A key Congressional appropriator is questioning why the Bush administration wants
to spend up to $7 billion to end the Indian trust fund debacle, saying
the Cobell and tribal lawsuits lack "real substance."
As chairman of the House subcommittee that
handles the Interior Department's budget,
Rep. Norm Dicks (D-Washington) holds a powerful position.
He has used his role to block the administration's
cuts to a wide range of Indian programs, from tribal colleges to construction of
new schools to Johnson O'Malley education grants.
"On the whole, the president's budget request for the Bureau of Indian Affairs is the same
as we have seen in the past," Dicks said at a hearing last Thursday.
"Relatively flat, or reduced, funding has left many programs at the bureau struggling."
Dicks, a sixteen-term member of Congress, said Indian programs will continue
to suffer under the threat of the Cobell trust fund lawsuit and more than 100 tribal
lawsuits.
But he questioned why the administration has proposed to settle the litigation
after administration officials told him Indian and tribal beneficiaries
aren't owed much money for mismanagement of their funds and assets.
"Why are we considering paying the tribes $7 billion if that's the case?" asked Dicks,
after Jim Cason, the associate deputy secretary at Interior, said few errors have
been found in the Indian trust accounts.
Cason and other officials have said a settlement to the Cobell lawsuit, which covers an account of
funds held in trust individual Indians, would fall in the low millions.
He said the administration is offering more in order to settle a potential
lawsuit over mismanagement of land owned by individual Indians, and to
resolve all of the pending tribal claims.
Dicks, however, said historical accounting projects have shown the allegations to be baseless.
Over the last five years, Interior has spent $175 million to look at accounts for
individual Indians and tribes.
"We've spent hundreds of millions of dollars to find out there's no basis for this,"
Dicks said.
After Cason said "there may be" some basis for the lawsuits, Dicks objected even more.
"How many more millions do we have to spend to find that out?" Dicks responded.
Cason said the accounting hasn't gone back to 1887, the inception of the Individual
Indian Money (IIM) trust, and hasn't delved too deeply into paper records because
Interior has mainly focused on electronic records. He also noted the accounting
has employed statistical sampling rather than a transaction-by-transaction analysis.
Despite the qualifications, Dicks didn't think the picture would change with further
examination of the accounts.
"That's a pretty good indication that we're never going to find anything of real substance here," he
added.
The comments came a day after Elouise Cobell, the lead plaintiff in the lawsuit,
and others said the case was worth far more than what Dicks and Interior are
willing to accept. At a Senate hearing on Wednesday, an
independent mediator suggested a settlement in the range of $7 billion to $9 billion.
The tribal lawsuits, on the other hand, are potentially worth more. Tribes
own a larger portion of the Indian estate -- 45 million acres compared to 11
million acres for individual Indians -- and have staked larger claims of asset mismanagement.
In the 1990s, Interior attempted to reconcile the tribal trust but came up with major holes.
The Arthur Anderson accounting firm, which has since gone out of business,
said it could not find documentation for at least
$2.4 billion in transactions, and said the IIM accounts were in far worse shape.
Even the Government Accountability Office has said a full historical accounting of
the trust accounts is "impossible."
Despite the shortcomings, the Bush administration continues to argue that individual
Indians and tribes are owed little.
At the Senate hearing, a top Department of Justice official refused to concede
any liability for the lawsuits even though U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales
once told Congress the tribal cases were worth more than $200 billion.
"Without being able to get into the details of a pending litigation, we still foresee
the high likelihood that if litigation proceeds, some tribes would
ultimately receive no recovery, while many others would receive far less than the amount they
seek," said Bill Mercer, the acting associate attorney general.
Cason reiterated the same point at the House hearing and said the accounting efforts are a "strong
indicator" that the Cobell and tribal suits are largely without merit.
But he refused to answer Dicks directly when asked why the administration wants
to settle the cases for up to $7 billion.
"If there was something real here, you would have found it," Dicks said.
Although the settlement is not before Dicks' subcommittee, the lawmaker has the power to
limit any proposal to address the Cobell and tribal cases.
In years past, he supported a controversial appropriations
rider to block an historical accounting of
the IIM trust.
When that provision was eliminated amid a huge uproar in Indian Country, Dicks
and the subcommittee came back the following year with another rider that imposed
a "time out" on the accounting. And in an equally controversial move,
Dicks supported a rider to pay the attorney fees of Interior officials
like former deputy secretary J. Steven Griles, who has since pleaded guilty
to lying to Congress.
