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Listening Lounge: House hearing on BIA-OST
Friday, March 30, 2007
Filed Under: Cobell | Politics | Trust

The House Interior Appropriations subcommitee held a hearing on Thursday on the fiscal year 2008 budget proposal for the Bureau of Indian Affairs and Office of the Special Trustee.

Associate deputy secretary Jim Cason and Special Trustee Ross Swimmer testified. They were accompanied by Carl Artman, the new assistant secretary for Indian Affairs.

You can listen to audio clips of the hearing. Recommended for download is the second round of Q&A with Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Washington), the chairman of the subcommittee, and Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R-Kansas), the ranking Republican.

After Tiahrt asked about the Interior Department's project and Cason explained it, Dicks questioned why the Bush administration was offering a $7 billion trust settlement when the accounting purportedly shows few errors in the system. Dicks also said Judge Royce Lamberth, who was removed from the Cobell case last year, was not "rational."

Other topics of interest include the elimination of the Johnson O'Malley education program and the Housing Improvement Program. Lawmakers were also concerned about methamphetamine and law enforcement in Indian Country.

Rep. Ed Pastor (D-Arizona) asked about power issues on the Hualapai Reservation. Rep. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) asked about the failure to complete the Navajo Indian Irrigation Project.

NCAI Indian Country FY 2008 Budget Request:
Visions for a Safe and Self-Reliant Native America (January 25, 2007)

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