Native American Child Protection Act

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 1688, the Native American Child Protection Act.

I first want to thank my friend and the dean of the House, Congressman Don Young, for working with me on this bill to ensure Native American and Alaska Native Tribes have the resources they need to keep Native children safe from abuse and neglect.

Last week, I joined my colleagues in recognizing the National Day of Awareness for Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women and Girls.

When I was chairman of the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States last Congress, I held the first-ever House committee hearing on MMIW, which paved the way for critical bills like the Not Invisible Act and Savanna's Act.

At that hearing, we learned that, in addition to experiencing incredibly high murder rates, one in three Native women experience domestic violence in their lives. That statistic is even more horrifying when we recognize that, in 49 to 70 percent of cases, men who abuse their partners also abuse their children.

Despite this fact, Tribes have never received the resources they need to address child abuse and neglect in their communities. My bill changes that.

My bill will improve the prevention, treatment, investigation, and prosecution of child abuse and neglect in Indian Country by ensuring Tribes have the resources they need to take care of Native children in culturally competent ways. It does so by modernizing and reauthorizing three programs originally passed as part of the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act.

The Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act became law in 1990, after being authored by the late Arizona Senator John McCain in response to widespread reports that Native children were being physically and sexually abused in BIA-run boarding schools in the 1980s.

The original purpose of the law was to identify the scope of the underreported child abuse in Indian Country, fill gaps in Tribal child welfare services, improve coordination between child welfare and domestic violence programs, and provide funds for treatment in Indian Country.

But the horrible truth is that the grant programs created by this law in 1990 were never funded, never enacted, and were allowed to expire in 1997. My bill revives the three grant programs from the original act that are still sorely needed in Indian Country because the problems identified by Congress in 1990 still exist today.

Specifically, my bill does: one, provides Tribes with more funding for culturally competent child abuse treatment; two, allows Tribes to choose to partner with urban Indian organizations or Tribal consortiums to identify and treat victims of abuse; three, creates a national child resource and family services center to provide technical assistance and support to Tribes in maintaining child welfare programs; four, authorizes enough funds for every Tribe to hire at least one child welfare case manager to help investigate and prosecute instances of abuse; and, five, authorizes the only Tribal-specific grant program aimed at preventing child abuse in Indian Country.

A core part of the Federal Government's trust responsibility is protecting the most vulnerable members of indigenous communities, Native children. Right now, we are failing in that responsibility.

Passing this bill today allows us to take an important step forward in protecting Native children and upholding our trust responsibility to Tribes.

I am proud of the strong bipartisan support this legislation received in the Natural Resources Committee last year when it passed and when it passed by a voice vote in the House. I urge all of my colleagues in the House to join me once again in supporting this important piece of legislation.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of H.R. 1688, the ``Native American Child Protection Act,'' (``NACPA'') which authorizes three programs aimed at ensuring that Tribes have the tools they need to treat, prevent, investigate, and prosecute instances of family violence, child abuse, and child neglect involving Native American children and families.

The original version of these programs passed as part of then-Senator John McCain's Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act, but the programs were never fully funded and have not been reauthorized by Congress.

This legislation would do the following:

Establish a new National Indian Resource Services Center to provide tribes with technical assistance, advice, and training on addressing child abuse, family violence, and child neglect.

Support efforts to improve intergovernmental coordination between federal and tribal personnel responding to those issues.

Authorize grants through the Indian Child Abuse Treatment Grant Program to establish treatment programs and culturally appropriate services for the victims of child abuse and neglect in Indian Country.

Authorize formula grants to Tribes under the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Program to support the hiring of caseworkers and the establishment and expansion of tribal programs that investigate, prosecute, and prevent incidents of child abuse, child neglect, and family violence in Indian Country.

American Indian and Alaska Native children and their families who experience child maltreatment or family violence often have few opportunities to find accessible, culturally-appropriate services to help them address the trauma from these events.

Furthermore, prevention funding is almost non-existent for this population, removing opportunities to prevent trauma-- before it happens and avoid families and children slipping into crisis.

The federal government has a solemn responsibility to ensure that the most vulnerable members of Indigenous communities--children--are protected.

