The
Indian Health Service might end up owing at least $2.7 million as part of a self-determination case in Alaska.
Arctic Slope Native Association manages the
Samuel Simmonds Memorial
Hospital under a self-determination agreement with IHS.
The organization claims it's owed $2.7 million in unpaid contract support costs for fiscal years 1999 and 2000.
In December 2010, the
Federal Circuit Court of
Appeals ruled that IHS didn't have to cover the shortfall.
But the
U.S. Supreme Court vacated that decision and ordered new proceedings in light of
Salazar v.
Ramah Navajo Chapter.
"[W]hen an agency makes competing contractual commitments with legally available funds and then fails to pay, it is the government that must bear the fiscal consequences, not the contractor,"
Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote for the court in the Ramah decision.
The
Indian
Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act authorizes federal agencies to enter into
contracts with tribes and Alaska Native entities to manage federal programs. The
law requires the government to pay for the cost of the programs, plus additional
"contract support costs."
Congress, however, has failed to provide enough appropriations to cover the contract support costs. That doesn't excuse the executive branch, the Supreme Court said in Ramah.
Get the Story:
Uncle Sam Owes Yet More Money to Tribes
(Courthouse News Service 6/25)
Supreme Court Decision:
Salazar
v. Ramah Navajo Chapter (June 18, 2012)
Federal Circuit Decision:
Arctic
Slope Native Association (December 15, 2010)
Related Stories:
Supreme Court orders new ruling for contract
support cost case (6/25)
Long battle expected
over self-determination contract support (6/22)
Trial to begin in dispute over self-determination
contract costs (6/20)
Supreme Court
backs tribes in self-determination contract case (6/18)
Lloyd Miller: Supreme Court to rule in
self-determination lawsuit (06/06)
SCOTUSBlog: Recap of argument in self-determination
suit (04/19)
Turtle Talk: Commentary on
self-determination argument (4/19)
Supreme Court transcript from self-determination
case (4/18)
Supreme Court set for
hearing in self-determination case (4/16)
Supreme Court agrees to take up self-determination
dispute (01/09)
Supreme Court puts off
action on self-determination litigation (11/28)
10th Circuit sides with tribes on
self-determination contracts (5/9)
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