H. R. 2466—15
Education Amendments of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 2001–2019), and the
Tribally Controlled Schools Act of 1988 (25 U.S.C. 2501 et seq.),
as amended, $1,637,444,000, to remain available until September
30, 2001 except as otherwise provided herein, of which not to
exceed $93,684,000 shall be for welfare assistance payments and
notwithstanding any other provision of law, including but not lim-
ited to the Indian Self-Determination Act of 1975, as amended,
not to exceed $115,229,000 shall be available for payments to tribes
and tribal organizations for contract support costs associated with
ongoing contracts, grants, compacts, or annual funding agreements
entered into with the Bureau prior to or during fiscal year 2000,
as authorized by such Act, except that tribes and tribal organiza-
tions may use their tribal priority allocations for unmet indirect
costs of ongoing contracts, grants, or compacts, or annual funding
agreements and for unmet welfare assistance costs; and of which
not to exceed $401,010,000 for school operations costs of Bureau-
funded schools and other education programs shall become available
on July 1, 2000, and shall remain available until September 30,
2001; and of which not to exceed $51,991,000 shall remain available
until expended for housing improvement, road maintenance,
attorney fees, litigation support, self-governance grants, the Indian
Self-Determination Fund, land records improvement, and the
Navajo-Hopi Settlement Program: Provided, That notwithstanding
any other provision of law, including but not limited to the Indian
Self-Determination Act of 1975, as amended, and 25 U.S.C. 2008,
not to exceed $42,160,000 within and only from such amounts
made available for school operations shall be available to tribes
and tribal organizations for administrative cost grants associated
with the operation of Bureau-funded schools: Provided further, That
any forestry funds allocated to a tribe which remain unobligated
as of September 30, 2001, may be transferred during fiscal year
2002 to an Indian forest land assistance account established for
the benefit of such tribe within the tribe’s trust fund account:
Provided further, That any such unobligated balances not so trans-
ferred shall expire on September 30, 2002.
CONSTRUCTION
For construction, repair, improvement, and maintenance of
irrigation and power systems, buildings, utilities, and other facili-
ties, including architectural and engineering services by contract;
acquisition of lands, and interests in lands; and preparation of
lands for farming, and for construction of the Navajo Indian Irriga-
tion Project pursuant to Public Law 87–483, $146,884,000, to remain
available until expended: Provided, That such amounts as may
be available for the construction of the Navajo Indian Irrigation
Project may be transferred to the Bureau of Reclamation: Provided
further, That not to exceed 6 percent of contract authority available
to the Bureau of Indian Affairs from the Federal Highway Trust
Fund may be used to cover the road program management costs
of the Bureau: Provided further, That any funds provided for the
Safety of Dams program pursuant to 25 U.S.C. 13 shall be made
available on a nonreimbursable basis: Provided further, That for
fiscal year 2000, in implementing new construction or facilities
improvement and repair project grants in excess of $100,000 that
are provided to tribally controlled grant schools under Public Law
100–297, as amended, the Secretary of the Interior shall use the
Administrative and Audit Requirements and Cost Principles for
H. R. 2466—16
Assistance Programs contained in 43 CFR part 12 as the regulatory
requirements: Provided further, That such grants shall not be sub-
ject to section 12.61 of 43 CFR; the Secretary and the grantee
shall negotiate and determine a schedule of payments for the work
to be performed: Provided further, That in considering applications,
the Secretary shall consider whether the Indian tribe or tribal
organization would be deficient in assuring that the construction
projects conform to applicable building standards and codes and
Federal, tribal, or State health and safety standards as required
by 25 U.S.C. 2005(a), with respect to organizational and financial
management capabilities: Provided further, That if the Secretary
declines an application, the Secretary shall follow the requirements
contained in 25 U.S.C. 2505(f ): Provided further, That any disputes
between the Secretary and any grantee concerning a grant shall
be subject to the disputes provision in 25 U.S.C. 2508(e): Provided
further, That notwithstanding any other provision of law, collections
from the settlements between the United States and the Puyallup
tribe concerning Chief Leschi school are made available for school
construction in fiscal year 2000 and hereafter: Provided further,
That in return for a quit claim deed to a school building on the
Lac Courte Oreilles Ojibwe Indian Reservation, the Secretary shall
pay to U.K. Development, LLC the amount of $375,000 from the
funds made available under this heading.
INDIAN LAND AND WATER CLAIM SETTLEMENTS AND MISCELLANEOUS
PAYMENTS TO INDIANS
For miscellaneous payments to Indian tribes and individuals
and for necessary administrative expenses, $27,256,000, to remain
available until expended; of which $25,260,000 shall be available
for implementation of enacted Indian land and water claim settle-
ments pursuant to Public Laws 101–618 and 102–575, and for
implementation of other enacted water rights settlements; and of
which $1,871,000 shall be available pursuant to Public Laws 99–
264, 100–383, 103–402 and 100–580.
INDIAN GUARANTEED LOAN PROGRAM ACCOUNT
For the cost of guaranteed loans, $4,500,000, as authorized
by the Indian Financing Act of 1974, as amended: Provided, That
such costs, including the cost of modifying such loans, shall be
as defined in section 502 of the Congressional Budget Act of 1974:
Provided further, That these funds are available to subsidize total
loan principal, any part of which is to be guaranteed, not to exceed
$59,682,000.
In addition, for administrative expenses to carry out the
guaranteed loan programs, $508,000.
ADMINISTRATIVE PROVISIONS
The Bureau of Indian Affairs may carry out the operation
of Indian programs by direct expenditure, contracts, cooperative
agreements, compacts and grants, either directly or in cooperation
with States and other organizations.
