Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2007
Floor Speech
INDIAN HEALTH CARE IMPROVEMENT ACT AMENDMENTS OF 2007 -- (Senate - February 26, 2008)
Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I, too, want to thank so many who have done so much to advance this legislation. Very rarely do we see an opportunity for Indian bills of any nature to receive floor time, so I want to thank all our colleagues to be able to debate this very important issue with them.
I thank especially Chairman Dorgan for his leadership on this legislation. He has mentioned so many who have participated throughout the years, including the staffs, but we also need to recognize the leadership of the former chairman, Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell, and, of course, Senator McCain, Senator Dorgan, Senator Inouye--so many who have done so much.
I also want to acknowledge the National Tribal Steering Committee for their efforts--great tribal leaders coming together to advance this very important legislation.
I have a long list of thank-yous, but truly it has been a great effort, and we appreciate the leadership on both sides in advancing this legislation.
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Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, I rise to recognize the passage of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. I again thank the majority leader and minority leader for committing floor time for this bill. Rarely have Indian bills received time on the Senate floor, but this is one that is very important to the well-being of our country's Native people that the attention it has been given by the Senate is more than justified.
I thank my colleagues for their commitment in considering this legislation, addressing the issues, and supporting our efforts to improve health care services for American Indians and Alaska Natives.
As with many bills, the provisions fall under more than one committee's jurisdiction. The Committee on Indian Affairs, on which I serve as the vice chairman, has shared this bill with the Finance and HELP Committees, and both of these committees have worked in earnest to assist us in crafting a bill to carry the Indian health care system into the 21st century.
I am fortunate to have a chairman on the Indian Affairs Committee--Senator Dorgan--with whom I share a close working relationship. We both have significant populations of Native people in our States with similar issues and challenges in many areas such as health care, education, housing, economic development and transportation.
We have had numerous opportunities to work together in our committee, particularly on youth suicide prevention and treatment and telemedicine. I truly appreciate his persistence and dedication in advancing this bill.
Senators Grassley and Baucus have also worked with us closely to advance this measure through the Finance Committee last year which reported the bill out favorably in both the 109th and 110th Congresses. I also wish to recognize their staff Rodney Whitlock, Becky Shipp, and David Schwartz, who worked so closely with the Indian Affairs staff on this bill.
Likewise, Senator ENZI, in his capacity as chairman and now as ranking member of the HELP committee--worked very diligently on this legislation to refine key pieces of the legislation during the 109th Congress and again this year. Greg Dean, Shana Christrup, Randi Reid and Amy Shank devoted countless hours of work with the Indian Affairs Committee to work out issues, which I appreciate. I especially appreciate the leadership and commitment of Senator Kyl. He has one of the largest Indian populations in his State. His commitment to Indian issues was reflected by his continued involvement and that of his staff, Jennifer Romans, in working out issues to advance this bill.
We must not forget that this bill reflects the work of our dear colleague and my predecessor, the late Senator Craig Thomas, who held the reins as vice chairman last year. He eagerly pursued efforts to improve health care services for all American Indian communities, including those in his home State of Wyoming on the Wind River Indian Reservation, and it is most fitting that we will honor his work with the passage of this bill. I pointed out on the floor yesterday, in the 109th Congress, Senator McCain made a great effort to reauthorize the act in his role as chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee. Before that, Senator Campbell, who also served as chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, carried this legislation since the 106th Congress as the original sponsor, along with Senator Inouye, until Senator Campbell's retirement in 2004.
Between Chairmen Campbell and McCain in the 108th and 109th Congresses, there were 8 hearings on the reauthorization, including joint hearings with the HELP Committee and with the House Resources Committee.
Our efforts had also great help from my good friends Senators Stevens, Domenici, Smith, Cochran, Hatch, and Thune. These Senators have been long-time friends of our country's Native people, and I want to acknowledge their dedication in promoting American Indian and Alaska Native health.
The Republican staff of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has waited a long time for this day to come. David Mullon, the Republican staff director and chief counsel, and Rhonda Harjo, the deputy chief counsel, came to the committee during Senator Ben Nighthorse Campbell's tenure.
Rhonda Harjo has been the lead Republican staff member of the committee for Indian Health Care Improvement Act reauthorization since 2003. Indian country takes pride in her devotion to the betterment of her Native people and I share that pride today.
I also wish to acknowledge the efforts of Jim Hall and Jon Murphy and two Alaskans who recently joined the committee--Gerald Moses and Megan Alvanna-Stimpfle--in preparing this bill for floor consideration.
I also acknowledge the tireless efforts over the past 8 years of the Indian tribal and health care leaders and advocates across the U.S. in helping develop the legislative proposal which served as the basis for this bill. In particular, the National Tribal Steering Committee, consisting of tribal leaders and Indian health representatives, brought together the diverse interests of over 560 tribes across the country to a consensus on this very important measure.
