Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, and Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota) are seen at a committee hearing on July 12, 2017. Photo: SCIA

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Sen. Heitkamp defends law enforcement's response to #NoDAPL movement

Wednesday, August 2, 2017

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp (D-North Dakota) is known as an outspoken advocate for Indian Country's most vulnerable, particularly youth, but her efforts don't extend to the #NoDAPL movement.

In a letter to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, Heitkamp defended the way local and state law enforcement responded to the movement. Even though officers repeatedly employed aggressive tactics and relied on assistance from non-licensed security firms, she said they "performed admirably."

"North Dakota law enforcement performed admirably under immense pressure and scrutiny to maintain the peace and protect public property, including federal land," Heitkamp wrote on Monday.

As a result, she believes the state is entitled to $13.85 million in "compensation" from the federal government. She called on the Department of Justice to award a grant under an "emergency" assistance program that excludes tribes.

"Despite the location on federal land and stress to local resources, federal support was extremely limited throughout the engagement," Heitkamp wrote in the letter, which her office released on Tuesday.

The so-called "engagement" lasted from late July / early August 2016 through the middle of February 2017. During that time, the state claims it spent $40 million to keep up with anti-pipeline activities.

Even though the state is flush with billions of dollars in energy production taxes, Gov. Doug Burgum (R) asked President Donald Trump for an emergency disaster declaration in hopes of recovering some of the costs. The request was denied in May.

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But the state didn't seem to be too bothered because Heitkamp and Sen. John Hoeven (R-North Dakota), the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, secured $15 million for the Emergency Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Program in an appropriations bill that Trump signed into law that same month.

The provision was buried deep in the H.R.244, the Consolidated Appropriations Act. It's found in Section 542, on page 233 of the 1,665-page measure.

To get the money, the two lawmakers had to dig even deeper. They went all the way back to a law passed in 1984 that authorizes states -- but not tribes -- to seek "emergency" assistance from the federal government for law enforcement crises.

The unique provision allows the state to obtain reimbursement for events that occurred in "fiscal years 2016 and 2017," which would basically cover the 233 days that the governor said were spent by law enforcement. The #NoDAPL encampment, parts of which were located on federal land, was officially shut down in February after hosting tens of thousands of people.

According to the Bureau of Justice Assistance, an agency at the Department of Justice, the Emergency Federal Law Enforcement Assistance Program has been used by states to deal with earthquakes, hurricanes, the standoff at Waco, Texas, in 1993 and the Rodney King and Reginald Denny cases in California.

In her letter, Heitkamp said the state spent so much time on the #NoDAPL movement because the Obama administration never made a decision on the final portion of the pipeline in North Dakota. That changed right after Trump took office -- he directed his team to "expedite" the project and it was approved two weeks later over the objections of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe.

A federal judge has since ruled that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers failed to consider the tribes' concerns about treaty rights, water resources and environmental justice. But the decision came after oil started flowing through the pipeline on June 1.

The tribes are hoping to shut down operations while the case continues. The wealthy backers of the pipeline, with support from the energy industry, is strongly opposing their request.

Judge James Boasberg ordered the Army Corps to conduct a more thorough review of the final portion of the pipeline, which crosses federally-managed land less than a half-mile from Standing Rock. But the Trump team has indicated it will take months before it gets there.

"The Corps is actively evaluating the issues remanded to it by the court and expects to complete its review of those issues by late December 2017," government attorneys wrote in a July 17 brief.