House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs (Begich): Legislative Hearing

Good afternoon, everyone. The Subcommittee on Indian and Insular Affairs will come to order. Without objection, the chair is authorized to declare recess of the subcommittee at any time. Subcommittee is meeting today to hear testimony on 4 bills that are before us. Under Committee Rule 4, any oral opening statements at hearings are limited to the chairman and to the ranking minority member.

I therefore ask unanimous consent that all other members' opening statements be made part of the hearing record if they are submitted in accordance with Committee Rule 3.0. Without objection, so ordered. I ask unanimous consent that the gentleman from California, Mr. Issa, be allowed to sit and participate in today's hearing. Without objection, so ordered. And I will now recognize myself for an opening statement.

Good morning, everyone, and thank you to all of our witnesses for being here today. As we consider 4 important bills affecting Indian Country. Taken together, these bills reflect several of the core responsibilities of the subcommittee: supporting tribal self-determination, improving public safety and healthcare access, preserving culturally significant lands and wildlife, and ensuring federal policies work in a practical way for tribal communities. First on the docket is H.R. 1010, Introduced by Ranking Member Leger Fernandez of New Mexico, which seeks to improve public safety in Indian Country.

The bill directs the Attorney General to appoint tribal facilitators to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System, strengthens coordination and information sharing among tribal, federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies, and creates additional tools to support missing and murdered indigenous peoples investigations in tribal law enforcement capacity. Public safety in Indian Country remains a top priority and is one of the most serious issues that this committee confronts. And I'm grateful for the ranking member's continued leadership on this issue. I do note for the record that sent— the Senate companion to this legislation received a Congressional Budget Office score that raises budgetary and procedural concerns that we will need to work through. And I look forward to continuing to work with the ranking member on those issues.

Next, we will consider HR 7954, the Don Young Doug LaMalfa Indian Buffalo Management Act, which I am proud to sponsor. This legislation directs the Department of the Interior to work collaboratively with tribes and tribal organizations to support the restoration and management of buffalo on tribal lands. The buffalo holds deep cultural, spiritual, and historical significance for many tribal nations, and its recovery is one of the great conservation success stories in this country. This bill was previously introduced as the Indian Buffalo Management Act, but has been renamed to honor Congressman Dong Young and Congressman Doug LaMalfa, two strong advocates for Indian Country and longtime supporters of this effort. Both worked tirelessly to advance this legislation, and it's an honor to continue their work here today.

Our third bill is H.R. 8483, Introduced by Representative Issa of California, which would place approximately 836 acres of BLM and Forest Service land into trust for the Barona Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians. This land carries significant cultural and historical importance for the Barona Band and would reconnect their present reservation with historic lands. Finally, we will consider H.R. 8658, Introduced by Representative Kennedy of Utah, which addresses a practical challenge facing tribal patients who receive care outside of Indian Health Service facilities.

Through the purchased and referred care program. Under current policy, patients generally only have 72 hours, 3 days, to notify IHS after receiving emergency care. In many rural and remote communities, that timeline is simply unrealistic. This bill extends the notification period and helps ensure tribal patients are not unfairly left with significant medical bills because of logistical barriers that are outside of their control. Each of these bills addresses different issues, but all are rooted in the same broader principle: federal policy should support tribal communities in a way that is practical, respectful, and responsive to real-world conditions on the ground.

I want to thank each of our witnesses for being here today, and I look forward to a productive discussion. At this point, the chair now recognizes the ranking minority member for any statement, Ms. Leger Fernandez from the State of New Mexico. Ms. Leger Fernandez. Thank you very much, my chair, or the committee's chair, but we have a, as you can tell, we have a very good working relationship. And I want to thank everybody who is here testifying, who has come to listen, and who might be tuning in for joining us today.

Time and again, tribes tell us that a lack of federal funding and resources limits their ability to serve their communities. And sometimes that can be deadly. Nowhere is that more important than the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women. So I want to thank both Chairman Westerman Herd for including my bill, the Badges for Native Communities Act, at today's hearing. Right now, Indigenous women are murdered at 10 times 10 times the national average.

84% Of American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced a form of violence in their lifetime.

84%. That means that when you look around in a Native community, there's one woman who has not, out of 10.

That should break our hearts enforcers to take policy action. And so many women and their families don't even report cases to the federal government because of a lack of trust and responsiveness. The need to coordinate across tribal, federal, state, and local law enforcement leaves too many chances for missing people to fall through the cracks. And ultimately, too many predators see Native women as prey, because they believe there will be no consequences. And there are major jurisdictional issues that we still need to address in solve.

But today we're taking an important step, I believe, in trying to find some of the cracks that we can fill. And so many times when I'm out in Indian Country, you know, our tribal leaders will tell me that they need more officers to respond to emergencies. They need more officers in patrol cars. It takes people. To create an area of safety in our reservations.

And that's why the Bipartisan Badges Act helps to fix these problems. First, the bill appoints tribal facilitators to improve data collection coordination across jurisdictions. These facilitators would work with tribes and non-tribal law enforcement to report information about missing persons and human remains to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons System. Next, the Badges Act works to hire BIA law enforcement officers more quickly. Creates a 5-year demonstration program to allow BIA to conduct its own background checks and still maintain high standards.

Right now, DOD completes the background checks and it takes anywhere from 120 days to 9 months. So people who want to work in law enforcement, they simply can't wait around for 9 months to get their clearance. And we know it's possible to do it quicker because those tribes with 6 '38 contracts do it quicker. So the last thing the Badgers Act does is provide grants to states, tribes, and tribal organizations to help document and develop resources to better investigate Missing Persons Act. That would include efforts to establish a regional or statewide center to improve coordination.

The Senate passed the bill unanimously in December, and I hope the House will move quickly to pass it. And now to the other bills on this agenda. I am so proud to co-sponsor Chairman Hurds, Don Young, Doug Malmalfoy Indian Buffalo Management Act. I was here sitting in that chair when Don Young was sitting in this chair, and we presented— I managed the bill on the House floor, and you were there, right? It was a wonderful moment, and I am so glad that you have chosen to honor both Don and Doug by naming this bill in their honor.

