on Interior and Insular Affairs (H. Rept. 870, pp. 5, 13, 14) that the committee had in mind that (after transfer of the health functions of the Indian Bureau to the Public Health Service) the Public Health Service would be expected, so far as feasible and consistent with properly meeting the health needs of the Indians, to transfer its total health responsibility for Indians in a given area to State and local health officials, and that the transfer of Indian hospitals or health facilities under section 2 would be merely incidental to the transfer of this broad responsibility. If this was intended, there appears to be no provision in the bill to authorize it.

If the committee should view this legislation favorably, the present limitations and inadequacies of H. R. 303 should be carefully considered. It is important that certain basic policy and administrative questions, which are involved in this transfer, be clarified by appropriate changes in the language of the current bill. Among these are the following:

1. There should be an adequate definition of an "Indian" for purposes of health care and a designation of the person or agency with responsibility for making the determination of whether any individual is an Indian.

2. The bill should specify whether or not Indians will receive health services without cost to them or, if they are to be charged, the conditions and terms of such charges.

3. The bill should define the powers and relationship of State and local health agencies in respect to sanitary, health and quarantine laws and regulations on Indian reservations.

4. The bill should authorize the Public Health Service to enter into agreements with tribes in connection with the conduct of its functions as the health agency for Indians.

5. The bill should indicate whether or not the Indian hospitals and medical-care facilities, if transferred as proposed, would become a part of the Public Health Service hospital system and whether the treatment of Indians in other Public Health Service hospitals and of other Public Health Service beneficiaries in Indian hospitals, would be authorized.

6. In view of the ambiguities of the "recapture" proviso in section 2 (p. 2, lines 22 and 23; p. 3, lines 1 to 8), we suggest deletion of the proviso and the insertion (immediately before the last sentence of sec. 2), of a sentence along the following lines:

"Such transfer shall be upon such additional terms and conditions, including a provision for the reversion of title to the United States in the event that the transferred facility is found to be no longer serving the health needs of the Indians or in the event of a noncompliance with the terms and conditions of the transfer, as may be agreed upon.'

Additional changes in section 2, to make clear that a transfer of title to the facility is contemplated, and that, when deemed appropriate, title to the underlying land may be transferred at the same time, may be advisable.

7. The repeal of Public Law 291 would, as we understand it, terminate authority to make available to non-Indians hospital and health facilities covered by the bill. As far as we are aware, the conditions supporting the enactment of section 1 of Public Law 291 which authorizes the use of Indian Service hospitals for nonIndians still obtain. These conditions are detailed in the congressional reports on that legislation (H. Rept. 641 and S. Rept. 1302 of the 82d Cong., 2d sess.). Accordingly, we recommend that a similar provision be included in the bill.

8. The Secretary of the Interior, under existing authority, is authorized to establish standards of employment for Indians who may be appointed without regard to civil-service laws to positions in the administration of functions or services affecting any Indian tribe. Qualified Indians also have preference to appointment to vacancies in such positions. The committee should consider whether similar authority should be included in the bill for the Secretary of Health, Education, and Welfare.

9. That the effective date for the transfer of functions should be for the fiscal year beginning July 1, 1955, instead of July 1, 1954, as now provided in the bill. This will enable both Departments and the Bureau of the Budget to effect a more orderly transfer of program responsibilities, personnel, property, and records. In view of the reasons presented in this report, we would recommend that the bill not be enacted by the Congress.

The Bureau of the Budget advises that it perceives no objection to the submission of this report to your committee, and that in the view of that Bureau the proposed changes in organization would be undesirable in the absence of a showing

of economies, improvements in efficiency, or more effective administration in the discharge of the Federal Government's responsibility for health services to Indians and the operation of Indian hospitals.

Sincerely yours,

OVETA CULP HOBBY, Secretary.

CORDON RULE

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with subsection (4) of rule XXIX of the Standing Rules of the Senate, changes in existing law made by the bill (H. R. 303), as reported, are shown as follows (existing law proposed to be omitted is enclosed in black brackets; new matter is printed in italics; existing law in which no change is proposed is shown in roman).

ACT OF APRIL 3, 1952 (66 STAT. 35)

[That in any areas where there are inadequate hospital beds and health facilities available to serve the non-Indian population, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized in his discretion to make available to non-Indians, hospital and health facilities operated by the Indian Bureau which are not being utilized for Indians, at such fees and under such terms and conditions as he may prescribe: Provided, That the fees charged will not be less than the per diem cost per patient of operating and maintaining the hospital or the health activity.

