To repeal the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund Act : Report
United States. Congress. Senate. Report ; 117-11). (2021). Washington, D.C.]: [U.S. Government Publishing Office].
New legislation by Senator Merkley, D. Oregon, discussed by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs and published April 14, 2021 by the General Publications Office of the United states for public access to the report. This report takes the distribution of funds the United States of America owes the Klamath Tribes tribal government out of the hands of the United States Department of Interior, including a proviso that if there were 'insufficient funds to be distributed' the DOI would 'keep' those funds, and places those powers into the hands of the Senate committee on Indian Affairs and the Klamath Tribes tribal government itself slating almost $660,000 owed to the Klamath Tribes tribal members to be delivered to Klamath tribal government by the end of the fiscal year 2021.
TITLE:
Committee on Indian Affairs: To repeal the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund Act : report (to accompany S. 314) (including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office). United States Senate. 2021 PRIMO: https://alliance-primo.hosted.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/f/kjtuig/CP71349543270001451
CITATION:
To repeal the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund Act : Report (to accompany S. 314) (including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office). (United States. Congress. Senate. Report ; 117-11). (2021). Washington, D.C.]: [U.S. Government Publishing Office].
SUMMARY:
“The Committee on Indian Affairs, to which was referred the bill (S. 314) to repeal the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund Act, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon without amendment and recommends the bill do pass. PURPOSE The bill, S. 314, repeals Public Law 89–224, commonly referred to as the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund Act.1 The bill is intended to promote the Klamath Tribes’ ability to exercise its sovereign authority and discretion over tribal funds, and would provide greater flexibility for the Klamath Tribes to access and use monies they were awarded following successful litigation against the United States. “
EXCERPT:
“S. 314 [To repeal the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund Act] would repeal the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund Act, which authorizes the Department of the Interior (DOI) to establish and maintain a fund to make payments to Klamath Tribe members to satisfy any judgments obtained by the tribe.
The bill also would require any amounts remaining in the fund upon its closure to be disbursed to the Klamath Tribe. Payments to certain tribal trust funds that are held and managed in a fiduciary capacity by the federal government on behalf of Indian tribes are treated as payments to a nonfederal entity.
Thus, the balances remaining in the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund were previously recorded as federal budget authority and outlays at the time those funds were deposited into the fund. Accordingly, any subsequent disbursement of those funds would have no effect on the federal budget.
According to information provided by DOI, about $660,000 remains in the fund. That money is slated to be paid to almost 200 members of the Klamath Tribe or to their next of kin, none of whom DOI has been able to locate.
Assuming that S. 314 is enacted early in calendar year 2021, CBO estimates that those funds would be disbursed directly to the government of the Klamath Tribe during fiscal year 2021. “ (U.S. Government Publishing Office, 2021)
PDF:
https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/CRPT-117srpt11/pdf/CRPT-117srpt11.pdf
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