Political Quotes

“we pretty much laid out the facts in this debate. There is no question about the Indian Health Service. I completely agree with my friend from South Dakota. There are a couple of points I make. If his amendment is successful, it has great ramifications regarding the amount of money going to individual Native Americans, to the tribes, and to trust accounts this year. This transfer of funds shuts down the operation of this historical accounting procedure. This is a problem that has been building for the last 10 or 15 years. In fact, it got so bad under the last administration, the court finally held the Department of Interior in contempt because they were not forthcoming with the figures. Why? Because there was no way to do it. There was no way to present the court with any actual figures to settle the litigation. The ramifications, if we shut this down: South Dakota alone has 35,714 open accounts. Their annual disbursement to those accounts now under present conditions is over $84 million; Oklahoma, $90 million; my home State, $87 million; $101 million, the State of Washington. That money will not be mailed this year. On this old reorganization--and we have heard a lot of talk about where is it going, what policy shall we have--the policy is being dictated by the courts. Maybe the policy is we should be on historical accounting so we know accurately what is owed and what is not.”