Senators Rebuke Interior on Missing Tribal Jobs Reports

Congressional pressure is mounting on the U.S. Department of the Interior for officials there to explain why they haven’t released any tribal economic and employment reports since 2007, in violation of biennial reporting requirements mandated by federal law. Sens. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, and John Barrasso, R-Wyoming, and vice-chair of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), sent a letter to Interior Secretary Ken Salazar dated July 16 that chastised the department for “failing to release vital labor information which will help Congress, Alaska Natives and Indian tribes evaluate employment conditions in Indian country,” according to a Murkowski press release. Soon after the letter was sent, Interior officials promised to meet with SCIA staff on July 20. “We intend to sit down with SCIA staff to brief them on our efforts to ensure our reporting meets the standards of federal agencies in reporting official statistics, and contains high quality, reliable information that will better serve the long-term interests of American Indians and Alaska Natives,” said Nedra Darling, a spokeswoman for Interior. Murkowski and Barrasso, like some tribal observers, believe the reason the Obama administration has not rushed to quantify the effects of the spending is that it may not have been effective in reducing historically high unemployment rates on many reservations...more