§5372 Reports

Summary

Each year on January 1, the Secretary must send Congress a report about how this part of the law is being run. Any Indian Tribe may also send the Office of Self-Governance and the right congressional committees a yearly analysis of what funding needs they still have for agreements under this law. The report must be built from funding agreements, audits, and the Secretary’s data. It must show the costs and benefits of self-governance, list funds tied to services and benefits, show what funds were given to each Tribe and how federal jobs or work changed, and include the funding formula for Central Office funds (with Tribes’ comments). The draft report must be shared with Tribes at least 30 days before it goes to Congress and must include each Tribe’s separate views. The report must also list programs that can be negotiated into funding agreements and list programs Tribes asked to include because of special local importance, saying whether each request was approved or denied and why. To help Tribes include programs outside the Bureau of Indian Affairs, the Secretary must review all Department programs not run through the BIA, the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, or the Office of the Special Trustee. After talking with Tribes that do self-governance, the Secretary must set program targets to encourage bureaus to make a fair share of those programs available for agreements. The lists of negotiable programs and the targets must be published in the Federal Register and given to participating Tribes. The Secretary must update and republish those lists and targets every year, and when updating must consider the programs that were on the 1995 eligible list (except programs that the law says cannot be contracted). By January 1, 2020, the Secretary must work with Tribes to create a formula to divide Central Office funds between individual Tribes for inclusion in compacts.