WASHINGTON – American Indians and Alaska Natives nationwide have invested time and passion in the latest attempt to update the Indian Health Care Improvement Act, and the chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has repeatedly stated his determination to reauthorize and amend the bill after the failed efforts of the past four congresses.
Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., wanted to show some progress going into the August recess. So he took to the floor of the Senate to speak for Indian health and urge the reauthorization bill on his colleagues, and to offer it as an amendment to a previously introduced bill that some observers consider to be under threat of a presidential veto and not apt to go anywhere, with an amendment or without. In the first of a few choreographed moves punctuated by statements of mutual respect among colleagues, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, agreed to schedule a Sept. 12 mark-up on Title II of the reauthorization bill, the title Senate Finance has jurisdiction over. Baucus has a stake in the bill Dorgan sought to amend; and as chairman of one of the Senate’s most influential committees, he’ll be among the last to accept a skeptical view of its chances. full story