Because, you know, just the other day, one of our Pueblo leaders in New Mexico pointed out to me that his longstanding buffalo herd was suffering because of the drought. And they were going to have to take some management steps that were going to be difficult, including maybe reducing the herd. This kind of bill can help address that. And finally, the Babone Indian Tribe, I love it, the fact that we are going to bring the lands back together. We're going to make the connections you do and the work that you do with regards to national, the Indian health.

And this is one piece. Of making sure that Native Americans don't face debt that they should not have, just because that timeline is too quick. It's just too quick. And so I'm so glad that we're also able to include that bill in today's hearing. And with that, I yield back.

Perfect timing.

Ranking member yields. At this time, it's my pleasure to introduce our witnesses. The first is the Honorable Raymond Welch, Chairman of the Barona Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians from Lakeside, California. Welcome, Mr. Chairman. It's good to see you.

Next is Mr. Urban Carlson, President of the Intertribal Buffalo Council in Rapid City, South Dakota. Mr. Carlson, it's nice to see you as well. The third witness that we have this afternoon is Ms. Mary Kathryn Nagle, Legal Counsel for the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center in Lame Deer, Montana. Ms. Nagle, it's nice to see you. And our last witness is Ms. Mica Carlos, a board member of the National Indian Health Board here in Washington, D.C.

It's great to have you as well. Let me remind each of my witnesses, each of our witnesses, that under committee rules, they must limit their oral statements to 5 minutes, but their entire— your entire statements will appear in the hearing record. To begin your testimony, there should be a little button in front of you that you press. Press that talk button on the microphone. We do use timing lights here.

When you start, the light will turn green. Yellow means you have a minute, and at the end of your time, The light will turn red, and at that point I would ask you to please wrap up your opening statement or your response to any questions as quickly as possible. When that light turns red, I will also allow all witnesses on the panel to testify before member questioning begins. And with that, the chair now recognizes Chairman Welch for 5 minutes. Mr. Chairman.

Good afternoon, Chairman, Ranking Member. Members of the subcommittee, I am Raymond Welch, chairman of the Barona Band of Mission Indians, formerly known as the Barona Group of Capitan Grande Band of Mission Indians. Thank you for the opportunity to appear before you today and present testimony on behalf of my people. I am here in support of H.R. 8483, A bill that would transfer and place into trust certain federal lands for the benefit of the Barona Band of Mission Indians.

I would first like to thank Congressman Darrell Issa for his strong support of the Barona Band of Mission Indians for introducing this legislation. H.R. 8483 Would transfer 714 acres of land that is currently owned by the Bureau of Land Management and U.S. Forest Service to the Barona Band and Trust. This land is located adjacent to the existing Barona Reservation near Ramona, California, in San Diego County and has deep cultural and historical significance to our tribe. The Barona Band of Mission Indians resides on the 7,500-acre Barona Indian Reservation located in San Diego County.

About 30 miles northeast of the city of San Diego. We are 648 members strong and growing. However, Barona is not our first reservation. Our ancestors purchased Barona property in 1932 after a forced removal from our original reservation, Capitán Grande. The Capitán Grande Reservation, which Barona still has rights to, was established by federal government in 1875 for the Native people that were living in the area at that time.

My ancestors. Capitán Grande had a free-flowing river running through it, and when the City of San Diego needed a place to store water, they negotiated a deal with the federal government to allow them to buy a portion of the Capitán Grande Reservation to build a reservoir. That portion of land was where our families lived, where they tended their gardens, and where we buried our ancestors. The dispossession of land split our community and families. And forced our people to move from their land and relocate the bodies of our ancestors.

As the crow flies, Captain Grandy is about 2 miles north of Barona. A portion of land in between the two reservations is what this legislation seeks to transfer. Despite being a very rough terrain that includes steep hillsides, rough and rocky surfaces, this land has cultural and spiritual value much greater than its actual value. This land would represent a bridge that would connect our two reservations. For the Bronson people, this is not an issue of merely administrative or procedural.

It is deeply personal and tied to our identity as sovereign tribal nation. The lands at issue are not new to us. They are part of our ancestral homeland, lands our people have occupied, stewarded, and depended upon since time immemorial. Long before the United States existed, our ancestors lived on, cared for these lands. Our ancestors hunted, gathered, conducted ceremonies, and built enduring cultural traditions that remain vital to our community today.

These lands hold sacred sites, traditional use areas, and cultural resources that continue to define who we are as a people. However, like many tribes across this country, my people were dispossessed of significant portions of our ancestral lands through federal policies that fragmented tribal land bases and undermined tribal sovereignty. The result is that today much of what was once our homeland is under federal management rather than tribal stewardship. In an effort to reclaim stewardship of these ancestral territories, we have been collaborating with both the Federal Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management to, to carefully consider the lands that were included in H.R. 8483.

We have spent several months working to exclude from the final boundaries rights-of-way public trails, and encumbrance that would potentially present management challenges. Trust acquisition is one of the primary mechanisms by which the federal government fulfills its longstanding trust responsibility to tribal nations. H.R. 8483 Would transfer into trust 714 acres of land that is adjacent to the Bronner Reservation, as shown in the map attached to our testimony. Taking these federal lands into trust represents an opportunity to correct, in part, that historical injustice and will allow us to once again serve as primary steward of lands we know intimately, lands we have cared for across generations.

Essentially, at its core, this request is about restoring the connection that was never truly broken, only interrupted. It is about reaffirming the federal government's commitment to tribal sovereignty and self-determination. And it is about recognizing the Barone people remain, as we have always been, the rightful stewards of our ancestral land. Thank you again for your time and consideration. And we respectfully urge the subcommittee to support passage of H.R.

8483. Yay'ah'hun. Thank you, Chairman Welch, for your testimony. The chair now recognizes Mr. Carlson for 5 minutes. Mr. Carlson.

Good afternoon, Chairman Hurd, Ranking Member Leger Fernandez, and honorable members of the committee. My name is Irvin Carlson, and I'm a member of the Blackfeet Nation. And I'm president of the Intertribal Buffalo Council. I have submitted a detailed statement that I will now summarize. No words will ever sufficiently explain the degree to which so many Indian tribes have depended on the Plains buffalo for their survival.

