Support Corrections to the PATRIOT Act

The USA PATRIOT Act and related government actions undercut many important checks and balances on government law enforcement and intelligence powers.

Under this Act and other Administration actions that were taken without congressional involvement, the government can search your home without notifying you, can get a list of the books you have obtained from your library and your local bookstore and require your local librarian and bookseller to keep this hidden from you, can keep a file on how often you go to church, which churches you attend and the medications you use -- even if these activities have nothing to do with the fight against terrorism.

We should provide law enforcement with necessary tools to fight terrorism, but the USA PATRIOT Act and related government actions also gave the government many new powers that go beyond the fight against terrorism. Parts of the USA PATRIOT Act and other government actions take away checks on law enforcement and threaten the very rights and freedoms that we are waging the war on terror to protect.

This expansion of government powers has resulted in a significant groundswell from across the political spectrum -- resolutions opposing the PATRIOT Act have been passed in 136 communities and three states (representing approximately 16.5 million people).

Take Action! Urge your Members of Congress to support corrections to the USA PATRIOT Act and other domestic surveillance powers. Congress must act to ensure government powers adhere to the Bill of Rights.

+The government can now use a special intelligence court to collect information about the books you read, your purchases and your personal finances.

Government agents can now obtain many types of your personal records -- educational, medical, financial, sales, library, etc. -- even if they have no probable cause of a crime. In fact, the PATRIOT Act prohibits the holders of that information, such as librarians, from disclosing that these records were turned over to the government.

+The PATRIOT Act allows the government to search your home and not even tell you.

The law allows law enforcement agents to conduct secret "sneak and peek" searches of your home. Investigators can enter your home or office, take pictures and seize items without informing you that a warrant was issued for a very long time -- if ever.

+Spying on innocent Americans.

The PATRIOT Act and changes to government investigative guidelines permit a vast array of information on U.S. citizens to be collected and shared with the CIA (and other non-law enforcement officials) without proper judicial oversight or other safeguards. This law effectively puts the CIA back in the business of spying on Americans.

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Washington Can Find the Money for Giving Tax Breaks to Millionaires, Attacking Iraq, and Building Even More Nuclear Weapons, but Can't Provide Head Start for All Eligible Kids?

Take Action to Stop Bush From Dismantling Head Start

America is at its best when we care for each other, especially our most vulnerable fellow citizens. That's why it's so shameful that our government is giving huge tax breaks to millionaires but failing to provide our poorest kids with the basics, like Head Start. And just this week President Bush announced, in the name of "improving" Head Start, that he wants to begin dismantling this under-funded program. TrueMajority.org agrees with child advocates like the Children's Defense Fund, the National Head Start Association and many others who oppose Bush's plan because it would:

�Dismantle Head Start as a federal program;

�Replace Head Start with untested state programs;

�Refuse to offer Head Start funding to all eligible kids.

Head Start has a strong track record of success in helping kids in poverty, and needs to be protected. The program must not be scrapped, and instead should be fully funded with an additional $2 billion/year (that's one half of one percent of the Pentagon budget).

If you are not currently registered with TrueMajority, but would like to send a free fax in regard to this issue, click here

For more information on Head Start, click here

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Native American Rights Fund

CALL TO ACTION!

PLEASE READ THE FOLLOWING LETTER. CLICK HERE TO EMAIL KEY MEMBERS OF CONGRESS OR HERETO OBTAIN ADDITIONAL INFORMATION.

Not since the Battle of the Little Bighorn 127 years ago has there been such a cowardly sneak attack on Indian people by a branch of the United States government.

For over seven years the Native American Rights Fund (NARF) has been battling the Department of the Interior in a class action lawsuit known as Cobell v. Norton. NARF is fighting for the rights of more than 500,000 American Indians who are current and former beneficiaries to the Individual Indian Money (IIM) trust. The federal government�s mismanagement, neglect and insensitivity in the way it has �managed� monies held in trust for American Indians has been a black mark on federal-tribal relations for over 116 years.

