The National Steering Committee for the Reauthorization of the Indian Health Care Improvement act has been busy trying to work through a few snags that have arisen. However, none of them presently deal with Urban Indian Health. The concerns are centered on Section 301 Facilities construction funding priorities.

The House and Senate version of the bills do continue to move. Please see below.

H.R. 1328
On April 25, 2007, the House Committee on Natural Resources held its mark-up hearing on IHCIA, H.R. 1328, and favorably reported the bill out of the Committee with amendments. Chairman Nick Rahall (D-WV) and Ranking Member Don Young (R-AK) along with 24 other Committee members discussed six amendments that were offered for HR 1328; three of these amendments were approved and three were withdrawn. None of the amendments were to Title V of the IHCIA.

Having been favorably reported out of the House Natural Resources Committee, H.R. 1328 will now be considered by the House Committee on Energy and Commerce.  Representative Frank Pallone (D-NJ), Chair of the Energy and Commerce Health is planning to schedule one soon.

S. 1200
On May 10th the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs reported out favorably the IHCIA without amendments.

In June 2007, the Senate Finance Committee is expected to mark up S. 1200. The mark up was postponed from an April scheduled date. Given other Committee priorities, the mark up of S. 1200 has also been postponed three times during May. The Senate Finance Committee has to report S. 1200 out of Committee before the bill can go to the Senate Floor for debate and a vote. Please contact members of the Senate Finance Committee to urge them to schedule the bill for a committee markup ASAP!

	LAST NAME	FIRST NAME	PTY/ST	ADDRESS	PHONE	FAX
Chair	Baucus	Max	D-MT	SH-511	224-2651	224-0515
	Rockefeller IV	John D.	D-WV	SH-531	224-6472	224-7665
	Conrad	Kent	D-ND	SH-530	224-2043	224-7776
	Bingaman	Jeff	D-NM	SH-703	224-5521	224-2852
	Kerry	John F.	D-MA	SR-304	224-2742	224-8525
	Lincoln	Blanche L.	D-AR	SD-355	224-4843	228-1371
	Wyden	Ron	D-OR	SD-230	224-5244	228-2717
	Schumer	Charles E.	D-NY	SH-313	224-6542	228-3027
	Stabenow	Debbie A.	D-MI	SH-133	224-4822	228-0325
	Cantwell	Maria	D-WA	SD-511	224-3441	228-0514
	Salazar	Kent	D-CO	SH-702	224-5852	228-5036
Rnk. Member	Grassley	Charles E.	R-IA	SH-135	224-3744	224-6020
	Hatch	Orrin G.	R-UT	SH-104	224-5251	224-6331
	Lott	Trent	R-MS	SR-487	224-6253	224-2262
	Snowe	Olympia J.	R-ME	SR-154	224-5344	224-1946
	Kyl	Jon L.	R-AZ	SH-730	224-4521	224-2207
	Thomas	Craig	R-WY	SD-307	224-6441	224-1724
	Smith	Gordon	R-OR	SR-404	224-3753	228-3997
	Bunning	Jim	R-KY	SH-316	224-4343	228-1373
	Crapo	Mike	R-ID	SD-239	224-6142	228-1375
	Roberts	Pat	R-KS	SH-109	224-4774	224-3514

109th Session

On December 8, 2006, knowing that S.1057 (Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments) would NOT pass the Senate in 2006, Senators McCain, Dorgan, Enzi and Murkowski introduced S.4122 to amend the IHCIA. S.4122 reflects last minute changes to the IHCIA that were made to address the Department of Justice and Republic Sterring Committee concerns.

Click to view a summary of the major changes to 1057 per 4122.

Click to view the HHS comments to the bill.

On September 29, 2006, the last day of the pre-election Session of Congress, S. 1057, the Indian Health Care Improvement Act Amendments of 2006, failed to pass in the Senate. Senate holds were placed on the bill due to an unofficial document released from the Department of Justice (DOJ) opposing the bill (Adobe Acrobat PDF). The DOJ White Paper was issued without DOJ letterhead or signature.

Click to view the Department of Justice "White Paper".

Click to view the NCUIH Response to the White Paper.

Click to view NIHB response to DOJ White Paper.

Click to view document on Status of State Recognized Tribes

The National Council of Urban Indian Health also prepared a resolution requesting the Administration to withdraw a Department of Justice memorandum and support passage of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act reauthorization legislation without further opposition.

Click to view NCUIH Resolution.

Thursday, June 7, 2007:

At 11:00 a.m. the Health Subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee held a hearing on the Indian Health Care Improvement Act. This is the first time in the current reauthorization effort that the IHCIA has been able to get a hearing in this committee. Dr. Grim testified on the first panel accompanied by staff. Dr. Grim was grilled from both the Republican and Democrat side of the committee on Urban Indian Health. NCUIH would like to thank Congresswoman Jan Schakowsky, IL, Congresswoman Heather Wilson, NM, Congresswoman Hilda L. Solis, CA, Congresswoman Darlene Hooley, OR and Chairman Frank Pallone Jr., NJ for their encouraging words and questioning during the hearing. Please take a moment to call youyr congressional representative if they are listed above and thank them for the support during the hearing. You can call me in the office if you would like further information or you can listen to the hearing online (http://energycommerce.house.gov/cmte_mtgs/110-he-hrg.060707.Indian.Hcare.shtml.

On the second panel Ralph Forquera gave background about the Seattle Indian Health Board, Urban Indian Health Institute and some specific language recommendations about section 2 (findings) and section 3 (policy statement) of the bill. Others that testified on panel two included Rachel A. Joseph Co-Chair of the NSC, James Crouch, M.P.H., Executive Director, California Rural Indian Health Board, Inc., and Ken B. Lucero of Pueblo of Zia. Thank you to United American Indian Involvement and Dave Rambeau for supporting travel for Rachel Joseph to the hearing and to the Seattle Indian Health Board and Ralph Forquera for your testimony.

(Please click here for Ralph Forquera's testimony.)

Chairman Frank Pallone Jr. committed to getting to the markup of the bill as soon after the July 4th recess as possible citing other legislation the committee needs to deal with first. The National Steering Committee (NSC) is hopeful that the House Ways and Means Committee will discharge the bill and we will be able to move to the floor soon there after. The National Steering Committee does have a commitment from Speaker Pelosi for floor time in the house.

In the Senate; the Finance Committee and the Health Education Labor and Pensions Committee both have jurisdiction over the bill but the NSC is hopeful that they will again both discharge the bill through working with the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs staffers. The NSC also has a commitment from Majority Leader Reid for floor time in the Senate. We are shooting for 60 yea votes to pass the bill. We will be in touch if we need assistance in mobilizing your Senators or Representatives. A call to your congressional office in support of the IHCIA never hurts.  

At 1:00pm the NSC meet with Several Staffers from both the Senate and House regarding the concerns over Section 301 of the bill. NCUIH has maintained that we will support whatever compromise the NSC is able to broker. The meeting went into the evening with no true compromise but concessions were made and hopefully it will be worked out before congress has to do the decision making for the Tribes.