Guarding against crimes committed against our Native communities will always be one of my highest priorities, and this bill is a strong step in the right direction.

Native communities must have the support and resources necessary to help children learn, grow, and live healthy lives.

In Texas and across the country, too many Indigenous children have been victims of violence, abuse, and neglect.

The Federal government has an urgent responsibility to these children, and we should be doing all that we can to help them secure a bright future.

This legislation fulfills a promise made years ago to address the impact of abuse of Native children in federally-run boarding schools and prevent anything like it from ever happening again.

This promise was never fulfilled because these programs were never funded, and the Tribes never received the support they needed.

This is why we must pass this bill: to finally uphold our responsibility to help Tribes ensure that Native American children are safe and healthy.

This legislation will help ensure that the Federal government is upholding its commitments to help tribes and tribal organizations protect the next generation.

Every Native child must have access to community-based, culturally appropriate services that help them grow up safe, healthy, and spiritually strong--free from abuse, neglect, sexual exploitation, and the damaging effects of substance abuse.

For this reason, I ask my colleagues on both sides of the aisle to vote in support of H.R. 1688.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 1688) to amend the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days in which to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the measure under consideration.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 1688, introduced by Representative Ruben Gallego from Arizona, our outgoing subcommittee chairman--and I appreciate his leadership on that--amends and reauthorizes several programs within the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act in order to improve the prevention, investigation, treatment, and prosecution of family violence, child abuse, and child neglect involving Native American children and families.

There is an enormous need for family violence prevention and treatment resources in Tribal communities. Native children experience child abuse and neglect at an elevated rate, which leads many to require special education services, to be more likely to be involved in the juvenile and criminal justice systems, and to have long-term mental health needs.

Passage of H.R. 1688 will create technical assistance programs in the Bureau of Indian Affairs, allow for urban Indian organizations to partner with

Tribal governments, and ensure culturally competent care.

I thank Representative Gallego for introducing and championing this vitally important legislation, and I urge my colleagues to support H.R. 1688.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 5 minutes to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Gallego).

Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself the balance of my time.

We had extensive hearings on these issues in the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States, and it became clear we needed resources and technical assistance to protect Native American children and families in addition to what they are getting now.

I thank our outgoing chair, Mr. Gallego, for his leadership on this; the dean of the House, Representative Don Young, for his amazing leadership in working together; former Member Cook, who participated in these meetings extensively; as well as now-Secretary Deb Haaland, one of the first Native American women to serve in the Congress. I thank Ranking Member Westerman for helping us get this done in a bipartisan fashion.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Madam Speaker, H.R. 1688 amends the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act to reauthorize three programs administered by the Department of Health and Human Services and the Department of the Interior that are intended to prevent cases within Indian communities where child abuse, neglect, family violence, and trauma may occur and to provide treatment for victims of Indian child sexual abuse.

The authorization for appropriations for the three programs expired in 1997. The bill also makes several technical changes to the underlying statute, requiring agencies to report on grant awards.

Advocates cite the Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act as the only federally dedicated child abuse prevention and victim treatment funding for Tribal governments, but Congress has only appropriated approximately $5 million for this program.

I appreciate the sponsor bringing attention to this important issue as abuse, neglect, and violence have no place in any community.

Madam Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young), the dean of the House and a true expert on Tribal issues.

Madam Speaker, I urge support of this bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I thank the gentleman for the compliment. I have been called a lot of things on this floor, including dean.

Madam Speaker, I rise in strong support of this legislation. I thank my friend, Representative Gallego, for introducing it.

This is a good bill. It improves a bill which I passed 30 years ago, and it is long overdue to make sure that it is running right.

As has been said, it establishes a new National Indian Resource Services Center, which was created over 30 years ago. We are reauthorizing these programs, making sure they work.

It is badly needed because of actions across the country with indigenous people. We hope the victims will have better service than they have in the past.

I congratulate the author of the legislation. I am a sponsor of the legislation also. This is a good bill, and I urge the passage of this bill.

All of my colleagues who understand, let's do the job we were told to do when we became trustees of the indigenous people of this great Nation of ours.

Again, I thank the chairman, the author of the legislation, and the ranking member for all the work they have done.