In 1887, under the General Allotment Act, the United States government began the process of breaking up Indian reservations by allotting parcels of land to individual Indians and selling �surplus� parcels to non-Indians. The objective of the allotment program was to destabilize tribal governments and to assimilate individual Indians into mainstream society. The General Allotment Act formed the basis for the trust relationship between the United States, Indian tribes and individual Indians. Today, many Indians rely on income derived from the leasing of their land to non-Indian users. These leases are negotiated and administered by the federal government for the benefit of Indian beneficiaries. In any trust relationship, the trustee in this case the United States is under a fiduciary duty to act in the best interests of the trust beneficiaries. The federal government has failed miserably in carrying out that duty.

As a staunch supporter of NARF and the rights of Indian people, as well as being a supporter of this litigation I would like to update you on our progress to date. I am happy to report that after seven years of contentious litigation victory is in sight! But, the battle is not over yet. At this very minute certain individuals in government are trying to undermine the United States judicial system using devious and cowardly political maneuvering --- just because they are not winning!

Since NARF filed this lawsuit in 1996 to force the government to account for its mismanagement of Indian trust funds we have been victorious every step of the way. But it has been a constant fight. Early on in the litigation instead of playing by the rules of procedure set up by the United States federal court system the government blatantly refused to produce all of the records and documents that U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth ordered them to produce. Instead, in March of 1997 the government lied to the court in a certified document that it had produced all such documents.

Government officials also lied outright in open court to cover up their inept handling of these trust accounts. NARF had to file a motion in December of 1998 for the government to show cause why the Court should not hold them in contempt for failure to comply with the Courts order and go through a contempt trial to force the government to produce the documents. The Court in February 1999 ruled that the Secretary of the Interior Bruce Babbit, Secretary of the Treasury Robert Rubin, and Kevin Gover, Assistant Secretary of Indian Affairs are in civil contempt of court for failure to produce court-ordered records. A victory for NARF and the individual Indian trust beneficiaries!

Originally, the Court bifurcated the proceedings into two phases. Phase I would address �fixing the system�, or reforming the management and accounting of the IIM trust to bring the United States government into compliance with its fiduciary obligations. Phase II, on the other hand, would address correcting the accounts, or performing a historical accounting of the IIM accounts. The Court held a six week bench trial, which began in June of 1999. In a 126-page opinion and order, Judge Lamberth held that the United States government has breached its fiduciary duties to individual Indian trust beneficiaries. Another victory! The government, but the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit affirmed Judge Lamberth�s opinion and order. Again, a stunning victory for NARF!

Then, another fight emerged. NARF had discovered that a serious problem existed regarding the security of IIM data. In July 2001 the General Accounting Office issued a scathing report to Interior Secretary Gale Norton that the Interior�s computer system lacked adequate security to prevent outsiders from breaking into the system. This meant that individual Indian trust account information could be altered or totally deleted putting the assets at risk. To prove this point the court approved the hiring of computer experts to hack into the system that maintains the IIM trust records. In November 2001 the results given in the Special Masters report documented deplorable and inexcusable computer security lapses.

At the same time this report was being delivered, Secretary of the Interior Norton, in her arrogance and contempt for Indian country issued her proposal to create a new Bureau of Indian Trust Asset Management (BITAM) without consultation with Tribal leaders. Indian country rallied in one voice against the proposal, saying it would undermine the authority of the BIA. Tribal leaders offered to work with the Secretary and her staff on true trust reform, but ultimately, this offer fell on deaf ears.

