Native American Enterprise Initiative: Legislative Agenda

Ultimately, the Leadership Council will help craft the legislative agenda for the remainder of this Congress and set a comprehensive agenda for the 113th Congress. Below are several areas that the Chamber sees as ripe for advocacy:

• Taxation: The next Congress will certainly be engaged in an extensive debate over the future of the US tax system. Such a debate presents important opportunities to address inequalities and deficiencies in the tax code for Indian Country, such as the treatment of tax-exempt bonds issues by tribal governments.
• Energy Development: Senator’s Barasso and Akaka have introduced a bipartisan measure to expedite the energy and resource development on tribal lands – a bill that would assist with economic development both within Indian Country, and for the nation as a whole.
• National Labor Relations Board (NLRB):  The NLRB has increasingly encroached upon tribal sovereignty with uncertain claims of jurisdiction over tribal industries, even when those enterprises are located entirely on tribal lands. Court challenges have produced mixed results, and the time may be ripe to pursue legislative remedies.
• Environmental Protection Agency (EPA): As longtime stewards of our environment, EPA’s overbearing approach to Indian Country is particularly inappropriate. Curbing increasing regulations from the EPA would accelerate permitting processes and devolve authority and sovereignty back to tribal governments.
• Trade and Economic Development: Native American Enterprises and Tribal lands are potentially rich opportunities for Foreign Direct Investment and US export opportunities. The Initiative should address hurdles such as intellectual property protection, regulatory and infrastructural roadblocks that inhibit growth in this arena.

For more information please contact Jason Matthews at jmatthews@uschamber.com or 202-463-5867.