Heidi Heitkamp

One of the things we hear back is that they have found that the negotiating process for a cooperative agreement is complex and can be burdensome.

We have set a policy in this body and going forward of tribal self-determination.

In fact, approximately a third of all production in North Dakota actually occurs on the reservation.

Can you tell me, are those kind of take it or leave it or are those negotiable?

So you have requested modification, but there has been no response back.

I think allowing that flexibility for each tribe to craft that appraisal scheme how they deem best would probably be the best approach.

It would be a travesty for that money to disappear and not be used.

But, again, I am very concerned that we not categorize all these kids in one basket, that it is critically important that we understand that this is more complicated than just a number of children being smuggled in for a better life in the…

I am deeply concerned about on a number of levels, and you are hearing kind of a broad scope of concern for the children, the safety of the children, but also concern for the safety of our border and who are these kids.

I would suggest that there would be a huge incentive to continue that effort on the South Border if the refugees were stopped at our border.

We need better cooperation, better communication with those other three countries to make sure.

My point is, as we are trying to deal with this humanitarian crisis for those who truly are there in that category, we need to double-down on the law enforcement portion of this so that we know what, in fact, we are dealing with, and those…

We need to be very careful that not every kid is going to fall into that category and that not doing the metrics on the front end is disturbing.

Obviously, their Southern Border Strategy, in this case, is--it may be--their efforts to build out the Southern Border may have caused this surge. I do not know. We should be asking that question.

We just need to make that clear. It does not mean that kids who are being smuggled do not eventually become trafficked.

I think it is critically important, as the Secretary has done in Education, bring in all the relevant agencies in this area.

Indian Country, like a lot of other places where you see a higher level of poverty, basically, it lacks financial institutions.

It is troubling, because securitizing a loan, frequently is it done with land.

We must work together to create opportunities for our Native American communities.

If we stabilize the situation, if we are able to provide for women and children in every corner of the world, we will have a much more stable, much more gracious, and I think, a much better world.

We know those countries that are most violent against their women and children, who are most impoverished are the least stable, present the greatest national security risk.

They expect leadership. And a lot of us who confront this problem at home, confront the discussion at home as we move into a period of isolationism, a lot of us get asked why should we care.

I urge this committee... to help with this problem around the world.

We want to work with you. We want to get ideas from you.

We have a major problem in this world.