Political Quotes

“Mr. President, I thank Senator Cortez Masto for her talk today. I can tell that she is very passionate about this issue. Both of us were State attorneys general from Western States. We have significant Native American populations, and we are very familiar with the jurisdiction issue. I have seen Senator Cortez Masto question many times in the committee on the issue of jurisdiction. And what I am talking about there--you have Tribal jurisdiction, and then you have Federal jurisdiction, and many times there is some State jurisdiction. So when the Supreme Court in 1978 came out with a ruling in the Oliphant case, they created a big hole, and for almost 30 years, there was a zone that really wasn't being prosecuted. Senator Cortez Masto is very familiar with this. Because of that, we had kind of a situation in Indian Country where, without enforcement, I think some of this violence grew. I am sure that ever since Senator Cortez Masto has been in law enforcement, she has seen this problem and advocated for changes to it, and we have seen dramatic changes with VAWA 2013, which allowed prosecution to take place. I don't know whether any of Senator Cortez Masto's Tribes within Nevada took cases and initiated things, but I think that across Indian Country, it is fair to say that there was very, very extensive effort. I think there have been a number of arrests--143, I think; 74 convictions--and things have really been moving along.…”