The Senate may, or not, approve legislation to settle the Cobell vs. Salazar suit during the lame duck session. Here’s a CSPAN link to live broadcast in the Senate. If the Senate does not approve the Cobell settlement this session, the case my end up back in court after 14 years of litigation. The Obama administration agreed to settle the long-running lawsuit in December 2009 for $3.4 billion. The sum is to be paid to American Indian landowners and also a land consolidation program. The settlement was awarded for more than a century of Interior Department mismanagement of natural resource revenues earned by American Indian landowners.
For now, all eyes are turned to Senate majority leader Harry Reid of Nevada who will be the person to bring the Cobell settlement to the floor. The Senate will not vote today, Nov. 19, according to the Senate Press Gallery floor log. Congress is expected to meet again Nov. 29 after the holiday break. Sources close to the issue do not know if the Cobell settlement has been separated from the Pigford settlement, the latter riddled by allegations of fraudulent claims submitted by black farmers. Democrats are now struggling to make any headway during the lame duck session.
Here is a CSPAN video of Keith Harper discussing the Cobell settlement last December.
Jodi Rave
Ms. Rave is a 2004 Nieman Fellow for journalists at Harvard University. Her reporting on the Cobell suit is featured in “The Authentic Voice: Best Reporting on Race and Ethnicity,” Columbia University Press. She is also a 2004 Poynter Ethics Fellow. She spent the last decade as a national reporter covering American Indian issues for Lee Enterprises. Additionally, Rave is an Individual Indian Money account holder with title to trust land on the Fort Berthold Reservation in North Dakota.