In FY2020 Congress appropriated $50 million dollars towards the Defense Community Infrastructure Program.

This irreparably ruins over 1,000 years of Indigenous culture and ceremonial sites. It is a complete failure of the Federal Government's trust responsibility and lack of respect for Native people in this country.

The United States must amend its current policies for land development and create legislation that mandates sustainability and environmental protection--not just when it is convenient but consistently and all-of-the-time.

There is a reason that most of us in this Congress has--have opposed Medicaid block grants. These are devastating programs.

no President and no administration in the last 50 years has done more to undermine Medicaid than Donald Trump.

Those of us in Indian Country know that when Federal agencies fail or refuse to engage in tribal consultation on a project, mistrust can result.

We strongly support an approach to making public lands and waters a part of climate solutions that recognizes the important role of conservation in mitigating the effects of climate change.

It is shameful and it is immoral.

thank you for the recognition, and I very much appreciate Senator Carper talking about the wonderful, young employees whom we have around us and the young people who come here who are dedicated and work, and we have some great ones on the…

It is almost like Tribes are an afterthought, when they should be a forethought.

And the idea that this land that is hallowed ground could be used for this type of training, it is really sacrilegious, in a way, to the people whose lives you will affect.

Consultation and community engagement has to come first, especially when sacred lands are involved.

Fox Peak is a highly sacred site to the Fallon Paiute Shoshone Tribe, and the BLM has identified this area as a special Area of Critical Environmental Concern.

You understand that we are on Indian land right now, and every single inch of this country was Indian land long before it was ever the United States of America.

It is just concerning to me that the Navy could craft their end-product proposal, having it essentially ready to come up here, and then call a few conversations with Tribal leaders 'consultation.' That is not consultation. It is not just a…

Their ancestors are buried there. And I hope you understand that as well, that when you have people buried, it becomes hallowed ground.

I feel that we need to actually hear from the Tribes here, or have their report in the record.

Last year, a U.S. district court judge in Mississippi ruled that Mississippi's laws, "unequivocally," violated the Fourteenth Amendment and found that the law demonstrated that Mississippi was, "bent on controlling women and minorities,"…