{"id":226700,"date":"2025-09-16T18:01:19","date_gmt":"2025-09-16T23:01:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=226700"},"modified":"2025-09-17T10:23:45","modified_gmt":"2025-09-17T15:23:45","slug":"witness-list-for-senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-hearing-on-self-determination","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/09\/16\/witness-list-for-senate-committee-on-indian-affairs-hearing-on-self-determination\/","title":{"rendered":"Witness list for Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on self-determination"},"content":{"rendered":"\"Senate<\/a>
A totem at home in the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building in Washington, D.C. Photo by Indianz.Com (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0)<\/a><\/figcaption>\r\n
Witness list for Senate Committee on Indian Affairs hearing on self-determination<\/div>\r\n
Tuesday, September 16, 2025<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Senate Committee on Indian Affairs<\/a> is observing a significant milestone in the era of self-determination and self-governance.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act<\/a> became law 50 years ago in 1975<\/a>. Since then, tribes have asserted greater control of their affairs by operating programs previously managed by federal agencies.\r\n

<\/p> \r\nIn observation of the 50th anniversary, the committee is holding an oversight hearing on Wednesday afternoon titled “Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act Successes and Opportunities at the Department of the Interior and the Indian Health Service<\/a>.” A panel of tribal and federal witnesses are slated to testify about the law and its impacts on federal programs at the Department of the Interior<\/a> (DOI) and the Indian Health Service<\/a> (IHS), which is part of the Department of Health and Human Services<\/a> (HHS).\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe hearing takes place at 2:30pm Eastern in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building in Washington, D.C. The witness list follows:\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMr. Kennis Bellmard [TESTIMONY<\/a>]
\r\nDeputy Assistant Secretary for Policy and Economic Development
\r\nU.S. Department of the Interior
\r\nWashington, DC\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMr. Benjamin Smith [TESTIMONY<\/a>]
\r\nActing Director, Indian Health Service
\r\nU.S. Department of Health and Human Services
\r\nWashington, DC\r\n

<\/p>\r\nThe Honorable Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. [TESTIMONY<\/a>]
\r\nPrincipal Chief
\r\nCherokee Nation
\r\nTahlequah, Oklahoma\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMr. Victor Joseph [TESTIMONY<\/a>]
\r\nExecutive Director
\r\nTanana Tribal Council
\r\nTanana, Alaska\r\n

<\/p>\r\nMr. Jay Spaan [TESTIMONY<\/a>]
\r\nExecutive Director
\r\nSelf-Governance Communication and Education Tribal Consortium
\r\nTulsa, Oklahoma\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice<\/div>\r\n \r\nOversight Hearing entitled \u201cIndian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act Successes and Opportunities at the Department of the Interior and the Indian Health Service\u201d<\/a> (September 17, 2025)\r\n

<\/p>\r\n

Related Stories<\/div>
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs schedules two hearings on federal programs<\/a> (September 4, 2025)<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is observing a significant milestone in the era of self-determination and self-governance.","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":227277,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_vp_format_video_url":"","_vp_image_focal_point":[],"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,20,13,1,14],"tags":[5366,78,79,2135,77,76,118,248,210,6285,6760,127,213,193,189,91,1134],"class_list":["post-226700","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health","category-indian-trust","category-law","category-national","category-politics","tag-119th","tag-alaska","tag-alaska-native","tag-ben-smith","tag-cherokee","tag-chuck-hoskin","tag-doi","tag-hhs","tag-ihs","tag-jay-spaan","tag-kennis-bellmard","tag-oklahoma","tag-scia","tag-self-determination","tag-self-governance","tag-senate","tag-victor-joseph","no-wpautop"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/16\/senatecommitteeonindianaffairs-41.jpg","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pcoJ7g-WYs","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226700","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=226700"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226700\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":227931,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/226700\/revisions\/227931"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/227277"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=226700"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=226700"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=226700"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}