Statement of Administration Policy: S. 2342 - Mississippi Sioux Indian Judgment Fund Act Amendment

(SENT 3/30/92)
(Senate)
(Daschle (D) South Dakota)

The Administration strongly opposes Senate passage of S. 2342. This bill would grant to three Mississippi Sioux Indian Tribes an ad hoc legislative waiver of the statute of limitations so they could bring an otherwise time-barred challenge to the 1972 Mississippi Sioux Indian Judgment Act. If S. 2342 is presented to the President, the Attorney General will recommend that the President veto the bill.

The 1972 Act apportioned to the three Mississippi Sioux Indian Tribes, and to an undetermined number of Sioux Indians who are not members of those Tribes, a percentage share of the proceeds from a 1967 judgment against the United States. The judgment rested on a finding that the United States had not paid adequate compensation to the Tribes in the 1860s for lands ceded to the United States. (The non-member Indians are descendants of Indians who were members of the Tribes in the 1860s.)

The Tribes were active participants in the legislative process leading to the 1972 Act, and they endorsed the Act's distribution of the judgment. Nonetheless, in 1987, 15 years after enactment and nine years after the statute of limitations had run, the Tribes challenged the distribution of funds to the non-members. The Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed a lower court's decision to dismiss the case, finding no excuse — legal, equitable, or otherwise — for the Tribes' failure to challenge the 1972 Act in a timely fashion. The U.S. Supreme Court declined to review the Ninth Circuit's decision.

There are no extraordinary circumstances or equities to justify an exception to the Administration's policy against ad hoc statute of limitations waivers. Moreover, a waiver would mean the waste of the considerable judicial and litigation resources that have already been expended in bringing this case to a final resolution. As indicated by Executive Order 12778, the Administration is resolved to eliminate unnecessary, wasteful litigation. In keeping with that resolve, the Attorney General, beginning with this bill, will recommend that the President veto special bills that waive statutes of limitation or otherwise provide special jurisdictional treatment in the absence of extraordinary circumstances.