Aaron Payment, the chairperson of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, was among the Indian Country witnesses at a Democratic hearing in Washington, D.C., on January 15, 2019. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)

National | Politics | Trust

Leader of Bureau of Indian Affairs works through government shutdown

Tuesday, January 15, 2019

By Acee Agoyo

• RECAP: Indian Country shares #ShutdownStories

The Trump administration wants tribes to know that Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Tara Sweeney has not been furloughed. In fact, she's among the thousands of government employees who are working through the shutdown without pay.

Speculation about Sweeney's status was raised during a Democratic hearing on Capitol Hill on Tuesday morning. Aaron Payment, the chairperson of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians, said the new face of the Bureau of Indian Affairs had been sidelined as a result of the impasse.

"The Assistant Secretary for American Indian issues is on furlough so she can't even call us," Payment told Democratic members of the U.S. House of Representatives, including Rep. Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico) and Rep. Sharice Davids (D-Kansas), who are the first two Native women in Congress.

House Natural Resources Committee Democrats on YouTube: Democratic Hearing on Shutdown Impacts on Indian Country and the Environment

The statement drew immediate concern. "The Assistant Secretary is on furlough?" asked Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Illinois).

"The Assistant Secretary is on furlough," repeated Payment, who also serves as vice president of the National Congress of American Indians.

"I have her cell phone, so I call her," Payment continued. "But she said: 'I can't answer questions.'"

But it turns out Payment was mistaken, according to the Trump administration. A spokesperson at the Department of the Interior confirmed after the hearing that Sweeney has been at work since the shutdown began on December 22.

"She is coming into work," deputy press secretary Faith C. Vander Voort told Indianz.Com.

Rep. Betty McCollum (D-Minnesota): “Once again we have failed to meet our trust and treaty responsibilities to tribal nations.” #ShutdownStories pic.twitter.com/Jslf5bQmGv
— indianz.com (@indianz) January 15, 2019

An official at the BIA also relayed the same message. According to the Indian Affairs Shutdown Contingency Plan, Sweeney is among those considered "essential" to the agency's operations.

That means Sweeney isn't getting paid, just like the 5,100-plus other BIA employees who are also working through the shutdown.

"This is an unfortunate miscommunication," the official said of the possible conversation between Payment and Sweeney.

And a third person who has worked at the White House and for a federal agency also told Indianz.Com on Tuesday that Sweeney has not been furloughed during the shutdown.

Despite the disconnect, the shutdown has definitely impacted the BIA. According to the BIA Shutdown Contingency Plan, 2,295 employees, out of 4,057, are subject to furlough. That's more than half of the workforce at the agency.

The situation looks a lot better at the Bureau of Indian Education, where schools are forward funded so they are up and running during the shutdown. Of the 3,334 employes there, all but 40 are subject to furlough, according to the BIE Shutdown Contingency Plan.

Together, the number of BIA and BIE employees who are working through the shutdown without pay comes to 5,066. Another 81 in the Office of the Assistant Secretary -- including Sweeney -- are in the same boat, bringing the total number of retained employees to 5,147.

Chairperson Aaron Payment of Sault Ste Marie Tribe: “This shutdown violates the trust responsibility to tribal nations and adds to the trail of broken treaties. I’m here to remind the Trump administration that your mortgage payment is due.” #ShutdownStories @NCAI1944 pic.twitter.com/c48hioEFgi
— indianz.com (@indianz) January 15, 2019

Payment brought up Sweeney after Kelly asked how the Trump administration has been handling the shutdown. He said it was far different than the last long-term shutdown, which lasted 21 days during the Obama era.

"During the 2013 shutdown, in advance, the Obama administration held tribal leader calls and alerted us," Payment said of that impasse. The government "created, basically, a triage plan to deal with the shutdown."

"With this shutdown, we were given less than 24 hours notice," Payment said.

"I don't know that this was planned," he said later in the hearing.