AFN weighs late resolutions on permitting bill's historic review title and census plan

Delegates to the Alaska Federation of Natives convention were set to vote Saturday on whether to take up two late resolutions, which the Southeast Alaska Caucus approved by unanimous consent Thursday. One opposes a U.S. Senate permitting bill's rewrite of federal historic preservation review. The other opposes a Census Bureau plan to drop race and ethnicity questions from the 2030 census.

Neither subject is in AFN's regular packet of 48 resolutions. Taking them up requires suspending the rules, which takes a two-thirds vote or unanimous consent. If that passes, delegates vote on each resolution. AFN leadership has not said whether it backs either one.

The first resolution asks Congress to withdraw the historic preservation title of the Bipartisan American Affordability and Jobs Act, and asks Alaska's congressional delegation to oppose the title and vote against the whole bill if it stays in. The bill sits in the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, where Sen. Lisa Murkowski is a member. No hearing has been scheduled.

The resolution says the bill removes tribal consultation requirements. The bill text keeps current law's line that an agency "shall consult" with a tribe that attaches religious and cultural significance to a property. It says an official "may consult" with tribes when identifying historic properties, and a tribe that does not respond within 30 days could be left behind as the agency moves ahead. Preservation programs that regularly miss deadlines could lose grants, Alaska News reported in its breakdown of the bill. The same title also includes money for the Historic Preservation Fund and for tribal preservation offices. The resolution does not mention that money.

The second resolution opposes two rules the Census Bureau proposed Sept. 10. One would bar questions about race, ethnicity or sexual orientation from the census questionnaires used to count the population. The other would count people where they lawfully spent the most days between Jan. 3 and April 1.

The bureau says the proposal would not restrict those questions on its separate American Community Survey, that questions about tribal membership "are not necessarily questions about race and/or ethnicity," and that it plans to consult with tribes. The resolution asks the bureau to withdraw the changes until it has consulted tribes and studied how federal programs and funding formulas use American Indian and Alaska Native census data.

"An undercount or miscount can make Tribal communities appear smaller or less in need than they are," the resolution says.

The Alaska Municipal League has urged the bureau to reconsider the residence rule and keep the race and ethnicity questions. The bureau is taking comments through Nov. 2.