[Congressional Record Volume 166, Number 163 (Monday, September 21, 2020)]
[House]
[Pages H4568-H4570]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




               TRIBAL SCHOOL FEDERAL INSURANCE PARITY ACT

  Ms. HAALAND. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the 
bill (H.R. 895) to allow tribal grant schools to participate in the 
Federal Employee Health Benefits program.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 895

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

       This Act may be cited as the ``Tribal School Federal 
     Insurance Parity Act''.

     SEC. 2. AMENDMENT TO THE INDIAN HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENT ACT.

       Section 409 of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act (25 
     U.S.C. 1647b) is amended by inserting ``or the Tribally 
     Controlled Schools Act of 1988 (25 U.S.C. 2501 et seq.)'' 
     after ``(25 U.S.C. 450 et seq.)''.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentlewoman from 
New Mexico (Ms. Haaland) and the gentlewoman from Wyoming (Ms. Cheney) 
each will control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from New Mexico.


                             General Leave

  Ms. HAALAND. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members 
have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and 
include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentlewoman from New Mexico?
  There was no objection.
  Ms. HAALAND. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, H.R. 895, introduced by Representative Dusty Johnson of 
South Dakota, authorizes Indian Tribes and Tribal organizations 
operating Tribally controlled schools the ability to access the Federal 
Employees Health Benefits Program.

[[Page H4569]]

  


                              {time}  1315

  Prior to 2010, Tribal employees generally lacked access to the FEHB 
program. To fix this, Congress passed the Indian Healthcare Improvement 
Act in 2010.
  However, eligibility for Federal health benefits was granted only to 
the Tribal nations that utilized the Indian Self-Determination and 
Education Assistance Act, leaving behind the tribally controlled 
schools that operate pursuant to the Tribally Controlled Schools Act.
  This gap has resulted in significant financial strains on 126 
tribally controlled schools and has made it difficult for them to 
recruit and maintain quality educators. Passage of H.R. 895 will remove 
this disparity and ensure that all BIE-operated and BIE-funded tribally 
operated schools' employees have access to the FEHB program.
  Mr. Speaker, I want to thank our colleague, Representative Johnson, 
for championing this legislation. I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 
895, and I reserve the balance of my time.
  Ms. CHENEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 895. As my colleague from New 
Mexico described it, this bill would enable Tribal grant school 
employees to participate in the Federal Health Benefits Program.
  Under current law, the Bureau of Indian Education employees and 
tribally managed schools operating under a self-determination contract 
are already eligible for this benefit. It is time that we helped Tribal 
grant schoolteachers.
  This bill will not only provide parity for the benefits that 
employees receive at other schools serving Native children, but it will 
help keep essential moneys focused on education itself.
  I want to thank the sponsor of this legislation, my colleague 
Congressman Dusty Johnson, for his thoughtful leadership on this issue.
  This stand-alone legislation will go a long way to help Tribal grant 
schools during the COVID-19 recovery period and beyond.
  I am disappointed, however, Mr. Speaker, that the Democrat majority 
has refused to act on S. 886, the Indian Water Rights Settlement 
Extension Act. S. 886 includes the text of this bill and would also 
help Tribes in one of the hardest hit COVID-19 regions of the country, 
the Navajo Nation, which has cited lack of water as a complication for 
fending off and defeating this deadly virus.
  S. 886 addresses this very issue by ensuring better access to water 
for the Tribe. Unfortunately, the majority has let this water 
settlement agreement for the Navajo collect dust. It has been 90 days 
since the Senate passed this bipartisan bill. Despite repeated requests 
for its consideration, the Democrats have taken no action to see this 
critical agreement enacted into law.
  Mr. Speaker, I include in the Record a letter from Navajo President 
Nez asking Speaker Pelosi to schedule a vote on final passage on S. 
886.


