Middle Class Health Benefits Tax Repeal Act of 2019

Floor Speech

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Mr. JOYCE of Ohio. Mr. Speaker, as we prepared to appropriate supplemental funding for Indian Country through the Bureau of Indian Affairs budget, my colleagues and I became keenly aware of the need to mitigate the hardships that this pandemic has caused for Tribal governments who have to rely on business revenues--rather than taxes-- to fund essential services for their Tribal members. In addition, Tribal governments are often the largest employers on reservations, where unemployment rates are already significantly higher than the rest of the country.

For these reasons, this bill directs that not less than $400 million--nearly 90 percent of the Bureau of Indian Affairs supplemental appropriation--shall be made available to meet the direct needs of Tribes. For these same reasons, this bill directs that not less than $450 million of the Indian Health Service supplemental appropriation be distributed to directly operated programs and to Tribes and Tribal organizations by utilizing existing contracts, compacts, and other agreements to speed up the process.

In addition, I was pleased to see and support an additional $8 billion for payments to Tribal governments through the Coronavirus Relief Fund in this bill. Because of the Federal Government's unique government-to-government relationship with Indian Tribes, providing these funds to Tribes directly--rather than through the States--is the right approach. It is critical that the Secretaries of the Treasury and the Interior consult with Tribal leaders immediately to determine the most expeditious, transparent, and fair method of allocating these funds.

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