Senate Indian Affairs business meeting and hearing

Politics

Thursday, June 19, 2008

The Senate Indian Affairs Committee held a business meeting and a hearing this morning.

Seven items were on the agenda for the business meeting. They were:

1. Subpoena to order the Secretary of the U.S. Department of the Interior to release the Tribal Jails Report
2. S.1255, the Indian Arts and Crafts Amendments Act of 2007
3. S.531, A bill to repeal section 10(f) of Public Law 93-531, commonly known as the "Bennett Freeze"
4. S.1080, the Crow Tribe Land Restoration Act
5. S.2489, the Oglala Sioux Tribe Angosturra Irrigation Project Modernization and Development Act
6. S.160, the Lower Brule and Crow Creek Tribal Compensation Act
7. S.2494, the Spokane Tribe of Indians of the Spokane Reservation Grand Coulee Dam Equitable Compensation Settlement Act

All of the bills were approved. The subpoena was not adopted because the committee was provided with two copies of the report. The committee instead voted to include the report in the record of today's hearing.

The business meeting was followed by a hearing draft bill to address law and order in Indian Country. Audio clips follow:

• Opening Statements | Business Meeting
• Additional Opening Statements | Sen. John Thune Testimony
Panel 1 - Testimony | Q&A
THE HONORABLE RON HIS HORSE IS THUNDER
Chairman, Standing Rock Sioux Tribe

THE HONORABLE JOSEPH A. GARCIA
President, National Congress of American Indians

THE HONORABLE GRETCHEN SHAPPERT
United States Attorney, Western District of North Carolina, United States Department of Justice; Chair of the Department's Native American Issues Subcommittee, Charlotte, North Carolina

MR. W. PATRICK RAGSDALE
Director, Office of Law Enforcement Services, U.S. Department of the Interior

PROFESSOR KELLY STONER
Director, Native American Legal Resource Center and Clinical Programs, Oklahoma City University School of Law

MR. WALTER LAMAR
President and CEO, Lamar Associates