They provided food, shelter, clothing, and essential tools, to name but a few ways they provided for us. They became one of the most central figures to our culture. And to many of our religious practices. And to this day you will hear Indian people referring to the buffalo as "my relative" to signify how closely connected we are, and they are very sacred to us. Historians tell us that there were once between 30 and 60 million buffalo living on what is now North America, but due to the wanton and unbridled overhunting by non-Indian buffalo hunters, Millions and millions of our buffalo were slaughtered.

The destruction was so complete that by the early 1900s, only a few hundred buffalo remained. Indeed, the population of the Indian people, once numbering in the millions, was estimated to have dropped to 250,000 by the early 1900s. There were only a few hundred buffalo remained. Indeed, the population of the Indian people, like I said, was estimated to drop by 250,000 by the 1900s. On my reservation, we talk about the starvation winter of 1883 when one quarter of the tribal population died, and this was not unique just to the Blackfeet.

Many other tribes suffered similar tragedies. Without the buffalo, Indians were forced to live on reservations and lost much of their historical lifestyle and independence. Sadly, historical records show that the U.S. military was complicit in this near extinction of the buffalo as it provided a way to deal with their Indian problem. The quote attributed to Lieutenant Colonel Dodge, "To kill every buffalo you can. Every buffalo dead is an Indian gone." And that's one that remains in my mind so much.

Thanks to the farsighted efforts of a few tribes working together with efforts of early conservationists, including Teddy Roosevelt, the buffalo were brought back from the brink of near extinction. For the Indian people, the restoration of buffalo herds on our lands began in earnest in 1991 when a handful of Indian tribes organized the Intertribal Bison Cooperative, now known as the Intertribal Buffalo Council. We were granted a federal charter in 2009 pursuant to the Indian Reorganization Act. Our organization has grown significantly, and today I'm proud to tell you that we have 90 tribes in 23 states, all dedicated to restoring herds to our lands. The Indian population of our member tribes exceeds 1 million people.

We greatly appreciate that you, Chairman Heard, Together with Representatives Leger Fernandez, Federchat, Newhouse, Fleischmann, Cole, Begich, Davids, and Bice, have introduced H.R. 7954, The Don Young/Lamalfa Indian Buffalo Management Act. This is a successor to the legislation initially introduced by the late Don Young of Alaska and which he got through the House in the 117th Congress. And before he left this earth, Senators Martin Heinrich and Markwayne Mullin got it through the Senate in the 118th and reintroduced it there in the 119th. Comparable legislation was also introduced in the 118th Congress by Congressman LaMalfa, Congressman Peltola, and others, where it was unanimously reported out of the House Committee on Natural Resources.

Before it could advance further, changes needed to be made to the bill to ensure its consistency with new House protocols. As a result, language in the bill authorizing a new $14 million authorization was deleted, as was language creating a new program in the Interior. The bill now simply directs the Secretary to work with tribes towards its implementation. The Senate bill also deleted those two provisions to be consistent with House protocols. It is pretty basic legislation to assist tribes and organizations like ours in restoring buffalo herds to our tribal lands.

It requires strict compliance with state and federal laws governing the translocation of buffalo, and we had extensive discussions with the cattle industry and agreed to a series of changes they requested to ensure meat safety and to limit buffalo restoration to tribal lands. By enacting this legislation, Congress will be making a statement that assisting tribes in the restoration of their buffalo herds is a priority. Tribes need buffalo fencing, watering systems, genetic diversity in their herds, supplemental feed, and testing, to mention just a few items needed for a successful herd. Some tribes tell us they wish to establish herds for cultural purposes and that a small herd would be sufficient. As a means of teaching their children the history of our people and this great animal and having the meat for special ceremonies.

Others wish to create jobs, use the meat in school lunch program and for community events, and still others hope to grow their herds large enough to get into small-scale commercial production. Our members in Alaska have referenced the need for protein and basic food security, especially when successful subsistence hunts cannot be ensured. Whatever reason, this legislation is very important to the many Indian people, and we hope you will help see it enacted into law this year. And with that, I sincerely thank you for hearing me today on this very important, important issue here, just as all of these issues here from the tribes are very important. Thank you so much, Mr. Carlson.

Really appreciate that. Ms. Nagle, you're recognized for 5 minutes.

Thank you, Chairman Heard and Ranking Member Leger Fernandez, for the opportunity to testify today. My name is Mary Katherine Nagle. I'm a citizen of the Cherokee Nation, and I serve as general counsel for the National Indigenous Women's Resource Center. The NIWRC is a Native-led nonprofit organization working to provide national leadership to promote safety for Native women and communities by supporting culturally grounded grassroots advocacy and strengthening tribal sovereignty. Our primary focus is ending the high rates of violence against our Native women in our communities and the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives.

NIWRC submits this testimony in strong support of H.R. 1010, The Bridging Agency Data Gaps and Ensuring Safety for Native Communities Act. Every day, we work alongside survivors, families, and advocates of domestic violence, sexual assault, and trafficking victims from across Indian Country. They face the devastating consequences of chronically underfunded services and programs, insufficient resources, inadequate data collection, jurisdictional gaps, and fragmented federal coordination. This legislation is long overdue, and Native people are paying the price for the delay.

According to the National Institute of Justice, more than 4 in 5 Americans American Indian and Alaska Native women have experienced violence in their lifetime. And more than half have experienced sexual violence and intimate partner violence. The Centers for Disease Control identified homicide as a leading cause of death for American Indian, Alask— Indians and Alaska Natives, with 45% of homicides of female victims precipitated by intimate partner violence. Many of these cases are never entered into federal databases and never investigated with the urgency they deserve. Leaving families searching for their loved ones on their own.

