Heidi Heitkamp

You should be ready when it happens.

I consider the lack of law enforcement resources in Indian Country, especially for our gaming tribes, to be one of the most critical issues Indian Country is confronting.

If people are not safe, if people are not protected, this has to be one of your top priorities in your Acting role.

I think that when we are looking at the additional challenges that gaming brings to Indian Country... it has challenges.

I appreciate your response to the letter that I and other members of this Committee sent on human trafficking.

We want to make sure all of the people involved in your industry... are well trained and can recognize the signs of human trafficking, especially when it involves small children.

You should have read the story and said, 'Is this true? Let us go find out.'

If the Chinese Government did everything possible economically, with sanctions, with trade, with relationships, would it effectively achieve a deterrence from further progression in North Korea to acquire a nuclear weapon?

I think that is the ultimate challenge here going forward, which is finding parallel purpose with the Chinese in achieving this result.

We desperately need to expand rural broadband, which, along with Shelly Capito, we are working very hard in my office.

We are very, very interested in making sure that the historic commitment that the Federal Government has made to rural development...none of that would be possible if we had not electrified, if we have not--now looking at broadband, if we…

The other test is can they stream Netflix, right, because if you cannot stream Netflix, if you cannot get access to broadband, it is going to be increasingly more difficult.

In fact, I have two tests on whether I think a rural area will survive. First is do we have rural water, which is absolutely critical going forward for many, many families, to make sure that the water is pure and clean.

Senator Heitkamp came to Arizona to tour our NAC facility with me and her staff is actively working on replicating the NAC recovery model in North Dakota.

What does that say? It says that somehow we have normalized this behavior to the point that we are not getting through.

To we get our arms around this problem, I will just tell a story.

I would also like to acknowledge Senator Heidi Heitkamp's efforts as an anti-trafficking ally.

I have worked to try to improve conditions for Native children pretty much my entire public life.

I will start out with a story and it goes to what Ms. Matthews was talking about.

Thank you, Chairman Hoeven and Vice Chairman Udall for having this hearing.

Senator Heitkamp also graciously asked me to participate in an anti-trafficking roundtable in Bismarck, North Dakota.

We cannot normalize this behavior. If we are going to prevent this behavior, we have to look at the conditions beginning with childhood trauma.

I am deeply concerned that we do not really have a handle on what we are doing in cybersecurity.

I think we are woefully short.

I honestly believe people trust the regulators at Las Vegas to make sure that that slot machine is fair more than they trust you.