The Tribal Law and Order Act is coming up for reauthorization; another Senate Appropriations subcommittee agreed to recommend funding for Indian Country from the Crime Victims Fund; legislation to authorize Healing to Wellness courts is moving along; and a bill to repeal a long list of archaic laws has been introduced.
Tribal Law and Order Act
The Tribal Law and Order Act, signed into law in 2010, is due to be updated and reauthorized. After convening a hearing and a roundtable discussion of the TLOA in December and February, Senator Barrasso introduced a reauthorization bill, S. 2920. The new bill addresses many of the concerns raised in the two considerations of the current program.
Witnesses from the Department of the Interior and the Justice Department, while interested in some minor changes, were generally supportive of the bill, particularly sections relating to
- alternatives to incarceration for youth
- notice to tribal authorities when a tribal youth is arrested in federal or state jurisdiction
- better tribal access to criminal record data
- reassumption of concurrent jurisdiction with states (PL280).
Tribal Youth and Community Protection Act
In the same hearing, S. 2785, the “Tribal Youth and Community Protection Act” was considered. This bill would expand law enforcement jurisdiction over non-Natives involved in crimes of violence against women or children, drug crimes, and violence against tribal police. Senator Tester, who introduced the bill, reported that 90 percent of the violent crimes against Native American victims were committed by non-Indians.
Tracy Toulou, the witness from the Justice Department, concurred that the new authority – over non-Indians – given in the Tribal Law and Order Act and the Violence Against Women Act Amendment had some gaps. The scope of conduct that is covered is somewhat confusing. Violence is within tribal jurisdiction, for example, but attempted violence is not. Violence toward anadult may be covered, but not against a child who may even be in the same room. And tribal police have no jurisdiction to bring charges about violence toward themselves, tribal prosecutors, or tribal courts. S. 2785 would cover these gaps. Even so, he recommends against expanding beyond domestic violence cases – into drug cases.
Committee members expressed deep concern about the effects of the opioid epidemic in Indian Country and challenged Toulou to explain the lack of funding to support tribes – even those in a partnership with the Federal Justice Department – to defeat the epidemic. Toulou noted that the wide dispersal of “meth kitchens” makes perpetrators harder to catch. Unlike interception of a large shipment of drugs across a border, this type of enforcement requires more people, more time and therefor more money. Still the collaboration between tribes and the federal government has resulted in some large raids and arrests.
Funding for VAWA implementation
The Department of Justice has just released a grant solicitation for tribes and tribal law enforcement agencies who need support to implement the expanded jurisdiction recognized under the Violence Against Women Act. Although the amendments passed in 2013, funding to support implementation was not made available until the passage of the 2016 omnibus appropriations bill, which included $2.5 million for the purpose. That’s not much money. If even just one quarter of the 567 tribes apply and qualify, that’s just over $17,000 per tribe.
Other Justice News
In late April, the SCIA voted to approve S.2205 which authorizes support for Tribal Healing to Wellness courts. The bill is now ready to be considered on the Senate floor.
Appropriations for Native American Crime Victims
Last April, FCNL joined Native American organizations in lobbying for a “set-aside” for Native American victims from the Crime Victims Fund which is collected from the fines and fees paid by convicted persons and part of which is made available to states to assist victims of crime. Tribes have not been included in that allocation. When the Senate Appropriations committee considered appropriations for the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State, Senators Tester, Murkowski and Daines offered an amendment to “carve out” 5 percent of the annual allocation from the Crime Victims Fund to create victim assistance grants for tribes. The grants, which may be used by tribal governments to “improve services and justice for victims of crime” may provide approximately $145 million for those purposes, according to estimates by the National Congress of American Indians.
It’s still on the books
A law (14 USC 283) that requires Native American parents to send their children (up to age 21) to school, or lose their food assistance. And other sections that would cut off all government assistance to a tribe that has access to alcohol (14 USC 130) or that holds a “white citizen” captive (14 USC 129).
Senator Rounds from South Dakota, has decided it’s time to clean up some of these old laws, and get them off the books. He has introduced S.2796 to delete some of these embarrassing (at best) artifacts of history.
