WASHINGTON D.C –
The U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee will conduct a hearing to examine S. 797, the Tribal Law and Order Act, at 2:15 PM Thursday, June 25 in Room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building in Washington, D.C.
Among those who will testify at the hearing are Associate U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perrelli; the Interior Department’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Larry Echo Hawk; Alonzo Coby, Chairman, Shoshone Bannock Tribes; Anthony Brandenburg, Chief Judge of the Intertribal Court of Southern California; Troy Eid, former U.S. Attorney for Colorado under President George W. Bush; and Ted Quasula, former Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Law Enforcement Services under President Clinton.
Dorgan chaired eight committee hearings during the 110th Congress to examine public safety and justice issues in Indian Country. The hearings revealed a longstanding public safety crisis on many reservations. Tribal communities face 2.5 times the national violent crime rate. More than 1 in 3 American Indian and Alaska Native women will be raped in their lifetimes. Feeding into these statistics is a severe lack of resources: less than 3,000 police patrol more than 56 million acres of Indian lands.
To address these concerns, on April 2, 2009, Dorgan and 17 bipartisan co-sponsors introduced the Tribal Law and Order Act of 2009. The bill imposes accountability measures at the federal level, provides incentives for tribal-state law enforcement cooperation, and seeks to provide added tools to tribal justice systems at the local level. The Committee will hear reactions to the legislation from law enforcement experts and tribal representatives.
Details follow:
WHO: U.S. Senate Indian Affairs Committee, Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman; and other members of the committee.
WITNESSES: Associate U.S. Attorney General Thomas Perrelli, the Interior Department’s Assistant Secretary for Indian Affair Larry Echo Hawk, Alonzo Coby, Chairman, Shoshone Bannock Tribes, Anthony Brandenburg, Chief Judge of the Intertribal Court of Southern California; Troy Eid, former U.S. Attorney for Colorado under President George W. Bush; Ted Quasula, former Director, Bureau of Indian Affairs Office of Law Enforcement Services under President Clinton.
WHAT: Legislative hearing
WHEN: 2:15 PM, Thursday, June 25, 2009
WHERE: 628 Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, D.C.
WHY: To examine S. 797, the Tribal Law and Order Act.