Settlement Letter:
Kempthorne-Gonzales
to SCIA (March 1, 2007)
Relevant Documents:
Alberto
Gonzales Testimony (March 1, 2005) | SCIA
Views and Estimates (March 1, 2007)
Relevant Links:
Indian Trust: Cobell v. Kempthorne - http://www.indiantrust.com
Cobell
v. Norton, Department of Justice - http://www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm
Related Stories:
Gonzales' trust testimony downplayed (3/30)
Listening Lounge: House hearing on BIA-OST
(3/30)
Mediator suggests $7-9B settlement for Cobell (3/30)
Jodi Rave: Cobell calls trust offer 'insulting'
(3/30)
Senate hearing on
Indian trust fund litigation (3/29)
Gonzales won't testify on trust fund
(3/28)
Supreme Court refuses Cobell
appeals (3/27)
Editorial: The
billion-dollar question (3/26)
Senate
hearing on trust fund litigation on Thursday (3/26)
The downfall of J. Steven Griles (3/26)
Blast from the Past: NBC segment on Cobell
(3/21)
Opinion: US owes Indians billions
for theft (3/14)
Bush aide linked to
Special Trustee firing resigns (3/14)
BIA names new director for Navajo regional office
(3/14)
Mother Jones: Pennies on the
dollar for Cobell (3/12)
Bush proposes
$7B trust fund settlement (3/8)
Dorgan
and Thomas disagree on Cobell settlement (1/22)
Jodi Rave: Cobell sees hope for case in new
year (1/20)
NewStandard: Tribes turn to
court over trust funds (01/08)
Jodi
Rave: Interior mum on class action tribal suit (01/05)
Tribes file class action trust accounting
lawsuit (01/04)
Cobell honored by AARP
Magazine for trust work (12/19)
New
Cobell judge knows Interior Department (12/13)
Rahall outlines Indian agenda for 110th Congress
(12/11)
New judge assigned to Cobell
trust fund case (12/08)
Cobell wins
Impact Award from AARP Magazine (12/7)
Editorial: No hope for a Cobell-only settlement
(12/1)
McCain staffer: No 'hijinx'
during lame-duck (11/24)
Editorial:
Another good shot emerges for Cobell (11/10)
Cobell says Bush kills legislative settlement
(11/9)
Tribal opposition to trust reform
bill growing (11/2)
Editorial: End
federal management of trust (11/1)
Tribes face trust challenges from Bush
administration (10/31)
Cobell attorney
criticizes Bush changes to bill (10/27)
Staff confirms Bush behind Cobell proposals
(10/26)
Bush seeks major changes to
Cobell bill (10/24)
Senate committee
holds more Cobell meetings (10/23)
Time
running out on Cobell settlement bill (10/23)
Cobell sees parallels in Aboriginal wage theft
(10/16)
NCAI to consider resolution in
support of Cobell bill (10/6)
Bush
assailed for 'ambush' on Indian health care (10/5)
Latest delay in Cobell settlement tied to White
House (10/3)
Cobell: Interior mishandles
Indian money too (10/2)
Navajo woman
fights for trust fund accountability (9/25)
Senate committee sends Cobell letter to Kempthorne
(9/18)
Interior delays Cobell settlement
legislation (9/15)
McCain firm on $8B
settlement for Cobell (9/5)
Senate staff
to discuss Cobell settlement in Tulsa (8/30)
Cobell shifts appeal strategy to keep judge on case
(8/29)
Cobell fights for judge in trust
fund case (8/25)
Senate committee to
discuss Cobell settlement (8/24)
Human
Rights Magazine: Cobell, Native issues (8/22)
Editorial: Justice for Indian account holders
(8/18)
Professor: Removal of Judge
Lamberth a tragedy (8/7)
Cobell eager to
settle Indian trust fund lawsuit (8/7)
Letter: Nearly $1B wasted on Swimmer's trust reform
(8/7)
Editorial: Stop delaying settlement
to Cobell (8/4)
McCain puts twist in
Cobell settlement bill (8/3)
Bush
officials asked McCain to delay Cobell settlement (8/3)
Cobell settlement bill 'dead' in Congress
(8/2)
Time running out on Cobell
settlement bill (7/28)
Editorial: It's
time for settlement on Cobell (7/28)
Ross Swimmer: Interior still 'working' on trust
(7/28)
Cobell issues statement on
settlement talks (7/25)
Cobell
settlement awaited in Indian Country (7/25)
Jodi Rave: Cobell worried about settlement
legislation (7/24)
Mark Trahant: It's
time for the U.S. to keep its word (7/17)
Editorial: Lamberth too honest in trust fund case
(7/17)
Cooler heads sought in Indian
trust fund fight (7/14)
Lamberth removed
from Cobell trust fund case (7/12)
Lamberth is third judge removed by D.C. Circuit
(7/12)
Cobell settlement rumored to be
in the billions (7/5)
Cobell rallies for
support on trust fund lawsuit (06/19)
Editorial: Give Kempthorne a chance on Cobell
(6/15)
Cobell files contempt charges
against Kempthorne (6/13)
Editorial:
Dirk Kempthorne arrives in Washington (6/13)
Swimmer calls Cobell settlement 'reparations'
(5/8)
Cobell: Settle Indian trust fund
case for billions (4/20)
Cobell to appear
on C-SPAN Washington Journal (4/12)
Cobell renews call for receiver as court hears case
(4/12)
Cobell vows fight to resolve
trust fund lawsuit (4/10)
Cobell plans
big showing on day of court hearing (4/4)
Jodi Rave: Tribes alarmed at trust reform
initiative (4/3)
Cobell addresses trust
fund mismanagement (3/30)
Ross Swimmer:
Indian trust not about mismanagement (3/29)
Norton denies fraud or major problem with trust
(3/29)
GAO report warns of billions in
lost oil, gas royalties (3/29)
Witness
list for hearing on Indian Trust Reform Act (3/28)
DOI trust reform meeting set for Portland, Oregon
(3/24)
Kempthorne faces hot issues at
Interior Department (3/21)
DOI pressed
for more clarity on trust initiative (3/3)
Congress urged to settle Cobell lawsuit for
billions (03/02)
Listening Lounge: Joint
hearing on Cobell v. Norton (03/01)
Interior hits the road with new trust reform
initiative (02/08)
Jodi Rave: Garcia
calls for settlement of Cobell (2/3)
Cason slashes BIA budget and blames it on Cobell
(2/3)
Tribes discuss trust reform bill,
Cobell settlement (1/31)
Commentary:
Swimmer still not telling the truth on trust (1/26)
Opinion: Indians want $12B of 'YOUR' money
(01/10)

Cobell | Trust
Lawmaker cites 'no basis' for Cobell and tribal lawsuits
Wednesday, April 4, 2007
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