United States Government Publishing Office publisher pbl distributor dst United States Government Accountability Office Resources, Community, and Economic Development Division author aut Government Organization text government publication eng GAOREPORTS Legislative Agency Publications gao legislative 2010-08-12 U.S. Government Printing Office 2000-07-12 monographic deposited born digital 14 p. GA 1.13:T-RCED-00-234 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-00-234 P0b002ee18039fa5c f:rc00234t DGPO 2010-08-12 2011-03-24 GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-00-234 machine generated eng fdlp REPORT GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-00-234 T-RCED-00-234 Minority contractors Native Americans Claims settlement Litigation Torts Government liability (legal) Liability insurance Federal aid programs Testimony RCED

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO discussed: (1) the Federal Tort Claims Act (FTCA) claims history for tribal self-determination contracts for fiscal years 1997 through 1999; and (2) FTCA coverage issues that are unique to tribal contractors.<p/>GAO noted that: (1) data on FTCA claims involving tribal contractors are not readily available because neither the Department of the Interior nor the Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is required to track these claims separately from FTCA claims involving federal employees; (2) however, in response to GAO's request for claims data, these departments identified 342 claims, filed from fiscal years 1997 through 1999, that arose from programs contracted from Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs and HHS' Indian Health Service; (3) total damages claimed were about $700 million; (4) about two-thirds of these claims involved Bureau programs, most notably law enforcement; (5) the remaining one-third involved Health Service programs, of which about one-half involved patient care; (6) these claims involved a small number of tribes, (7) although some of these claims remain open, about 70 percent have been brought to closure at a cost of more than $2 million paid; (8) of the claims brought to closure, 127 resulted in settlement payments and 108 were denied; (9) GAO's review identified a number of issues unique to FTCA coverage for tribal contractors: (a) on the administrative side, the federal government may be paying more than necessary to resolve claims involving tribal contractors; (b) to the extent that tribes use federal funds to purchase private liability insurance that duplicates their FTCA coverage, it is possible that the federal government is paying twice--once for tribes' insurance premiums and once to settle tribes' FTCA claims; (c) the potential for duplicative liability coverage exists for tribal contractors because of tribes' long-standing practice of carrying private insurance to cover a wide range of activities, including those now covered under FTCA; and (d) neither Interior nor HHS routinely checks to determine whether tribal contractors have private liability insurance that could cover these claims; (10) on the legal side, several issues have emerged from recent lawsuits that illustrate area for which FTCA coverage is not a perfect fit for tribal contractors; (11) Under FTCA, federal courts have exclusive jurisdiction to resolve claims, and the act provides for the removal of such claims from state courts; (12) however, there is no similar removal authority for such claims filed in tribal courts; and (13) therefore, cases filed in tribal court can be problematic because FTCA does not provide the necessary authority to remove such cases from tribal court to federal court, where jurisdiction resides. https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-00-234/html/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-00-234.htm https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-00-234/pdf/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-00-234.pdf GAO/T-RCED-00-234 https://www.govinfo.gov/app/details/GAOREPORTS-T-RCED-00-234 Testimony GAO/T-RCED-00-234; Federal Tort Claims Act: Claims History and Issues; Minority contractors Native Americans Claims settlement Litigation Torts Government liability (legal) Liability insurance Federal aid programs Title 28 Section 1346 28 U.S.C. 1346 Public Law 105-277