The Badges for Native Communities Act addresses longstanding systemic failures that leave Native communities and families without adequate support. Title I of the act expands tribal access to the National Missing and Unidentified Persons, NamUs, by requiring federally employed tribal facilitators to conduct ongoing tribal outreach, serve as a point of contact for tribes and law enforcement agencies, and provide training to improve the resolution of missing persons cases. Cases. Enabling tribal law enforcement to access, upload, and utilize the data in NamUs will save lives. Far too many MMIWR families routinely wait months only to learn that the state, county, or federal law enforcement agency they contacted never entered their loved one's name into the database, a failure that is both unacceptable and preventable.

Title I also requires the creation of a report documenting tribal law enforcement needs. Because the federal government has consistently failed to meet its trust and treaty obligations to tribal nations in terms of federal spending, and because the right of tribal governments to collect taxes on their own lands has been significantly truncated by federal law, public safety in Indian Country remains dangerously under-resourced. This report will help policymakers to understand the scope of the funding crisis. Title II grants the Bureau of Indian Affairs authority to conduct its own background checks. Enabling the BIA to hire more officers more efficiently.

This provision is critical. Currently, the Office of Justice Services, OJS, is so severely understaffed that Native families have been waiting for more than 8 months just to receive a return phone call or email concerning the status of their loved one's case. This is the case with Kysarah Staats Pretty Places, a young Crow and Cheyenne teenager who was murdered in Montana in 2019. For 9 months now, her family has been told that no one at the MMU or OJS has time to speak with them. And they are still waiting to hear about the DNA results performed on the clothing when she was wearing when she was killed.

The reason they have been given, every MMU agent in Montana is covering field shifts due to understaffing at BIA. This is not only a resource issue, it is a failure of institutional priority. Title II also establishes a grant program funding states, tribes, and tribal organizations to coordinate efforts to search for missing persons. This funding is essential for tribes precisely because federal law enforcement has consistently consistently refused to make such searches a priority. The case of Ella Mae Begay illustrates why this matters.

Ella Mae went missing on the Navajo reservation 5 years ago. Just 2 weeks ago, her family sat in a federal court and listened to the Assistant United States Attorney argue that the government should release the defendant with just time served. The reason the family was given was because the FBI had never been able to recover Ella Mae's body, and they felt the evidence in the case was too weak to win the case at trial, despite the defendant's confession to having kidnapped Ella Mae, from her home, knocking her unconscious, and disposing of her body by the side of the road on the reservation. When Ella Mae's family asked whether the FBI had used a drone to search for her body on the reservation, a vast land base with challenging terrain, the response was no, because the FBI cannot afford one. If the FBI can afford a 6-figure reward for information leading to the recovery of Nancy Guthrie, it can dedicate one drone to the search for Ella Mae and bring her family closure and justice.

The absence of a single drone in Ella Mae's case is a choice and a deprioritization of our missing relatives and the safety for our communities. The BADGES Act redirects resources to those who will actually search for our relatives. The Badges for Native Communities Act offers meaningful, concrete solutions to systemic violence and institutional neglect that Native people have endured for far too long. The National Indigenous Women's Resource Center offers its strong support for this bipartisan legislation, and we hope to see it enacted into law without further delay. Every day that passes is another day a family waits by the phone for answers.

Thank you. Thank you, Ms. Nagle, for that testimony. The chair now recognizes Ms. Carlos for 5 minutes. Ms. Carlos. Good day, everybody.

My name is Micah Carlos. I come from the Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, where I also serve as a council member. I'm also honored to serve as a board member for the National Indian Health Board representing the Phoenix area. On behalf of the National Indian Health Board and the 575 federally recognized tribal nations we serve, we thank you for the opportunity to provide testimony in support of HR H.R. 8658, The IHS Emergency Claims Parity Act.

And thank you, Congressman Kennedy, for introducing this bill. The NHP strongly supports this legislation because it provides a straightforward and common-sense fix that will help ensure tribal patients can access emergency medical care without being burdened by unrealistic and administrative requirements during moments of crisis. We appreciate the subcommittee's leadership on this issue and urge swift advancement of this legislation. The federal government maintains a unique legal obligation to provide healthcare for all American Indian and Alaska Natives. Grounded in treaties, statutes, U.S. Supreme Court decisions, and the federal trust responsibility.

The Indian Health Service-funded hospitals and health clinics serve approximately 3.2 million people, many in rural and remote areas. However, there are limitations to what the Indian Health Service system is able to provide. The Purchase Referred Care Program allows IHS to purchase health services from non-IHS providers when care is not reasonably accessible or available within IHS or tribal health systems. For many tribal communities, especially in emergency situations, this program is essential to receiving life-saving care. In Arizona, specifically even the Phoenix area, sometimes the nearest IHS emergency care center is upwards to 1 to 2 hours away, with the nearest non-IHS facility being a 10-minute drive.

When you're in an emergency, you're not thinking about which medical facility will be easier to deal with billing, but more focused on immediate care. Currently, the most— most IHS beneficiaries must notify the PRC program within 72 hours of receiving emergency care at a non-IHS facility, in order for that care to be covered by IHS. That 72-hour clock begins the moment care is first received. In practice, this means that even an unconscious patient may lose coverage if notification is not made in time.

A few weeks after I turned 18, I fainted on the side of the road waiting for the bus to school. Thankfully, bystanders stopped and called 911, but due to the nature of the emergency I was having, their concern was getting me to the nearest hospital, which happened to be a non-IHS facility. During that emergency, I had— I never had to navigate the administrative side of the medical system. I was focused on figuring out what had happened and if I was going to school the next day. They were not thinking— I was not thinking about the paperwork.

I did not know that there was a ticking timeline for me to notify IHS that I had been seen. So when I submitted my claims weeks later, they were denied. In fact, I was told they would not even be considered because they were outside the 72-hour window. That is how, at the age of 18, before I had even graduated high school, I was thousands of dollars in medical debt. It is unconscionable to think that we would saddle our youth, our adults, anyone in our communities with a financial burden on top of their health emergency, which is why extending the notification window from 72 hours to 15 days is so important and long overdue.

Emergency medical events are often chaotic, traumatic, and overwhelming. Patients may be hospitalized for days or weeks, transferred between facilities, or recovering from surgery, sedation, or intensive treatment. Families should be focused on recovery of their loved ones, not on paperwork or filing an emergency claim. The expectation that patients or their families should have to simultaneously focus on care and the PRC requirements or face massive medical debt is massively overburdensome and unrealistic. Yet under the current system, if the 72-hour requirement is not met, claims may be denied even when the care was medically necessary or life-saving.