That is no small task and it was handled dutifully by the co-chairs of the National Tribal Steering Committee, Chairman Buford Rolin of the Poarch Band of Creek Indians in Atmore, Alabama, Rachel Joseph, former Chairwoman of the Lone Pine Paiute-Shoshone Tribe, in Lone Pine, California, and staff, Kitty Marx from the National Indian Health Board.
Three key Alaska Native leaders played significant roles on the National Tribal Steering Committee: Sally Smith, the chairman of the National Indian Health Board and the Bristol Bay Area Health Corporation; Don Kashevaroff, the president of the Seldovia Village Tribe and chair of the Tribal Self-Governance Advisory Committee; and Valerie Davidson from the Alaska Native Tribal Health Consortium. I appreciate their leadership and thoughtful consideration in the development of this legislation.
A lot of good work went into this bill and our efforts should not go in vain. I look forward to working with my House colleagues and getting this bill on to the President's desk for signature.
Mr. President, we had a brief opportunity to express our thanks to those who have worked so hard on the reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. Again, my sincere thanks and gratitude to Chairman Dorgan for all that he has done.
This is a good day for Indian country, for Alaska Natives who are just waking up back home right now. They are going to wake up to news that they have been waiting to hear for a good decade: that finally we have advanced the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. We have taken that step. We recognize this is not the end-all and be-all in terms of providing for the health care needs of American Indians and Alaska Natives. We know we need to do more, and we are challenged to do that.
We talked about the funding issue and how we must make that next step to make sure it is not just what we put in the authorization, but we back that up with the dollars for the programs.
We have a long way to go, but I think we have made a very significant step today. I am proud of the work of my colleagues today and those who came before us on this very important issue.
``EXXON VALDEZ'' OILSPILL
Mr. President, I wish to take a few minutes this morning to talk about tomorrow because tomorrow the United States Supreme Court will hear the appeal of the ongoing litigation between ExxonMobil and commercial fishermen and other plaintiffs whose livelihoods were negatively impacted, devastated, in fact, by the 1989 Exxon Valdez oilspill. The Exxon Valdez ran aground on Bligh Reef at 12:04 a.m. on March 24, 1989. It spilled 11 million gallons of oil--this is about the same size as 125 Olympic-sized swimming pools--directly into Prince William Sound in Alaska. The oil from the spill migrated several hundred miles from Bligh Reef and polluted roughly 1,300 miles of Alaskan shoreline. There were 11,000 square miles of ocean that were ultimately affected by this spill, which is believed to be the worst oilspill worldwide with respect to environmental damage.
Regrettably, the spill area is still affected some 19 years later. In 2001, the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration studied the shoreline of Prince William Sound for any remaining effects of the spill. Scientists reviewed 91 sites within Prince William Sound and found that 58 percent of these locations were still polluted by oil. Again, this is 19 years after the fact. Some estimates note that beaches and streams in this area are still polluted with over 25,000 gallons of oil.
Of course, the fisheries in Prince William Sound were affected. The herring fishery in this area experienced a dramatic decrease in the years immediately after the 1989 spill. As of 2007, the herring fishery had not improved to the pre-1989 levels. Another example is what has happened with the value of the fisheries permits in this part of the State. In 1988, a fishing permit in Prince William Sound was worth $400,000. As of 2004, the value of each such permit was less than $70,000, a drop of more than 82 percent.
There was a class action jury trial held in Federal court in Anchorage, AK, in 1994. The plaintiffs at that time included over 30,000 commercial fishermen, among those whose livelihoods were gravely affected by the disaster. The jury awarded $5 billion in punitive damages to the plaintiffs. This punitive damage award has been on repeated appeal by ExxonMobil since that time.
On December 22, 2006, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals reduced the punitive damage award to $2.5 billion. In early 2007, ExxonMobil petitioned the Ninth Circuit for a rehearing en banc. Within a few months, the Ninth Circuit denied this petition and ExxonMobil appealed to the Supreme Court. Unfortunately, in this intervening time period, with years and years of litigation bringing delay in resolution, we have had several thousand plaintiffs pass away since this litigation began.
Due to the limitations in admiralty law with respect to the recovery of compensatory damages, many Exxon Valdez plaintiffs were not able to recover the financial losses they sustained in the aftermath of this spill. So the punitive damages that are under consideration by the Supreme Court will provide them that level of compensation.
Once the Supreme Court decided to hear this case, I joined with Senator Stevens and Representative Young in submitting an Alaska congressional delegation amicus brief to the U.S. Supreme Court. In that brief, we argue that the award of punitive damages in this case of reckless and wanton conduct by Exxon not only is permissible under the Clea n Water Act, but it is supported by Federal maritime law. Only punitive damages will provide those who were harmed--and who continue to be harmed--with the justice and the fair compensation they deserve.
This litigation needs to end. Nineteen years is far too long for these plaintiffs to wait to be compensated for their loss of income. I am hopeful that the Supreme Court will rule in favor of the plaintiffs in this case, and I, along with so many Alaskans, look for a final resolution to this great tragedy that occurred to us as a State some 19 years ago.
Mr. President, I yield the floor.
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