Appropriations for the Bureau of Indian Affairs (except the
revolving fund for loans, the Indian loan guarantee and insurance
fund, and the Indian Guaranteed Loan Program account) shall
be available for expenses of exhibits, and purchase of not to exceed
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229 passenger motor vehicles, of which not to exceed 187 shall
be for replacement only.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds available
to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for central office operations or
pooled overhead general administration (except facilities operations
and maintenance) shall be available for tribal contracts, grants,
compacts, or cooperative agreements with the Bureau of Indian
Affairs under the provisions of the Indian Self-Determination Act
or the Tribal Self-Governance Act of 1994 (Public Law 103–413).
In the event any tribe returns appropriations made available
by this Act to the Bureau of Indian Affairs for distribution to
other tribes, this action shall not diminish the Federal Government’s
trust responsibility to that tribe, or the government-to-government
relationship between the United States and that tribe, or that
tribe’s ability to access future appropriations.
Notwithstanding any other provision of law, no funds available
to the Bureau, other than the amounts provided herein for assist-
ance to public schools under 25 U.S.C. 452 et seq., shall be available
to support the operation of any elementary or secondary school
in the State of Alaska.
Appropriations made available in this or any other Act for
schools funded by the Bureau shall be available only to the schools
in the Bureau school system as of September 1, 1996. No funds
available to the Bureau shall be used to support expanded grades
for any school or dormitory beyond the grade structure in place
or approved by the Secretary of the Interior at each school in
the Bureau school system as of October 1, 1995. Funds made
available under this Act may not be used to establish a charter
school at a Bureau-funded school (as that term is defined in section
1146 of the Education Amendments of 1978 (25 U.S.C. 2026)),
except that a charter school that is in existence on the date of
the enactment of this Act and that has operated at a Bureau-
funded school before September 1, 1999, may continue to operate
during that period, but only if the charter school pays to the
Bureau a pro-rata share of funds to reimburse the Bureau for
the use of the real and personal property (including buses and
vans), the funds of the charter school are kept separate and apart
from Bureau funds, and the Bureau does not assume any obligation
for charter school programs of the State in which the school is
located if the charter school loses such funding. Employees of
Bureau-funded schools sharing a campus with a charter school
and performing functions related to the charter school’s operation
and employees of a charter school shall not be treated as Federal
employees for purposes of chapter 171 of title 28, United States
Code (commonly known as the ‘‘Federal Tort Claims Act’’). Not
later than June 15, 2000, the Secretary of the Interior shall evaluate
the effectiveness of Bureau-funded schools sharing facilities with
charter schools in the manner described in the preceding sentence
and prepare and submit a report on the finding of that evaluation
to the Committees on Appropriations of the Senate and of the
House.
The Tate Topa Tribal School, the Black Mesa Community
School, the Alamo Navajo School, and other Bureau-funded schools
subject to the approval of the Secretary of the Interior, may use
prior year school operations funds for the replacement or repair
of Bureau of Indian Affairs education facilities which are in compli-
ance with 25 U.S.C. 2005(a) and which shall be eligible for operation
H. R. 2466—18
and maintenance support to the same extent as other Bureau
of Indian Affairs education facilities: Provided, That any additional
construction costs for replacement or repair of such facilities begun
with prior year funds shall be completed exclusively with non-
Federal funds.
DEPARTMENT OFFICES
INSULAR AFFAIRS
ASSISTANCE TO TERRITORIES
For expenses necessary for assistance to territories under the
jurisdiction of the Department of the Interior, $67,171,000, of which:
(1) $63,076,000 shall be available until expended for technical
assistance, including maintenance assistance, disaster assistance,
insular management controls, coral reef initiative activities, and
brown tree snake control and research; grants to the judiciary
in American Samoa for compensation and expenses, as authorized
by law (48 U.S.C. 1661(c)); grants to the Government of American
Samoa, in addition to current local revenues, for construction and
support of governmental functions; grants to the Government of
the Virgin Islands as authorized by law; grants to the Government
of Guam, as authorized by law; and grants to the Government
of the Northern Mariana Islands as authorized by law (Public
Law 94–241; 90 Stat. 272); and (2) $4,095,000 shall be available
for salaries and expenses of the Office of Insular Affairs: Provided,
That all financial transactions of the territorial and local govern-
ments herein provided for, including such transactions of all agen-
cies or instrumentalities established or used by such governments,
may be audited by the General Accounting Office, at its discretion,
in accordance with chapter 35 of title 31, United States Code:
Provided further, That Northern Mariana Islands Covenant grant
funding shall be provided according to those terms of the Agreement
of the Special Representatives on Future United States Financial
Assistance for the Northern Mariana Islands approved by Public
Law 104–134: Provided further, That Public Law 94–241, as
amended, is further amended: (1) in section 4(b) by striking ‘‘2002’’
and inserting ‘‘1999’’ and by striking the comma after ‘‘$11,000,000
annually’’ and inserting the following: ‘‘and for fiscal year 2000,
payments to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
shall be $5,580,000, but shall return to the level of $11,000,000
annually for fiscal years 2001 and 2002. In fiscal year 2003, the
payment to the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands
shall be $5,420,000. Such payments shall be’’; and (2) in section
(4)(c) by adding a new subsection as follows: ‘‘(4) for fiscal year
2000, $5,420,000 shall be provided to the Virgin Islands for correc-
tional facilities and other projects mandated by Federal law.’’: Pro-
vided further, That of the amounts provided for technical assistance,
sufficient funding shall be made available for a grant to the Close
Up Foundation: Provided further, That the funds for the program
of operations and maintenance improvement are appropriated to
institutionalize routine operations and maintenance improvement
of capital infrastructure in American Samoa, Guam, the Virgin
Islands, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, the
Republic of Palau, the Republic of the Marshall Islands, and the
Federated States of Micronesia through assessments of long-range