The Senate Indian Affairs Committee will hold a hearing tomorrow to focus on backlogs at the Interior Department.

Land-into-trust, land title, probate and other backlogs often affect the ability of tribes and individual Indians to use their land and engage in economic development. The committee looked into the issue twice during the 110th Congress: at a hearing on October 4, 2007 and another on May 22, 2008.

The hearing takes place after a legislative hearing on a trust management bill. The witness list follows:

Panel 1
MR. GEORGE SKIBINE
Acting Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, U.S. Department of the Interior
Accompanied by: MS. VICKI FORREST, Deputy Bureau Director for Trust Services, Ll.S. Department of the Interior

Panel 2
MR. CARL J. ARTMAN
Esquire, Professor of Practice, Sandra Day O'Connor College of Law, Arizona State University

THE HONORABLE DEREK BAILEY
Chairman, Grand Traverse Band of Ottawa and Chippewa Indians

Committee Notice:
OVERSIGHT HEARING: Where’s the Trustee? Department of Interior Backlogs Prevent Tribes from Using their Lands (December 9, 2009)

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Indian Affairs Committee meeting and two hearings (12/7)