The "Adoption Promotion and Stability Act" passed by the house as
HR-3286 was first referred to the Senate Finance Committe, which handles
most tax (and tax credit) matters. (The Senate version doesn't have a
number yet.) The Finance Committe reported it out and referred it to the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs yesterday.
The Committee on Indian Affairs has scheduled "mark-up" for June 19. This
is when the committee members (may) make suggestions for changes. Then,
if changes are suggested, hearings may be held on the proposed changes,
(provided the majority votes for the hearings) or, the Bill could be sent
directly to the full Senate for a vote. If no changes are made from what
the House passed, that's the end of it - it goes to the President for his
signature or veto. If changes are made, the House and Senate have to
"reconcile" the two bills, then vote on the "reconciliation bill."
Listed below are the members of this committee with whatever contact info
I was able to find on them. (Note: All the Senate members have a Senate
staff generated "webpage." I have noted those that have made their own
homepages, since I think this indicates a willingness to accept the
internet as a valid contact method. The rest (especially the ones without
even an email address) are likely to be technological Luddites. It might
be best to call or write snail mail to those Senators.) Also, those with
"homepages on graphic steriods" obviously don't understand the internet
culture very well. They take about an hour to load (ok, an exaggeration).
The snail mail address for ALL Senators is now:
The Honorable ___________________
or
Office of Senator _____________
United States Senate
Washington, D.C. 20510
The receptionist of the Senate tells me that the postal carriers prefer to
deliver by name, since a transposed number or the wrong building could get
a letter, ahem, lost.
Rather than give you the URLs of all of these homepages and websites, here
is the URL of the page that links to ALL Senators webpages, (Senators are
listed alphabetically) whether maintained by the Senate staff or the
members themselves:
http://www.senate.gov/senator/members.html
If you're not sure who your senators are - well, first of all, shame on
you - but anyway, here's the URL of the page that lists Senators by State:
http://www.senate.gov/senator/state.html
THE SENATE COMMITTEE ON INDIAN AFFAIRS:
202-224-2251
838 Hart Senate Office Bldg
Washington, DC 20510-6450
Staff member contact: Phil Baker-Shemk
Committee Members:
REPUBLICANS*********************************************************
John McCain, Arizona, Chairman 202-224-2235
E-mail: senator_mccain@mccain.senate.gov
Frank H. Murkowski, Alaska - (202) 224-6665
FAX (202) 224-5301
(has homepage on graphic steriods)
Email: email@murkowski.senate.gov
Slade Gorton, Washington (202) 224-3441
(202) 224-9393 (fax)
(has homepage)
Email: senator_gorton@gorton.senate.gov
Pete V. Domenici, New Mexico (202) 224-6621
E-mail: senator_domenici@domenici.senate.gov
Nancy Landon Kassebaum, Kansas (202)-224-4774
Email: n/a
Don Nickles, Oklahoma - (202) 224 5754
(has homepage)
Email: senator@nickles.senate.gov
Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Colorado (202) 224-5852
Email: n/a
Craig Thomas, Wyoming (202) 224-6441
(has homepage)
Email: craig@thomas.senate.gov
Orrin G. Hatch, Utah - (202) 224-5251
Email: Senator_Hatch@Hatch.senate.gov
DEMOCRATS********************************************************
Daniel K. Inouye, Hawaii 202-224-3934
(has homepage on graphic steriods)
senator@inouye.senate.gov
Kent Conrad, North Dakota - (202) 224-2043
FAX: (202) 224-7776
(has rudimentary homepage)
Email: senator@conrad.senate.gov
Harry Reid, Nevada (202) 224-3542
Email: senator_reid@reid.senate.gov
Paul Simon, Illinois (202) 224-2152 (voice)
(202) 224-5469 (TTY)
(has homepage)
Email: senator@simon.senate.gov
Daniel K. Akaka, Hawaii (202) 224-6361
Email: n/a
Paul Wellstone, Minnesota (202) 224-5641
(has homepage)
Email: senator@wellstone.senate.gov
Byron L. Dorgan, North Dakota (202) 224-2551
Email: senator@dorgan.senate.gov
If any of these people are your Senators, I urge you to write or call them
about the amendment to the ICWA contained in the Adoption tax credit bill.
(You may have to "educate" them about the House version - the person I
spoke with in McCains office was not familiar with it, because Sen. McCain
has introduced his own adoption bill, and of course, his staff was focused
on that, rather than what the House is doing.)
Here's a sample of some points you can make if you write or call:
*************************************************************************
HR 3286 - the "Adoption Promotion and Stability Act" which was passed by
the House on May 10, 1996, has been forwarded to the Senate Committee on
Indian Affairs, of which you are a member. I wish to draw your attention
to "Title 3" of that act. While I believe that the adoption tax credit is
a good idea, "Title 3" amends the Indian Child Welfare Act of 1978 in a
way that weakens that very good legislation severely. There have been
instances of abuse of the ICWA, we all agree. But the amendment placed in
the Adoption Promotion and Stability Act does not address the main cause
of those abuses - lawyer and agency misconduct. What it actually does is
permit state courts to decide who is and who is not a member of the
sovereign Native Nations of this continent. Can you imagine telling
Canada what the qualifications of Canadian citizenship are? "Title 3" is a
cynical attempt to "get around" the much-needed protection of the Indian
Child Welfare Act, and I urge you to remove it from this bill before you
report it out of your committee.
***************************************************************************
Hope you all can take some time and write or call the members of the
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs about this important issue.
Karen
P.S. If you're not sure what the I.C.W.A is all about, or what the
amendment is, email me at karenjg@gnn.com and I'll send you some
background info.
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Comments from NativeNet listowner, Gary Trujillo (gst@gnosys.svle.ma.us):
I have just created an index to the articles that have been posted to the
NATIVE-L list on the subject. You can access that index at:
http://bioc09.uthscsa.edu/natnet/archive/nl/icwa.html