Charles Taylor: “the gentleman raises a legitimate point. The Indian trust settlement language is an authorizing issue, but before I…”

“the gentleman raises a legitimate point. The Indian trust settlement language is an authorizing issue, but before I concede the point of order, let me point out the rationale behind this important provision. Last year, this House debated a provision limiting funding for the historical accounting of the individual Indian money accounts. During debate over this provision, both the majority and the minority members of the authorizing committee assured us that legislation would be developed forthwith to address the Indian trust issues. This did not happen. However, this year, the new chairman of the Committee on Resources, which is the legislative committee of jurisdiction for Native American issues, has held a hearing on this critical issue and has informed me of his intention to develop legislation to resolve the Indian trust issue this year. I am convinced that, without intervention by the Congress, this issue will continue to drag on for years at the expense of other important programs in the Interior bill. The committee proposed what I believe is a prompt, fair and reasonable resolution of these long-standing claims. To date, hundreds of millions of dollars have been spent on lawyers and accountants and not a single dollar has gone to Indian country. Mr. Chairman, if this contentious litigation continues, we will be forced to redirect resources away from Indian education, health, wildlife, law enforcement and other important Indian programs.”