For immediate publication

July 21, 2021

Contact:

Manu Tupper or Mike Inacay (sweetheart) at [email protected]

SCHATZ DOES LEGAL HEARING TO SUPPORT THE DEVELOPMENT OF NATIVE INFRASTRUCTURE TO PROTECT LOCAL CHILDREN

WASHINGTON – Today US Senator Brian Schatz (D-Hawai‘i), Chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs, presided over a a legislative hearing on testimony S.1797, the Indian Health Service Provider Improvement Facility Act, S.1895, Indian Healthcare Sanitation Improvement Improvement Act, and HR1688, the Native American Child Protection Act. The committee heard from the Indian Health Service’s Assistant Director of Management and Operations Randy Grinnell, the Office of the Interior Ministry of the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Heidi Todacheene, the President of the Navajo Nation, Jonathan Nez, the President of the National Indian Child Welfare Association, Gil Vigil, and Robyn Sunday-Allen, vice president of the National Council of Urban Indian Health.

Schatz opened the hearing by noting how the bills help meet unmet needs in Native programs.

“The federal government has special fiduciary responsibility to ensure the general well-being of indigenous communities, including providing adequate health care to indigenous peoples, providing tribal communities with clean, safe drinking water, and protecting indigenous children,” said the Chair sweetheart. “But for too long, Congress has underfunded indigenous care programs and ignored the needs of local natives. The bills before this committee today are working to correct these injustices of the past. “

To view the full video of the hearing, click Here.

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