Native American Child Protection Act

Floor Speech

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 663, the Native American Child Protection Act.

American Indian and Alaska Native children have the highest rate of child abuse in the United States, at a rate of 15 cases for every 1,000 children. This can have devastating impacts on a child's cognitive, emotional, and neurological development, and can last them well into adulthood and even their entire life.

On top of this crisis, the Supreme Court recently heard a case attempting to gut the Indian Child Welfare Act, which protects the rights of Native children and families. That is why passing the Native American Child Protection Act today is so timely.

My bipartisan bill reauthorizes and revises programs that give Tribes the tools to treat, prevent, investigate, and prosecute child abuse and family violence involving Native American children.

The programs in this bill were originally led by another Arizonian back in 1990 through John McCain's Indian Child Protection and Family Violence Prevention Act. That bill was part of a promise to answer for the tragic abuse that happened at federally run Native American boarding schools, but the programs had never been fully funded, were never authorized, and eventually expired. This is a failure by the Federal Government and a continuation of centuries of broken promises.

By passing H.R. 663, we will take a step to right this wrong. We will create a national Indian resource and family service center to help Tribes and urban Indian organizations with training and program development. We will develop new intergovernmental agreements between Tribes and States to prevent, investigate, treat, and prosecute family violence, and will encourage culturally appropriate treatments and services for children who have been impacted.

In a place where we see a lot of partisan bickering, it is heartening to see so much bipartisan support around Tribal issues, including my Republican counterpart and co-lead on this bill, Representative Newhouse.

I also thank Natural Resources Committee Chairman Westerman and Ranking Member Raul Grijalva, as well as Indian and Insular Affairs Subcommittee Chairwoman Hageman and Ranking Member Leger Fernandez for their support.

The Native American Child Protection Act is another chance for us to work together to fulfill our promise to help this vulnerable population.

Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support final passage of H.R.

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Mr. GALLEGO. Mr. Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

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