Suzanne Bonamici

According to the Fourth National Climate Assessment, if we don't address our aging and deteriorating infrastructure by 2025, we're talking about $3.9 trillion.

We urge you to hold a hearing in your committee and appreciate the opportunity to work with you to provide oversight into this issue on a broad, bipartisan scale.

We are also concerned about the Department's lack of communication and consultation with the BIE and tribal leaders.

The Department should be working with the BIE to adhere to the federal trust responsibility to provide all American Indian students the opportunity to learn and achieve academic success.

The concerns about sending students home--and I want to ask you and then ask Ms. Keith--what could Chemawa have done differently?

As a parent, I cannot imagine what you went through and what you are still going through. Thank you for your courage in being here.

Thank you for the clarification.

We are concerned that the withholding of BIE's Title I funding will affect the BIE's ability to provide a high-quality education to American Indian students.

I am really disturbed at not even allowing students to wear tribal clothing. That baffles me. I don't understand that.

Congressman Schrader and I have been working with the school.

We are really concerned that the BIE schools are failing to meet the needs of students who have experienced historical trauma.

It is also not easy for Marshall's family or Melissa's family or Flint's family or Robert's family.

It should not take that long to get answers to questions to Members of Congress who have a responsibility to make sure that these students are being safe.

What steps are Chemawa, BIE, and BIA currently taking to proactively communicate to parents of Chemawa students that there are limits on what information about student health can be shared without a student's explicit consent?

That needs to be changed. That kind of thought process needs to be changed because they're there, and if somebody needs medical attention--if I see somebody on the side of the street, I am going to stop and help them. This is their job.

And of course Flint Tall, who Ms. O'Renick discussed, and more recently Robert Tillman, both died shortly after leaving Chemawa, raising serious alarms about student safety.

This was very powerful testimony. I want to start, Ms. Willis and Ms. Keith, thank you so much for being here and telling your stories.

The Federal Government has a responsibility to the school's Native students, and it is my hope that today's hearing will help us better understand what steps need to be taken to get Chemawa back on track so current and future students have…

I request unanimous consent to enter into the record an opening statement that expresses many of the concerns about abuse, fraud, mismanagement, and lack of safety at Chemawa Indian School outlined by the witnesses and my colleagues.

Not only was this an incredible scientific achievement, the release of the first-ever image was of course--sort of shattered the glass ceiling for women in STEM.

I also want to congratulate the National Science Foundation and the entire team around the world for this groundbreaking work on the Event Horizon Telescope project.

We are here today to examine the Older Americans Act, a critically important pillar of our efforts to improve the quality of life for older Americans and their families.

This hearing is an important first step.

Just Monday at home in Oregon I heard about an 80-year-old woman who was living in the back seat of her car.

People in the United States of America should be able to retire and age with dignity.