Tribal patients can then receive bills from hospitals, providers, and debt collectors for services they believed would be covered. Families can face damaged credit, financial hardship, and lasting stress from medical emergencies that were entirely outside of their control. These denials often occur not because patients acted irresponsibly, but because the system itself is difficult to navigate. Many patients are unaware of the 72-hour rule. Hospitals and outside providers may not understand PRC requirements, and communication delays between providers and IHS can make the timeline nearly impossible to meet.

H.R. 8658 Would correct that imbalance. Extending the notification window to 15 days would reduce unnecessary claim denials, improve communication between providers and IHS, and give patients and families time to stabilize before addressing administrative requirements. Most importantly, it would help ensure that access to emergency care is not undermined by unrealistic deadlines. Ultimately, H.R.

8658 Will help strengthen trust in the Indian health system, reduce avoidable medical debt, and better ensure that these tribal citizens receive the care that is needed when they need it most. We urge you to advance this legislation, and thank you again for the opportunity to testify today. I look forward to answering any questions. Thank you, Ms. Carlos, for that testimony. Now I would like to recognize the gentleman from Utah, Mr. Kennedy, for 5 minutes to speak on his legislation.

Mr. Kennedy. Thank you, Chairman Hurd and Ranking Member Leger Fernandez, for holding this hearing today. The United States government should not be in the business of punishing those in need of emergency care. All of us are likely to face a medical emergency, and if not us, then certainly someone in our life that we care about. These emergencies are not respecting of time.

They are major disruptions in the lives of patients and caretakers and will often demand the fullness of our attention. In those moments, families are focused on survival, recovery, and protecting their loved ones, not navigating federal notification requirements or tracking arbitrary deadlines. That's why we have a timeframe for patients and loved ones to notify the bureaucracy. However, The current 72-hour requirement is simply too short. When a patient is rushed into emergency care, especially in rural or remote communities served by the Indian Health Service, the first several days are chaotic, as Councilmember Carlos just talked about.

Families are working on coordinating travel, speaking with doctors, arranging childcare, making life-altering decisions under enormous pressure. They should not lose coverage because they failed to clear a bureaucratic timeline during a crisis. As a physician, I've seen firsthand how confusing and traumatic those first hours or days can be after a medical emergency. The Indian Health Service Emergency Claims Parity Act brings common sense back into this system. It gives American Indian and Alaska Native patients the same reasonable protections that others already receive, and it makes sure patients are not unfairly saddled with medical bills they should never have received in the first place.

Moving from the 72-hour notification window to a 15-day window is a straightforward fix. Ensures patients and their loved ones can focus first and foremost on health, recovery, and caring for one another instead of racing to satisfy a bureaucratic hurdle. This legislation is about fairness. It's about compassion. It's about recognizing the realities of families faced during these medical emergencies.

I appreciate the work being done on this issue with H.R. 8658, And I look forward to advancing this important bill. Thank you, Mr. Chair. With that, I yield back.

The gentleman yields back. Now I would like to recognize the gentleman from the state of California, Mr. Issa, for 5 minutes to speak on his legislation. Mr. Issa. Thank you, Chairman. It is a pleasure to be here with Chairman Welch.

The Barona Tribe has in fact been one of the success stories in California, not because they had a casino, not because they have tens of thousands of members, but because they put back together that which was taken away from them. They've built a tribal government system that works well, and they've been great stewards both of the land and great neighbors within the Lakeside area of California. The legislation today before you, 8483, is a continuation of what we have been doing in Southern California for some time. Which is recognizing not only are the tribes, when able to afford to do so, which Barona now is, not only are they better stewards of the land, but every piece of land transferred from BLM or other federal sources, in fact, saves the federal government money. Barona will maintain this land as the tribal land and ancestral land, and in fact, be good stewards of it for, among other things, fire prevention.

This is not the case in Southern California. Many Americans regularly ask us as Californians, why is it you have so many fires? Why is it it seems like it's all about putting them out rather than preventing them? Part of that is the failure to maintain the land. Additionally, BLM finds itself regularly with land that is not productive, costs them money, and in fact is often ignored and in many cases misappropriated.

That doesn't happen when it's transferred to tribal holding. So this legislation has been carefully gone through to make sure that all parties are in support of it, that it has community support, but most importantly, that in fact it's the kind of a win-win that this committee has a mandate to do. By transferring this federal land You will save money. You will save money on the maintenance, but most importantly, in fire prevention, in anti-drug activity, and a host of other areas, the tribe has shown that they are good stewards of the land and will, in fact, improve it for its neighbors and for its own members in a way that is consistent with their tribal heritage. With that, I want to thank the chairman for being here today, and I want to thank our chairman ranking member, uh, for bringing this bill up, and I yield back.

The gentleman yields. At this time, the chair will recognize members for 5 minutes of questions. I'm going to begin by recognizing myself for 5 minutes. First, Chairman Welch, to most people, the jagged and steep terrain of the lands that we're talking about placing into trust would seem of little value. Can you explain to the members of Congress that are here in this room this morning why— or this afternoon, rather— why these specific lands are so important to the Verona Band.

When Capitan Grande was established in 1875, it was our home. So when we were forced to relocate, we relocated to Verona. It holds ancestral value to us. It's spiritual. It's jagged land, but it connects us to our home.

Every day you can go down to Capitan Grande And you'll see our members down there. They're either fishing or hunting or just they'll spend Easter down there with their families throughout the year. It's a connection to home for us. I can go down there and I know where my paternal grandparents' homestead was. I know where my maternal grandmother lived, grew up.

So it's, it's just the values to us is it's home, it's sacred. And that's what we take into consideration in looking at this. Land management. Like, you know, Congressman Issa said, it's not a matter if we're going to have a wildfire, it's when. I mean, if you've seen the news today, there's fires burning in California right now in the middle, middle of the state.

