Field Hearing: Oversight field hearing titled “Examining 50 years of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act in Indian Country.”
Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs
2025-04-04
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Source: Congress.gov
Participants
Transcript
Resources will come to order. Good morning, everyone. I want to welcome you to our hearing, especially our witnesses, the members who traveled here, some who live here, and the guests in the audience today as we conduct this hearing. And we also want to welcome those who are tuning in online. Since this is a congressional hearing, like all congressional business, we opened the session with the posting of the colors and the Pledge of Allegiance. So it is my honor to recognize the Putnam City High School Color Guard for the presentation of the colors. And we also have Mr. Hurd who will lead us in the Pledge of Allegiance. So if you'll please rise. Thank you. You may be seated.
Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess of the committee at any time. The committee is meeting today to hear testimony for an oversight hearing entitled Examining 50 Years of the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act in Indian Country. Under Committee Rule 4F, any oral opening statements at hearings are limited to the chairman and the ranking minority member. I therefore ask unanimous consent that all other members' opening statements be made part of the hearing record if they are submitted in accordance with Committee Rule 3-0. Without objection, so ordered. By way of introduction, I'm Congressman Bruce Westerman from Arkansas' 4th Congressional District, and I serve as the Chairman of the Committee on House Natural Resources. I'm grateful today to be joined by several members who represent the great state of Oklahoma and other members from on and off our committee who have traveled here to talk about these very important issues. I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from Oklahoma, Mr. Lucas, the gentlewoman from Oklahoma, Ms. Bice, and the gentleman from Texas, Mr. Elsie, be allowed to sit and participate in today's hearing. Without objection? So ordered. I will now recognize myself for an opening statement. Again, thank you for joining us today for the committee's first field hearing of the 119th Congress. Special thanks to our hosts, Representatives Bice and Lucas, for being with us today and for your hospitality during the visit. I know we were in Representative Bice's district last night. We're in Representative Lucas's district this morning. At the end of the 118th Congress, I expressed my desire for our first field hearing this year to focus on engaging with tribes and to continue a meaningful discussion on how Congress can best collaborate to uphold the United States' trust responsibilities to Native American communities. We hosted a roundtable in DC last November that engaged members of Congress and tribal leaders from across the country to discuss how to best expand economic opportunities, enhance health care delivery for tribal communities, among other topics.
From the discussion at the roundtable, it was evident there is considerable interest in Congress and among tribal leaders for increased dialogue focused on enhancing tribal self-governance, promoting economic opportunities, and improving the quality of life for tribal communities. Since the 1970s, the United States has pursued a policy of self-determination for tribes, enabling tribal governments to direct the services provided to their members. It was President Nixon who said, and I quote, we must make it clear that Indians can become independent of federal control without being cut off from federal concerns and federal support. Simply put, tribes know best how to serve their people. As a result, Congress enacted the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, or ISDEA, in 1975. This law, Public Law 93-638, which is commonly referred to as 638, established the statutory basis for self-determination contracts and later self-governance compacts. Through the authorities provided in ISDEA, tribes can establish systems to provide essential services that promote economic development and improve health care delivery for their members, among other things. Today's hearing features tribes that have utilized the 638 authorities to assume responsibility for delivering essential services to their members from the federal government. Ensuring consistent and culturally appropriate health care in Indian Country is a challenge for the federal government. However, by centering the responsibility at the local level, Indian nations have improved health care access and delivery for both their tribal citizens and those in the surrounding communities. When it comes to economic development, government processes such as those required to process land transactions must move at the speed of business, not at the glacial speed of the federal bureaucracy.
Tribes have taken innovative steps to cut federal red tape, develop locally grown solutions, enable themselves to compete in a global marketplace. We will hear several such success stories today. Unfortunately, despite the success of the 638 program, tribes continue facing challenges in expanding the scope of 638 contracts and compacts to other federal departments and agencies. The United States has a nation-to-nation relationship with each federally recognized tribe, and each tribal nation is unique. As such, the federal government must not adopt a one-size-fits-all approach. I hope this hearing will provide us with a better understanding of the role self-determination agreements play in enabling tribes to serve their people most effectively. I also hope we'll identify opportunities for Congress and tribes to improve the 638 authorities and the relationships that exist between the federal government and tribal governments. I look forward to hearing the testimony of our witnesses and to the discussions that will follow. I now recognize the ranking minority member for any opening statement. Thank you so much, Chair Westerman, for holding these hearings.
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