Proposed Regulations To Implement the 1988 Amendments to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. Oversight Hearing To Establish a Detailed Timeframe for the Swift Development of New Implementing Regulations with Close Tribal Participation before the Committee on Indian Affairs. United States Senate, One Hundred Third Congress, First Session (May 14, 1993).

Testimony was heard concerning the long delays in implementation of the 1988 amendments to the Indian Self-Determination and Education Assistance Act. These amendments were intended to reverse years of federal agency resistance to the act's original goal of promoting tribal self-determination through tribal contracting of the operation of federal Indian programs. However, despite the amendments' clear timeframe of 10 months for the development of implementing regulations by federal agencies, the regulations had not been developed 5 years later. Representatives of American Indian and Alaska Native tribes and tribally controlled programs discussed: (1) how the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) and Indian Health Service (IHS) bureaucracies had subverted Congress's intentions by delaying promulgation of regulations, by misinterpreting the act in a restrictive manner, and by forcing tribal contractors to bear the brunt of financial shortfalls in funded programs; (2) the lack of tribal participation in the regulatory process; and (3) damaging effects of the delay on provision of educational and health services. Representatives of the BIA and the IHS explained their efforts to draft regulations. A law firm representing several tribes submitted a detailed analysis of the 400 pages of draft regulations being proposed by the BIA and the IHS. (SV)