For the second time, the Bush administration has extended the
public comment period on a major set of trust reform regulations.
In a Federal Register notice published last week, the Bureau of
Indian Affairs said it would take comments on the proposal until
March 12. That gives Indian Country more than a month to weigh
in on a broad set of rules affect probate, land title, land
conveyances and other trust issues.
"The BIA and Office of Secretary again are extending the comment period by 45
days to ensure that all interested parties, including tribes and individual
Indians, have the opportunity to review the proposed rule and prepare their
comments," the January 25 notice stated.
The regulations can be easily accessed at
http://www.doitrustregs.com, a web site set up for
the Interior Department by a private contractor.
But that wasn't the case when the 600-plus page proposal was first announced
in December 2005.
The National Congress of American Indians complained about the sheer
size of the undertaking as well as its scope. The Bush
administration subsequently dropped some controversial sections --
one affecting the land-into-trust process and another that would
impose a fee structure on tribes and individual Indians for trust services.
Amid efforts to settle the Cobell trust fund lawsuit, the
administration then proposed a dramatic reshaping of its trust
relationship with tribes and individual Indians.
Over 10 years, the government would slowly cede control
over the 54-million Indian estate and would no longer
accept liability for alleged mismanagement.
With those ideas effectively shelved for now, the Interior
Department is still responsible for carrying out a wide range of duties.
The proposed regulations are divided into seven major
sections: probates, tribal probate codes, the
BIA's Land Title and Records Office, land conveyances, estates,
administrative appeals and probate hearing procedures.
Within the land title section, Interior wants to charge a
fee for maintaining accurate information about allotments.
Exceptions can be granted if the service involves land
consolidation, which seeks
to reduce the number of individual owners for particular
parcels of trust property.
The other sections seek to implement the American Indian Probate Reform Act
of 2004. The law, which amends the Indian Land Consolidation Act,
establishes a uniform probate code for individual Indian allotments
that were previously handled under state laws.
The law also encourages tribes to adopt their own probate codes.
The proposed regulations define how the Interior Department will
review the codes.
To submit comments, interested parties can follow some forms
on the DOI site, or go to http://www.regulations.gov
and use the identifier 1076-AE59.
Comments can also be submitted via email, fax or mail. Michelle Singer, an
aide at the BIA in Washington, D.C., is overseeing the effort.
January Federal Register Notice:
Notice of reopening of comment period for proposed rule |
PDF
November Federal Register Notice:
Notice of
reopening of comment period for proposed rule | PDF
August Federal Register Notice:
Indian Trust
Management Reform; Proposed Rule | PDF
Relevant Documents:
Proposed
Regulation Changes (Posted by the Inter-Tribal Monitoring Association)
Relevant Links:
National Congress of American Indians - http://www.ncai.org
Intertribal
Trust Fund Monitoring Association - http://www.itmatrustfunds.org
Indian
Trust: Cobell v. Norton - http://www.indiantrust.com
Cobell
v. Norton, Department of Justice - http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm
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