Statement of Administration Policy: S. 1703 - Indian Self-Determination Amendments of 1987

(Senate)
(Sen. Evans (R) Washington and 12 others)

While the Administration supports efforts to expand Indian self-determination, and has proposed a tribal self-governance demonstration program in the President's fiscal year 1989 budget to enhance self-determination, it opposes enactment of S. 1703 because the bill would:

—    unjustifiably expand Federal Tort Claims Act protection to all Indian self-determination contractors, thus making the Federal government financially liable for everyday accidents that (1) it had no hand in causing, (2) it had no ability to prevent, and (3) have no connection whatsoever to its obligations to Indian tribes;

—    add to the already generous benefits for Federal employees who are displaced from their jobs as a result of contracting out, by providing six months pay and unspecified cash awards — in addition to normal severance pay or retirement benefits — for those whose jobs are eliminated by contracting with tribal organizations;

—    authorize a tribal self-governance demonstration program that differs from the President's in that it bars participating tribes from voluntarily choosing to forego any part of their Federal trust protection, thereby ensuring that these tribes will continue to be burdened by day-to-day oversight and interference by the Federal bureaucracy;

—    limit tribal autonomy by requiring congressional appropriation action before tribes may change their funding priorities among contracted programs;

—    broadly exempt Indian Self-Determination contracts from Federal contracting laws and regulations without clearly specifying that this does not exempt tribal contractors from certain requirements generally applicable to Federal assistance programs (e.g., allowable cost controls); and

—    fail to include an effective enforcement procedure to assure that beneficiaries of tribal prpgrams or activities funded by the Act receive the full protection of rights secured by the Indian Civil Rights Act.