Employment Opportunities for Native People

CONGRESSIONAL RECORD
SENATE
Sept. 15, 2004
EMPLOYMENT OPPORTUNITIES FOR NATIVE PEOPLE

Ms. MURKOWSKI. Mr. President, when troubles befall our Nation, whether it is a hurricane in Florida, a tornado in Oklahoma, or an earthquake in my State of Alaska, America turns to the Federal Emergency Management Agency, FEMA, to help it recover.

FEMA, in turn, relies upon some 4,000 part time, temporary employees called disaster assistance employees to help it meet the heightened workload demands. These disaster reservists, who live in all corners of our Nation, are organized into cadres and are pressed into service when their services are needed.

The Federal Government transports these individuals from their home to the disaster site, houses them, pays a Federal civil service wage for their services and returns them home at Federal expense when their services are no longer needed.

In the native villages of my home State and in native communities across the Nation, the level of unemployment is unacceptably high. Native people are often left with the choice of relocating to urban areas where jobs are in greater supply, leaving their native culture behind or remaining in their communities where jobs are scarce.

I suspect that native people who live in the rural villages of Alaska will find the opportunity for intermittent employment with FEMA desirable. Employment such as that offered by FEMA in the Disaster Assistance Employee cadres allows my native people to participate in the cash economy without completely losing their ties with the traditional subsistence culture in their villages. I expect the same is true for native people who live on our Indian reservations and native Hawaiians.

Last evening, joined by Senator Inouye and Senator Stevens, I offered an amendment to H.R. 4567, the Homeland Security Appropriations Bill on this subject. This amendment encourages the Secretary of Homeland Security to make an effort to improve the representation of American Indians, Alaska natives and native Hawaiians in the Disaster Assistance Employee cadres by actively recruiting in our native communities. The amendment was adopted by unanimous consent last evening, and I want to thank my colleagues for supporting it.

I hope that this amendment will serve its intended purpose, which is to encourage FEMA to be proactive in identifying opportunities to reduce unemployment among our qualified and motivated native workforce, and I hope that this lesson will not be lost on the other Federal agencies.

As thousands of native people from across our Nation descend on Washington next week for the opening of the National Museum of the American Indian, it is fitting that our Federal Government renew its commitment to provide native people, many of whom reside in the remotest parts of our Nation, with access to Federal employment opportunities. Last night the Senate did just that, and I am grateful to my colleagues for their support of my amendment.