the 
right and a lot on the left talking about the self-determination court 
process within those tribal communities. Okay, great. Are we now ready 
to have this body step up and help our tribes in Arizona that are 
sophisticated manage their own finances and their own health care? 
Because they're asking for that self-determination.

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