For anyone familar with the Indian Trust Fund case, aka Cobell v. Norton, weaving it's way through federal court and piling up more than a few contempt orders for Interior Department staff, including the Secretary herself, this action by the Legislative branch of the federal goverment should raise a whole slew of red flags:
House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee Approves Legislation to Force Settlement of Individual Indian Trust Account Claims – Last week, the House Interior Appropriations Subcommittee approved a legislative rider to the FY2004 Interior Appropriations bill that would give the Secretary of the Interior the authority to unilaterally settle any claim relating to the accounting or the balance of any individual Indian money account (IIM accounts). The Secretary holds these on behalf of individual Indian beneficiaries for whom the Department of Interior has leased land, or sold timber, oil or other natural resources. The Department of Interior’s mismanagement of these accounts has been well documented and has been the subject of a considerable amount of legislation and litigation.
Under the proposed legislation, the Secretary would have four years to perform a "statistical sampling evaluation" in a manner she deems "feasible and appropriate given the availability of records" to achieve a 98% confidence level in the rate of past accounting error. The Secretary would then have the power to adjust the balances in IIM accounts by applying the error rate to the transactions in an IIM account.
The Secretary’s adjustments to IIM accounts would be final. Judicial review would be limited to reviewing the Secretary’s method for conducting the statistical sampling, and judicial deference to the Secretary would be mandated by application of the Administrative Procedures Act. The legislation would remove jurisdiction from the federal courts to hear any other claims by IIM account holders for accounting or account balances. The legislation is also limited to only those accounts that were open as of Oct. 25, 1994, and would preclude any claims based on predecessor accounts.
The full House Appropriations Committee is scheduled to consider the FY2004 Interior Appropriations bill on Wednesday June 25, 2003 at 10:00am (Room 2359 Rayburn). After this, the legislation will proceed to the full House of Representatives, and the Senate will also mark up an Interior appropriations bill.
As the NCAI analysis sums it up, putting Secretary Norton in charge of settling the trust fund issue is like having Ken Lay square up the Enron shareholders accounts. Or worse, asking Phillip Morris to fairly compensate victims of smoking related injuries. While Indians have generally welcomed Congressional input in the trust fund case, this action by House Republicans was done without consultation with Indian groups, including the Native American Rights Fund, which is overseeing the trust fund case for the plantiffs. At the ongoing trial, presiding Judge Royce Lamberth has become so disgusted with the government's machinations, he has threatened to remove the fund from Interior's oversight and place it in receivership.
Please contact your Representative and Senators and urge them to reject this bid by Republicans to further empower a department which has shown itself time and again to have acted in bad faith. While it may eventually be necessary for Congress to help mediate a solution to the trust fund problem, Cobell v. Norton should be allowed to conclude uninterrupted.
Posted by MB at June 25, 2003 12:01 PM | TrackBackthe link to the ncai has a typo in it: ncia.org instead of ncai.org
Posted by: CrowGirl at June 26, 2003 01:38 AMSince this day is my birthday (and I'm part Indian), I also remember why June 25th is special in American Indian history.
Posted by: John Isbell at July 5, 2003 11:17 PMCutler Betsy, everybody loves mixed metaphors once in a while, but it can get tedious.
Posted by: a_grilled_fish at May 11, 2004 11:47 PMCutler Betsy, everybody loves mixed metaphors once in a while, but it can get tedious.
Posted by: a_grilled_fish at May 11, 2004 11:47 PMSorry, a bit of Deja vu...
Posted by: a_grilled_fish at May 11, 2004 11:49 PM