Post by Okwes on Nov 19, 2006 23:40:24 GMT -5
Campaign for House Committee on Indian Affairs gets under way Posted:
November 17, 2006
by: Jerry Reynolds <http://www.indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=331> /
Indian Country Today
www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414006
<http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414006>
WASHINGTON - The National Congress of American Indians has named the
establishment of a standing Committee on Indian Affairs in the House of
Representatives as the top priority of Indian country in the upcoming
110th Congress.
In a Nov. 8 letter to incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., NCAI President Joe Garcia identified the tribes' primary
problem with the House Committee on Resources, currently the committee
of jurisdiction on most Indian-specific proposals taken up in the House.
''Far too often tribal concerns are pitted against the concerns of
members who are trying to move non-Indian related legislation out of the
House Resources Committee,'' Garcia wrote. ''Time and time again, Indian
legislation has been sacrificed for individual parochial interests on
non-Indian issues.''
Larry Rosenthal, a lobbyist on the issue for Ietan Consulting Group,
said the reason for the proposed new committee is that Indian-specific
bills and proposals should be ''judged on the merits.''
In only the past year, variations on the phrase ''I'd like to help you
but I've got an issue in my state'' have been heard often enough by
Indian-issue advocates to raise complaints outside the committee. One of
these advocates, speaking anonymously so as not to be perceived as
predicting the will of Congress, said chances of achieving a House
Committee on Indian Affairs are decent, but added that the creation of a
new standing committee will not be taken lightly in the House. A
standing committee can only be established by a vote of the full House.
(A standing committee is a permanent committee, as opposed to a
temporary select committee.)
In the House, the speaker's office refers legislation to committees by
subject matter, meaning a handful of committees may have some
jurisdiction over Indian issues. (The Resources Committee is assigned
those Indian issues that have to do with the Interior Department, which
is to say most of them but not all.) These committees would have to
yield jurisdiction on Indian issues to a standing committee.
In the alternative, the House could create a subcommittee on Indian
affairs. But leading proponents of a standing committee, including Rep.
Dale Kildee, D-Mich., co-chairman of the Congressional Native American
Caucus, would consider that a step down from the present committee
structure. From a subcommittee, Indian issues would have to get the
attention of the full committee. Under current rules of the Resources
Committee, Indian issues are already addressed at the full committee
level.
From the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and its commerce clause
until 1946, Congress maintained Indian-specific committees of one
description or another. But in 1946, at the outset of two decades
universally known among tribes as the ''termination era,'' Congress
collapsed the historical Indian committees into multi-issue,
resource-related larger committees. The Senate revived its Indian
committee as a select committee in the 1970s and made it a full standing
committee in 1984.
The House has never revived the full Indian Affairs committee
extinguished in 1946. In the 1970s and again in the 1990s, the House
named subcommittees on Indian Affairs, but eventually located
jurisdiction in, first, the Interior Committee, and then at the full
committee level of House Resources.
November 17, 2006
by: Jerry Reynolds <http://www.indiancountry.com/author.cfm?id=331> /
Indian Country Today
www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414006
<http://www.indiancountry.com/content.cfm?id=1096414006>
WASHINGTON - The National Congress of American Indians has named the
establishment of a standing Committee on Indian Affairs in the House of
Representatives as the top priority of Indian country in the upcoming
110th Congress.
In a Nov. 8 letter to incoming Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi,
D-Calif., NCAI President Joe Garcia identified the tribes' primary
problem with the House Committee on Resources, currently the committee
of jurisdiction on most Indian-specific proposals taken up in the House.
''Far too often tribal concerns are pitted against the concerns of
members who are trying to move non-Indian related legislation out of the
House Resources Committee,'' Garcia wrote. ''Time and time again, Indian
legislation has been sacrificed for individual parochial interests on
non-Indian issues.''
Larry Rosenthal, a lobbyist on the issue for Ietan Consulting Group,
said the reason for the proposed new committee is that Indian-specific
bills and proposals should be ''judged on the merits.''
In only the past year, variations on the phrase ''I'd like to help you
but I've got an issue in my state'' have been heard often enough by
Indian-issue advocates to raise complaints outside the committee. One of
these advocates, speaking anonymously so as not to be perceived as
predicting the will of Congress, said chances of achieving a House
Committee on Indian Affairs are decent, but added that the creation of a
new standing committee will not be taken lightly in the House. A
standing committee can only be established by a vote of the full House.
(A standing committee is a permanent committee, as opposed to a
temporary select committee.)
In the House, the speaker's office refers legislation to committees by
subject matter, meaning a handful of committees may have some
jurisdiction over Indian issues. (The Resources Committee is assigned
those Indian issues that have to do with the Interior Department, which
is to say most of them but not all.) These committees would have to
yield jurisdiction on Indian issues to a standing committee.
In the alternative, the House could create a subcommittee on Indian
affairs. But leading proponents of a standing committee, including Rep.
Dale Kildee, D-Mich., co-chairman of the Congressional Native American
Caucus, would consider that a step down from the present committee
structure. From a subcommittee, Indian issues would have to get the
attention of the full committee. Under current rules of the Resources
Committee, Indian issues are already addressed at the full committee
level.
From the ratification of the U.S. Constitution and its commerce clause
until 1946, Congress maintained Indian-specific committees of one
description or another. But in 1946, at the outset of two decades
universally known among tribes as the ''termination era,'' Congress
collapsed the historical Indian committees into multi-issue,
resource-related larger committees. The Senate revived its Indian
committee as a select committee in the 1970s and made it a full standing
committee in 1984.
The House has never revived the full Indian Affairs committee
extinguished in 1946. In the 1970s and again in the 1990s, the House
named subcommittees on Indian Affairs, but eventually located
jurisdiction in, first, the Interior Committee, and then at the full
committee level of House Resources.