                                            The Navajo Nation,

                                   Window Rock, AZ, July 28, 2020.
     Hon. Nancy Pelosi,
     Speaker of the House of Representatives,
     Washington, DC.
     Hon. Kevin McCarthy,
     Republican Leader,
     Washington, DC.
       Dear Speaker Pelosi and Leader McCarthy: We respectfully 
     request that you schedule a vote on final passage of S. 886, 
     the Navajo Utah Water Rights Settlement Act (NUWRSA), before 
     the House leaves for the August recess. As discussed and 
     explained in our June 22, 2020 letter to the House, nearly 40 
     percent of the Navajo Nation lacks running water or adequate 
     sanitation in their homes. To make matters worse, the Navajo 
     Nation's COVID-19 infection rate on a per capita basis is one 
     of the highest in the country and the Navajo Nation has more 
     COVID-19 deaths than many states. The House has an 
     opportunity to take immediate action to mitigate future 
     COVID-19 outbreaks and address the drinking water crisis on 
     the Navajo Reservation by passing S. 886. Although the Senate 
     unanimously passed S. 886, the House of Representatives has 
     so not acted on it, further delaying the relief that it will 
     ultimately bring to the Navajo people.
       The Navajo Nation has over 300,000 enrolled members and is 
     the largest Indian reservation spanning portions of Arizona, 
     New Mexico, and Utah. The conditions on Navajo are dire and 
     the pandemic only compounds our needs. With so few watering 
     points across the Navajo Nation, families must travel hours 
     to reach these points and must ration their water 
     accordingly. Without access to clean drinking water, the 
     Navajo Nation will continue to struggle, and its members will 
     be more susceptible to deadly illnesses such as COVID-19.
       S. 886 would provide the means to begin to address these 
     critical needs. Through NUWRSA, the Navajo Nation would 
     receive approximately $220 million in federal and state 
     funding for desperately needed drinking water infrastructure 
     on the Reservation in exchange for the Nation waiving its 
     water-related claims against the United States and State of 
     Utah. In 2016, Congress first introduced the settlement 
     legislation and on June 4, 2020, the Senate unanimously 
     passed S. 886, demonstrating the broad bi-partisan support 
     for the legislation.
       The Navajo Nation recognizes that there is more to be done 
     for Indian Country and we stand ready to assist you on this 
     work, but S. 886 is ready for final passage. The House's 
     inaction on S. 886 or sending it back to the Senate for 
     further consideration will only delay addressing the basic 
     human needs of the Navajo people. Therefore, we respectfully 
     request that you schedule a vote on final passage of S. 886 
     before the House recesses in August.
           Sincerely,
                                          Jonathan Nez, President.
                                      Myron Lizer, Vice President.
  Ms. CHENEY. Again, Mr. Speaker, we support the passage of Congressman 
Johnson's bill, H.R. 895, and would also prefer to enact this provision 
into law along with measures that will help the Navajo Nation with 
their broader water shortages.
  Mr. Speaker, I yield 4 minutes to the gentleman from South Dakota 
(Mr. Johnson).
  Mr. JOHNSON of South Dakota. Mr. Speaker, I will begin by thanking 
Ranking Member Cheney and Congresswoman Haaland for their support and 
for their warm words of support for this measure.
  They are right. H.R. 895 is about fairness; it is about equity; and 
it is about improving Tribal school outcomes across this country.
  Now, I don't know that it matters where you live in this country, and 
I don't know that it matters where you are in the political spectrum, 
it seems like one of the things you should be able to recognize is that 
one of our most difficult and most important challenges in this country 
is ensuring quality education for our Native students.
  Unintentionally, a few years ago, Congress complicated those efforts. 
We passed the Indian Healthcare Improvement Act. As a part of that act, 
we made it clear that section 638 Tribal schools could access the 
Federal employee health insurance benefits. But we denied that same 
treatment--again, unintentionally--for the section 297 schools. In the 
decade since we have done that, millions of dollars have flown out of 
the classroom and, instead, toward these health insurance benefits.
  Our bill, my bill, the Tribal School Federal Insurance Parity Act, 
fixes that oversight, closes that loophole, and addresses this problem 
without costing our Federal Government a nickel.
  I have visited Tribal grant schools, most recently just a few weeks 
ago. I will tell you, Mr. Speaker, Superintendent Whirlwind Horse and 
her team work hard every single day. They are at Wounded Knee School on 
the Pine Ridge Indian Reservation in South Dakota. They work hard to 
provide these educational opportunities even with incredibly scarce 
resources.
  My friend, Cecilia Fire Thunder, the president of the Oglala Lakota 
Nation Education Consortium, understands those challenges, which is why 
she has been focused on this issue for a long time.
  If we pass this bill, we will make their jobs just a little bit 
easier as they work to shift those dollars into the classroom to focus 
them on student education, to focus them on student outcomes, and to 
focus them on improving the lives of young people in Indian Country.
  So, I ask my colleagues, Mr. Speaker, for a ``yes'' vote, and I ask 
us all to work with the Senate to pass H.R. 895 before the end of the 
116th Congress.
  Ms. CHENEY. Mr. Speaker, I yield back the balance of my time.
  Ms. HAALAND. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the 
legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentlewoman from New Mexico (Ms. Haaland) that the House suspend the 
rules and pass the bill, H.R. 895.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.

[[Page H4570]]

  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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