On December 5, 2001, in response to the computer experts findings, the court ordered the Department of the Interior to disconnect its Indian trust related Internet systems because they lacked security safeguards. In response to this order, Interior, playing a cruel game of politics, took advantage of the court order that was meant to protect the trust accounts from further harm, stopped all payments to all individual Indian trust beneficiaries. Over 15 million in trust payments were delayed meaning no Christmas for tens of thousands of Indian families. What made matters worse was that Interior�s spin doctors employed the age-old tactic of divide and conquer against Native people. Irate Indian account holders began calling the Department of Interior. Instead of telling them the truth about why they were not getting their checks, they put the blame on NARF for their not receiving any payments! Shocking yes, but not unexpected given Interior�s behavior throughout the case.

NARF refused to stand by and allow these injustices to take place. In December, 2001we filed a motion to show cause why Secretary of the Interior Gale Norton and then Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Neal McCaleb should not be held in contempt of court. A twenty-nine day bench trial focused on how these individuals through their offices engaged in a pattern and practice of obstruction of justice, fraud on the Court and violations of court orders. In September 2002 the court once again agreed with our charges and found both secretary Norton and Assistant Secretary McCaleb guilty on 4 of 5 counts of civil contempt. Additionally, because of the findings in the contempt trial the Court found it necessary to order a Phase 1.5 trial. This trial, which began May 1, 2003 and continues to date will address additional remedies with respect to fixing the system portion of the case and approving an approach to conducting a historical accounting of the IIM trust accounts.

Recent Developments:

One would think that after two embarrassing contempt trials and an astounding defeat in the Phase I trial the government would start to play by the rules, live up to their fiduciary responsibilities and stop playing games with peoples lives. One would think that such fights would be over, but that is not what is happening. Instead the government is trying to do an end run around the legal system - a system that was designed to protect people like you and me!

Just a couple of weeks ago the House Appropriations Subcommittee approved legislation that would undermine the rights of individual Indian trust beneficiaries which would force the settlement of individual Indian trust account claims. This bill known as Section 137 of the FY2004 House Interior Appropriations Bill would give the Secretary of the Interior the authority to unilaterally settle any claim relating to the accounting of the balance of any individual Indian money account. Under the proposed legislative rider, the Secretary would have five years to perform a �statistical sampling evaluation� in a manner she deems �reasonable and fair using the discredited statistical sampling methodology�. The Secretary would then have the power to adjust the balances in IIM accounts by applying the error rate to the transactions in an IIM account.

The Secretary�s adjustments to the IIM accounts would be final. Judicial review would be limited to reviewing the Secretary�s method for conducting the statistical sampling, and judicial deference to the Secretary would be mandated by application of the Administrative Procedures Act. The legislation would remove jurisdiction from the federal courts to hear any other claims by IIM account holders for accounting or account balances. The legislation is also limited to only those accounts that were open as of October 25, 1994, and would preclude any claims on predecessor accounts.

What this all means has been summed up in an analyses done by the National Congress of American Indians:

This legislation is somewhat like giving the CEO of Enron the authority to unilaterally settle the claims of the Enron shareholders. The same Department of the Interior that has mismanaged the trust accounts, and has been so repeatedly accused of bad faith by both Congress and the federal courts, would have complete authority to end all of the claims by IIM account holders under a methodology of its own choosing. IIM claims would be limited to �accounting error �through statistical sampling, and all claims based on failed collections or inaccurate starting balances would be barred. The legislation would presumably bar the Cobell v. Norton litigation outright.� Furthermore �there has been no consultation with the tribes or the account holders.�

NARF wants this political slight of hand and political chicanery to stop! We want the court to be able to do its job without political interference-- and allow this trust debacle to be finally be solved. I�ve said it to you before and I will say it again, No more runarounds!

This is why I am writing to you today. Your forwarding the enclosed e-mail letter to the six House Representatives can help put a stop to the passage of this bill which would allow the government to deny that it is responsible for the billions of dollars that have been stolen from the pockets of America�s First people! We cannot afford to remain silent while our judicial system is trying to be circumvented!

Please do not delay. Time is of the essence!

Thank you for your support. Sincerely,

John E. Echohawk

Executive Director

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