Indian Affairs

indian affairs

Senator Inouye joined the Committee on Indian Affairs in 1978, and served as the Chairman of the Committee from 1987 to 1994.  Beginning in 1994, the Senator served as Vice Chairman, until June 2001 to December 2002, when he once again assumed the Chairmanship of the Committee.  From January 2003, he again served as Vice Chairman until he resigned his leadership position on the Committee in 2005 in order to assume the Vice Chairmanship of the Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation.

In the 100th Congress, when Senator Inouye assumed the Chairmanship of the Indian Affairs Committee, the Committee held more hearings and reported more legislation to the full Senate than any other committee of the Senate.  Landmark legislation including the reauthorizations of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act, the Indian Education Act, the Native American Languages Act, and the Native American Programs Act, and the enactment of the Indian Finance Act, the Indian Land Consolidation Act, the American Indian Trust Fund Management Reform Act, the National Museum of the American Indian Act, the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, the Native American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, the Native American Housing Assistance and Self-Determination Act, the Native Hawaiian Education Act, the Native Hawaiian Health Care Improvement Act, and scores of Indian water rights and land claims settlement laws were also accomplished under the Senator’s leadership.  In addition, the Senator was successful in securing permanent committee status for the Committee on Indian Affairs, which had previously been a Select Committee of the Senate. 

The Senator remains a senior member of the Committee on Indian Affairs, and is honored to work with Native leaders from American Indian tribes, Alaska Native communities as well as regional and village corporations, and the Native Hawaiian community, in furtherance of the United States’ government-to-government relationship with the sovereign Native governments that represent America’s indigenous, native people.

To visit the Indian Affairs Committee website please click here.

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