So we will, we will manage that land. In fact, in the map, if you look at it, there's a firebreak in there that was put in by our fire department working with the U.S. Forest Service. Can you talk a little bit, Chairman, or Congressman Issa mentioned the savings that would inure to the federal government in terms of if this land is transferred into trust. Can you talk just a quick minute about how would that savings take place and what would it mean in terms of spending federal spending with respect to this land once it's placed into trust? We would maintain it.

And also you're looking at wildfire. I mean, you can prepare for wildfire and stop its progress when the winds start blowing in October and November. You know, we had a Cedar Fire in 2003 where 90% of the Morona Reservation burned and we lost 39 homes. So we'll build firebreaks and it'll save the federal government money from having to do that themselves. Thank you very much, Mr. Chairman.

I appreciate that. Mr. Carlson, thank you so much for your leadership on this terrific bill, H.R. 7954, Which I'm proud to to sponsor along with my colleague Representative Ledger Fernandez and so many others in this Congress. Can you talk a little bit about the impact that on your tribe and across Indian Country when the buffalo was nearing extinction? Yeah.

So the long-term impacts, you know, that would have You know, the U.S. plays a large role in helping the fishing tribes, you know, restore buffalo— I mean salmon to their lands.

And this bill here would, you know, say that creating, protecting, and, you know, enhancing our buffalo, it's important for our— for any country. And, you know, it plays a big role in supporting, you know, what it also does with the fishing tribes. So helping us to bring back buffalo. There's a lot of the funding that is needed for our buffalo programs, you know, like I talked earlier about the fencing and all of the infrastructure. Those tribes need those, you know, to help to bring back, you know, this significant animal to our lands.

Not only healthy to us for healing, but healing our lands that they're on and also the years that have gone by, I think of all of the trauma that has gone on with tribes over these issues that we have, like you hear about today. There's a healing that even other people, the buffalo, are bringing to realize that there's a healing that needs to happen amongst all of us. So that's what's very important about, you know, this for the tribes. Thanks, Mr. Carlson. And can you talk a little bit about what the immediate positive impacts would be if HR 7954 is made law.

Okay. My head hurts.

Well, of the long-term impacts, you know, if this is— like I said, is the big thing is that is the funding, you know, and that's— I guess that's what makes the world around, especially, I guess, with tribes. So the long-term impact would just help, just as I mentioned before, of helping them tribes, you know, who are real especially in our Southwest area. We talked about this morning that the land base to them is— some of them is small. So we would help them with— we're always looking for a larger land base for them, whether it be leasing or purchasing some other lands and helping with that funding and helping with that infrastructure there. Drought is a big thing now in all over the country and So those, those there would help, you know, long term to help those tribes to with their infrastructure and returning those animals back.

Great. Well, thank you again, Mr. Carlson, for your leadership and your endurance and your persistence on this issue. It means a lot across Indian Country, and I'm personally grateful to you for that, for those efforts. My time has expired. And so at this time, I would like to recognize the ranking member, The representative from the state of New Mexico, Ms. Leger Fernandez, for 5 minutes.

Ms. Leger Fernandez. Thank you very much, Chairman. Ms. Nagle, you noted that many cases of women who experience violence never reach federal databases, and that's a huge problem because if we don't report the cases, how can we ever solve them? Can you describe a little bit in more detail how tribal facilitators are painted in the Badges Act would help make sure we have accurate data about victims and what it means to a family to be able to have somewhere to go to talk about their missing loved one. Absolutely.

Thank you so much for this question. The Badges Act includes provisions that would require the Attorney General to nominate tribal facilitators. These would be, um, you know, people who would be working with tribes and Native communities and federal law enforcement agencies to make sure that when a Native person missing, that case gets entered into the database. It sounds really easy entering into a database, but it often doesn't happen. There are a lot of barriers to tribal law enforcement.

Many tribes don't have access to the database, and gaining access requires significant funding. DOJ does have the TAP program, but it's not even enough funding for all the tribes in this country to access it. And so what this tribal facilitator will be able to do is to bridge that gap and to make sure that those cases do get entered into the, the national database. That database is critical because that's how other law law enforcement agencies in other states and other jurisdictions find out that someone's missing. A lot of our relatives get trafficked and kidnapped across state lines.

So that national and federal coordination, and even with other state partners, is, is very important. And I think what you pointed out is really important, that some of the women or persons who go missing, they might still be alive, and we need to be able to find them, right? And, uh, Thank you for sharing both that and the tragic stories of both Miss Stop Pretty Places and Miss Begay, of that there was nobody staffing the Office of Justice Service and there were no resources at the FBI. Could you address a little bit this issue about staffing shortages and why we need to address that? Yeah, the understaffing at BIA is a crisis right now.

I will just say that, especially in Montana. Where I represent several families of missing and murdered Indigenous relatives. And right now, I'm being told that the missing and murdered unit just doesn't have anyone who can talk to the families I represent because they have to go out and do the field work because there aren't enough agents to just answer calls for help. And so, there's no, there's no time to deal with missing and murdered cases. In Ella Mae's case, you know, I think that there was a complete lack of federal coordination, and the FBI simply did not dedicate sufficient resources time or energy to searching for her.

And I think it shows how the lives of our Native relatives are simply not prioritized when it comes to expenditure of resources at the FBI. Well, the Badgers Act hopes to address that and say that all, you know, Native women, Native people need to be given the same dignity as every other person. President Carlson, you mentioned the Pueblo buffalo dances both in your written testimony and as you were talking, and one Pueblo member recently told me And I'll quote, "The Pueblo buffalo dances are deeply spiritual ceremonies that remind us of home. The thunder of the buffalo, a drumbeat, the heart, the spirit of the animals teaches that we are one and that we are powerful. When we look to where we are from, we know where we are going." Close quote.

And I think that that speaks so powerfully to your testimony about how there is an economic, a financial, a spiritual, a cultural, a conservationist aspect to buffalo management. Can you talk about why this is actually part of tribal self-determination and food sovereignty?

