October 21, 2009

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Sets Energy Hearing, Business Meeting on Tribal Recognition

WASHINGTON, DC –
Chairman Byron Dorgan (D-ND) announced Wednesday the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs will conduct a hearing at 2:15 PM, Thursday, October 22, on greater energy development and energy efficiency on Indian lands, and a business meeting to consider two bills that would extend federal recognition to Indian tribes in Virginia and North Carolina.
The committee will convene at 2:15 PM in Room 628 of the Dirksen Senate Office Building. At its business meeting, the committee will consider and vote on S. 1178, legislation to extend federal recognition to six tribes located in Virginia. The tribes are the Chickahominy Indian Tribe, the Chicahominy Indian Tribe-Eastern Division, the Upper Mattaponi Tribe, the Rappahannock Tribe, Inc. the Monacan Indian Nation, and the Nansemond Indian Tribe. The committee with also consider and vote on S. 1735, which would extend federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina.
Immediately following the business meeting, the committee will conduct a hearing on greater energy development and increasing energy efficiency on Indian lands. Witness will react to a concept paper developed by Chairman Dorgan and Vice Chairman John Barrasso (R-WY), which identifies obstacles to greater energy development and energy efficiency in Indian Country, and outlines possible solutions to those obstacles. The concept paper provides an early framework for legislation Dorgan and Barrasso intend to introduce later this year. The hearing Thursday follows a series of “listening sessions” the committee conducted around the country this year to gather reaction and additional ideas, and a May 2008 hearing which identified obstacles to achieving greater energy development and efficiency in Indian Country.
Details follow:
WHO: Senator Byron Dorgan, Chairman; Senator John Barrasso, Vice Chairman; and other members of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.
WITNESSES: Marcus Levings, Secretary, Council of Energy Resource Tribes Executive Board and Chairman of Three Affiliated Tribes, North Dakota; James Roan Grey, Chairman, Indian Country Renewable Energy Consortium Board of Directors, and Chairman, Osage Nation, Pawhuska, Oklahoma; Steve Herrera, Councilman, Southern Ute Indian Tribe, Ignacio, Colorado; Ralph Sampson, Chairman, Yakima Nation, Toppenish Washington.
WHAT: Committee business meeting, followed immediately be committee oversight hearing
WHEN: 2:15 PM, Thursday, October 22, 2009
WHERE: Room 628, Dirksen Senate Office Building, Washington, DC
WHY: To consider and vote on two bills extending federal recognition to several Indian tribes, and to receive testimony on obstacles and possible solutions to greater development of energy resources and improved energy efficiency on Indian lands.

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