Indian Trust Asset Reform Act

Floor Speech

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Mr. HECK of Washington. Mr. Speaker, I rise today to support H.R. 812, the Indian Trust Asset Reform Act, and I commend it to you for your positive consideration.

When you stop and think about it, this word ``trust'' actually has two pretty distinct meanings. It can be the belief that someone or something is honest, trustworthy, the belief that you can take them at their word.

On the other hand, ``trust'' can also be a financial or a property arrangement. A trust is legally held or managed by someone else. It could be for your kids or your grandkids or any beneficiary.

But the irony is a trust in the property management sense is that that often arises out of a lack of trust, as in honesty, when it comes to the person or source receiving the money. It is not a check handed over. It is a financial arrangement with conditions or requirements.

When it comes to Indian Country, they have plenty of historical reasons to lack trust when it comes to the Federal Government; but, the Federal Government does not have reasons to not trust Indian Country's ability to manage their own resources, and natural resources are what have always been the most important asset in Indian Country.

The Indian Trust Asset Reform Act is based on the simple notion that Indian Country prospers when tribes have the opportunity to make their own decisions and chart their own paths. This is what self- determination looks like. This is what sovereignty looks like.

Many tribes, particularly those in my home State of Washington, are among the largest employers and natural resource managers in the entire region. Tribes in the Pacific Northwest have an abundance of trust resources on their land, from timber to rangeland, to fishery resources.

These tribes count on the ability to make decisions quickly to adjust to changing circumstances and to maintain vibrant communities for their members and the region as a whole.

H.R. 812 advances this idea by giving tribes new authority to propose and enter into management plans with the Department of Interior, plans that put the tribes in the driver's seat.

H.R. 812 also returns more control to tribal members, who are often frustrated by, as has been noted earlier, years-long delays that they must go through in obtaining Federal approval to sell or lease or otherwise manage their trust lands.

H.R. 812 would give individuals and tribes a new option to complete these transactions without having to wait for the Department of Interior to go through all that lengthy review and approval process.

Accordingly, it will save time, it will save money, but, most importantly, it will allow the tribes to make their own decisions about how to use their historic lands.

When we find commonsense fixes like this, we restore some of the trust, in the first meaning of the word, and build upon the trust that is already there.

Twenty-seven years ago, if I may make a personal note, I had the privilege to join the office of Governor Booth Gardner in a role that would quickly become chief of staff. Fairly shortly, we signed off on a document known as the Centennial Accord. My good friend and colleague from Washington State will recall it well.

Basically, it was the first memorialization in the history of the United States that recognized the government-to-government relationship between the tribes and the State of Washington.

I have said regularly since, in an intermittent public service career extending back 40-some years, I have no higher point of pride than the small role I played in that, lo, those many years ago.

Accordingly, I would like to thank Congressman Simpson very much for his leadership on this bill and for allowing me the privilege to be the Democratic lead cosponsor.

I would like to add my expression of gratitude to Chairman McClintock and the gentlewoman from Massachusetts (Ms. Tsongas) as well as our ranking member, all those involved.

I would like to thank the Affiliated Tribes of Northwest Indians and its Trust Reform Committee. Let it not go unsaid that there was a decade of work leading up to today, a decade of work.

``Sovereignty'' means sovereignty. ``Government-to-government'' means just exactly that. The fact of the matter is we have a moral and a legal and sometimes a treaty obligation to fulfill that government-to- government relationship. It is the right thing to do.

It is in that spirit that I submit H.R. 812 for your favorable consideration.

BREAK IN TRANSCRIPT

Source