Buffalo were— excuse me. Again, you know, buffalo are a big part of our lives, I guess our economy, I guess in our beginning. And The way I see it now, and they're very spiritual as the way you're talking about. I've seen tribes when we brought back buffalo to their lands that were very emotional for the first time bringing them back. And so first and foremost, that's kind of a real big issue with us is returning a big part of our culture that was taken away.

But also there's some tribes, that's a small tribe there that just want them for that. There's other tribes that are bigger and have a lot more population and land to take care of that they would like to get into some economy to help them, you know, even not only to sustain the animals there but to help the tribe out economically. So in a lot of those ways, we're all different in those ways, but there's a significance of the importance to every tribe, and we're all different in our own way, our own, so that Each tribe has its own need of what will bring this animal back to them. Thank you. And I've run out of time, but Chairman Walter, I wanted to thank you for your written testimony and testimony that talked about your connection to the land being interrupted but not broken.

And I also want to thank Ms. Carlos. Your sharing of your personal story highlights why this legislation is important, and thank you for sharing that with us. And with that, I yield back.

The Chair will now recognize members for 5 minutes of questions. I will now recognize myself. These questions are for the entire panel. Could any of you speak to the challenges faced by tribal members in rural and remote areas when it comes to filing for PRC after an emergency? And in your experience, is the IHS well equipped to process PRC claims in a timely manner?

Are you aware of any scenarios that frequently lead to delays? And if significant delays exist, can this lead to a situation where tribal members are required to pay for care that would otherwise be covered by PRC?

Thank you. Um, so yes, you know, once that 72-hour delay, if that happens, when especially when our members are coming from rural or remote areas, the coordination of even getting them home sometimes is delayed by figuring out the PRC deadlines. So if they are seen in an emergency facility, an ER hospital, and they have to transfer back home or to a specialty care, coordinating that can be delayed by figuring out Is the PRC even going to cover this? Is this something that they have to pay for out of pocket? And if that's the case, trying to coordinate that can be very burdensome for families and extend their stay in hospitals until they've set up those aftercare services.

So sometimes they can be held in the hospital just because they simply do not have the aftercare services provided already, and that leads to a further delay of services and amounting increased hospital bill. Additionally, if the— you asked, is there— is is the IHS ready to address these in a timely manner? And that is no. We are currently seeing across the nation that PRC is delayed in being paid out to the billers, and what that means is sometimes that those bills go to creditors, and so the individual members are then— now have creditors who are after them for these bills, and so what that can do is that can delay their— it can increase their— delay their credit score, but also increase the amount of money they have to pay out of pocket for other services. So the NIHB is supporting the HR 1418, which would have— if an individual pays that money out of their pocket, they would be able to be reimbursed for that versus just providers alone.

And so that, again, we're trying to expand getting services to our members, making sure that they are reimbursed in a timely manner, and making sure that these medical events don't really derail the rest of their lives in other aspects. We know that when community members are receiving emergency care, if they don't have that PRC notified within a timely manner, they're left with that bill, and that can be detrimental to them and to their families. And so really, it's a coordinated effort. When we have a family member that has an emergency, the first question we ask is, are they okay? The second question is, have you notified PRC?

What shouldn't be our first, you know, our first or second order of business. So this is something that is greatly needed. Thank you. Would anybody else on the panel care to give their perspective?

We will now take a brief recess, subject to the call of the chair.

We'd like to recognize— the chair recognizes Mr. Downey for 5 minutes for questions. Madam Chair, thank you for allowing me to testify here, and thank you to the witnesses for being here. I really appreciate it. I'm just going to jump right into it. I'm going to start with Mr. Carlson.

In my home district of central and eastern Montana, all 5 of our tribal reservations are members of the Intertribal Buffalo Council, or ITBC. As you mentioned in your testimony, the ITBC has been growing by 5 tribes per year since its inception in 1992 and now has over 90 member tribes. So, Mr. Carlson, you know, what factors have contributed to the continued growth of the ITBC?

Thank you for the question.

You know, I guess the factors of the tribal nations, I guess, see ITBC as a workable option to reconnect, you know, buffalo through restoration of the herds to their lands and then also to access financial support and technical services that ITBC provides for all of the tribes that do are a part of the ITBC infrastructure and all of those. Which tribes are, you know, always underfunded, so we try to work to get those funds out to those tribes. So that's the real part of, you know, the continued growth of— and the biggest, I guess, thing of growth of them is just bringing those back to their lands to help with, as I mentioned earlier, for the health of not only the people but of their lands also. Well, thank you. You mentioned in your testimony the economic opportunities that the tribal bison industry brings.

Can you elaborate on these benefits for the tribes? So some of the tribes, you know, as I mentioned earlier also, that, you know, they want them just purely for the cultural, you know, aspect of them and returning that. They're very spiritual to us. But there's tribes that are— that have a larger land base and a larger population that they're able to, to a certain extent, to sell the animals or to put them out on the market and help with not only sustaining the buffalo program, but also contributing to the tribal coffers to help with the rest of the population. Right.

Thank you. For tribes that are part of the ITBC, what are the most significant challenges they face when looking to start or to expand tribal herds? Well, the biggest challenge that they do face, of course, again, is funding, you know, and, and a land base, infrastructure. So those are the biggest challenges that ITBC is able to help, you know, within those areas. We certainly back here for years we've out here and we have herd development grants that we have funding for.

And for the past years it's been at $1.4 million. And for Nadi tribes, that's very little, little dollar amount for them. But just as buffalo are, the tribes are very resilient. But those challenges are always there for them. And of course, we do have challenges every day that we will have to overcome.

But the biggest part is the funding and getting out there and helping them with their infrastructure. In keeping them going. Thank you. So how would the passage of my colleague Representative Hurd's Don Young/Doug LaMalfa Indian Buffalo Management Act expand the scope of the work the ITBC is able to accomplish?

You know, to put this here for the government to work on a government-to-government basis with the Intertribal Buffalo Council and all of the tribes that are part of that And to get this year as law into the Interior or wherever that comes, and just being in there and being there. Right now our funding is just, you know, wherever it might be and not solidified or law in there. This would create that where we would be there and solidify that, and then we could work on the funding to that in later years. Thank you. I'm going to move on here in my last few seconds.

