Jon Tester

Is that the way we do consultation?

What would you do differently than the last two counts, if in fact you have folk who don't want to report because they are afraid their numbers are going to go down?

I think it is critically important to utilize those, I will just tell you from my perspective, they can do a lot of legwork for you.

The impact would be basically that you would get less dollars per student.

The trust responsibility of the United States is not limited to the Bureau of Indian Affairs or the Indian Health Services.

Tribal nations deserve a voice in the decisions that affect their communities.

What do you mean by traditionally? I am sorry I am taking so much time, Mr. Chairman.

I am just going to follow up on where Senator Heitkamp was.

I want to applaud these bills for pointing out the areas where different parts of the Administration can work together and better serve Indian Country.

That is a tough combo.

At one of the last legislative hearings, the Department indicated they were working to develop a comprehensive, long-term plan to completely resolve the BIE backlog in construction of schools.

It is a huge problem.

I get my telephone and my electricity from a co-op.

It is total BS, and I can tell you what BS means, but it is total wrong.

I don't think it makes a lot of sense to you either.

Other than money, what is the biggest obstacle to the deployment of high-speed internet?

Access to high-speed internet should not be a luxury.

I certainly appreciate the Chairman's time because it really was beneficial to me and to the Tribes.

I appreciate you holding a hearing on a topic that is vitally important to tribal communities which, quite frankly, doesn't get enough attention.

I would not be in favor of, well, we just get rid of the Post Office.

I think the Postal Service is pretty important, especially for rural areas.

I think we're doing our best to increase the money that would go to States and tribes and the money that we can provide in assistance to local communities.

I think we have significant challenges to look at how we push towards the type of water and wastewater technologies that are going to be amenable to what we're seeing today in the emerging technologies of the future.

It seems to me it would be nice to have it the other way.

Because we had pretty good crops in Montana the last 5, 6 years, I've been able to swap out my equipment, my tractors.