I'm going to move on to Ms. Carlos to discuss the current state of the Indian health system. Can you elaborate on why you believe the current 72-hour required notification deadline for IHS for emergency medical treatment is unrealistic for many tribal patients? Yes, thank you. As we've seen, when the medical emergency is happening, our priority, of course, is making sure our relatives are okay. And oftentimes that means coordinating care after the fact.

And so we should be focused on making sure that the person is situated, that their aftercare is situated. If there's— if they need to go to a rehabilitation center or anything like that, making sure that those plans are in place versus trying to coordinate with PRC and saying, hey, by the way, our relative was seen in a non-IHS facility. What paperwork do we need to start doing? Versus if somebody uses private insurance, they don't have to say you know, they don't have to worry about billing until the billing comes to them. That's not the case for our IHS people who utilize IHS facilities or non-IHS facilities or PRC.

And so if that's— in that case, the 72-hour window is way too small. We see that, you know, if it's a medical emergency, we're trying to make sure that person is okay. If this is a 15-day window, it allows us to get them situated, get them stabilized, coordinate family resources, and then worry about the administrative burden after the fact. Thank you very much for your answer. And thank you all for being here.

Unfortunately, I've run out of time. So on that, Madam Chair, I yield.

The chair now recognizes Ms. Grijalva for 5 minutes for questioning. Thank you, Madam Chairman. The legislation before us today reflects the federal government's trust and treaty obligations to tribal nations and the urgency the urgent need to address longstanding inequities facing Native communities. I especially want to recognize Representative Leger Fernandez for her leadership on this legislation confronting the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous people and strengthening public safety and accountability for tribal communities. Just last year in southern Arizona, Emily Pike, a 14-year-old member of the San Carlos Apache Tribe, whose remains were found near Globe, Arizona, That's after she went missing from a Mesa group home.

This forced Arizona and the nation to confront the systemic failures that continue to leave Native women and girls vulnerable. Emily's case exposed the consequences of delayed responses, jurisdictional, jurisdictional gaps, and chronic underinvestment in tribal public safety systems, and galvanized the movement behind Emily's Law and Arizona's Turquoise Alert. Those systems ensure missing Indigenous people receive immediate public attention and coordinated action. In Arizona's 7th Congressional District, these issues are deeply personal and immediate. Our district is home to the Tohono O'odham Nation, Pascua Yaqui Tribe, Cocopah, and Quechan.

These communities that continue to confront the devastating realities of missing and murdered Indigenous peoples, jurisdictional gaps, and under-resourced public safety systems. And generations of federal neglect. The crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women and relatives continues to devastate the tribal communities in southern Arizona. Families are too often face delayed investigations, poor coordination between agencies, and under-resourced public safety systems— challenges that even more severe in border communities like Tohono O'odham Nation. That's why this legislation matters today.

Strengthening tribal law enforcement, improving data sharing, supporting cultural preservation, and addressing healthcare barriers are critical steps towards justice and accountability for Native families. At a time when this administration and congressional leadership continue to weaken the investments and undermine tribal consultation, Congress must instead commit to partnership and respect for tribal sovereignty and long overdue investments. So some of the questions I have, um, and this one we are dealing with, uh, Indian Buffalo Management Act. Is that correct? Yeah.

Um, Mr. Carlson, I'm interested in hearing more about how the Indian Buffalo Management Act would support youth education. Could you elaborate on your earlier point?

Um, sorry, ma'am, could you repeat that? Yeah, of course. I'm interested in hearing more on how Indian Buffalo Management Act would support youth education, and could you elaborate on that? Re-vegetation. Education.

Oh, education. Education. Yeah, sorry, the hearing's kind of bad. Um, so the education to— I guess I'm kind of, um, confused as to the question. Um, could you kind of elaborate a little bit?

What, what do you—. How would, how would the Indian Buffalo Management Act support youth education? Youth education? Yes. Oh, okay.

Here we go. Yes, thank you.

You know, one of the things that— there's a big part of our history that has never been told. And even myself, you know, have never had any buffalo stories. My grandparents, who I was raised by, have never, you know, had those stories. One of the things that's very important to us is that, and to me dearly, is that Our history has been erased, and that history, if we can go back to teach our young and our youth. Right now at home we have, and I'm missing it, I'm supposed to be there, but the hearing is very important.

We have what we call Inii Days, and inii is buffalo for Blackfeet. And that is there to teach all of the, the few days that we're doing it is to teach our youth the importance of the buffalo to them. And bringing them forward. One of the big things that I also— that teaches our youth, which is really needed in Indian Country and all over, is respect. That a part of the things that we've lost with our youth.

Thank you. And teaching them that. Thank you. Ms. Nagle, thank you for being here today. Your testimony was powerful, and I want to work with you in improving public safety and bringing closure to families.

Would you speak further on the importance of the grant program under BADGES? And how it will provide critical resources to those committed to searching for individuals. Thank you. The grant program is critical. As you pointed out in the case of Emily Pike, so often families are actually the ones who go out and look for their missing loved ones in Indian Country, but they don't have resources.

I can't tell you how many families I have personally represented as their family attorney, and they say, Mary Katherine, where can we get money? Can we— should we start a GoFundMe? They want to hire a private investigator. They want to take a drone out and search for their loved one on the tribal lands where she went missing. And so if we can get funds to tribes themselves for tribal law enforcement to perform these searches, or to the tribal organizations identified in the Badges Act, so maybe a nonprofit can distribute funding to families.

They also struggle just to have gas money to go and test. When I remember when families were trying to testify before the Not Invisible Act Commission, some of them couldn't afford the gas money to go testify. Right. So our families, our victims' families, don't have the support right now they need to fight for their loved ones. And this, Badges Act could provide that.

Great. Thank you so much. I yield back.

I want to thank the witnesses for their valuable testimony and the members for their questions. The members of the committee may have some additional questions for the witnesses, and we will ask you to respond to these in writing. Under Committee Rule 3, members of the committee must submit questions to the committee clerk by 5:00 PM on Wednesday, May 27th, 2026. The hearing record will be held open for 10 business days for these responses. If there's no further business, without objection, this committee stands adjourned.