[SEC. 2. Whenever the health needs of the Indians can be better met thereby, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized in his discretion to enter into contracts with any State, Territory, or political subdivision thereof, or any appropriate Federal, State, Territory, or political subdivision thereof, or private nonprofit corporation, agency, or institution providing for the transfer by the Indian Bureau of Indian hospitals or other health facilities, including initial operating equipment and supplies. It shall be a condition of each such transfer that all facilities transferred shall be available to meet the health needs of the Indians and that such health needs shall be given priority over those of the non-Indian population. No hospital or health facility that has been constructed or maintained for a specific tribe of Indians, or for a specific group of tribes, shall be transferred to a nonIndian entity or organization under this section unless such action has been approved by the governing body of the tribe, or by the governing bodies of a majority of the tribes, for which such hospital or health facility has been constructed or maintained.

[SEC. 3. The Secretary of the Interior is also authorized to enter into contracts with any physicians duly licensed by any State or Territory to provide medical attention or services to Indians, and to expend under such contract funds appropriated by Congress for medical attention to Indians.

[SEC. 4. Any contracts entered into pursuant to this Act shall provide that the standards of services to be rendered to Indians shall not be less than the standards established by the Secretary of the Interior; that the same services shall be rendered to Indian patients as is rendered to other patients and that Indian patients shall not be segregated from other patients.

[SEC. 5. The Secretary of the Interior is also authorized to make such other regulations as he deems desirable to carry out the provisions of this Act.

[SEC. 6. Proceeds to be derived under section 1 shall be deposited in the Treasury to the credit of the appropriation from which the hospitalization or medical services are provided, and shall be available for expenditure for the purposes for which the appropriation was made.]

O

83D CONGRESS 2d Session

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SENATE

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REPORT No. 1531

PROVIDING FOR THE USE OF TRIBAL FUNDS OF THE SOUTHERN UTE TRIBE IN COLORADO

JUNE 8 (legislative day, MAY 13), 1954.-Ordered to be printed

Mr. WATKINS, from the Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, submitted the following

REPORT

[To accompany H. R. 6173]

The Committee on Interior and Insular Affairs, to whom was referred the bill (H. R. 6173) to provide for the use of the tribal funds of the Southern Ute Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation, to authorize a per capita payment out of such funds, and for other purposes, having considered the same, report favorably thereon without amendment, and recommend that the bill do pass.

EXPLANATION OF THE BILL

This legislation is to authorize a rehabilitation program for the Southern Ute Tribe of the Southern Ute Reservation in Colorado, along the line of the legislation adopted with respect to the Ute Indians of Utah (act of August 21, 1951, 65 Stat. 193) and for the Ute Mountain Ute Indians of Colorado (act of August 12, 1953, 67 Stat. 540). In all three instances, the purpose of the legislation is to provide for the betterment of the particular Utes through the use of the tribal moneys coming to the tribe as a result of litigation against the United States concluded in 1951 when the money was distributed amongst the three groups.

In each instance, the tribe concerned has been called upon by Interior Department to prepare a plan for betterment of the tribe before funds are turned over to the tribe-this in the light of the fact that mere unplanned handouts of tribal moneys might soon be dissipated. In each instance, it was realized that each individual ought to have some present cash money for expenditure without limitation of any kind and completely on his own responsibility. The expenditure of that money can be some education in itself. In the case of the Utah Utes, the amount involved was $1,000.

As declared in the title, H. R. 6173 makes provision for use by the Southern Ute Tribe of Indians of tribal funds now on deposit, or hereafter deposited in the United States Treasury to the credit of this tribe.

Such funds under this legislation, may be expended or advanced for the purposes and in a manner to be designated by the Southern Ute Tribal Council and approved by the Secretary of the Interior, including per capita payments, purchase of land, interests in lands or improvements thereon, together with water rights. The bill would provide that taxable lands purchased under the act would not be removed from the tax rolls, and that loans from the funds made available would be subject to rules and regulations established for loans to individual Indians or to associations of Indians under the act of June 18, 1934 (48 Stat. 984), the general revolving loan fund act. This legislation was introduced following extensive conferences between tribal representatives and the staff of the Bureau of Indian Affairs of the Department of the Interior. It will be noted, as set out in the favorable departmental report which follows, that similar legislation has been enacted in the past for specific tribes, including the Shoshone and Arapahoe Tribes, the Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribe, the Minnesota Chippewa Tribe, the Navaho and Hopi Tribes, and Ute Indian Tribe of the Uintah and Ouray Reservation, Utah, and the Ute Mountain Indian Tribe.

The House has amended the bill as introduced to exempt from Federal taxation both the transfer to the tribe of tribal funds, and the distribution of such funds to individual tribal members. Such exemption operates with respect to funds consisting of compensation for lands acquired from the Southern Ute Tribe by the United States Government.

The committee unanimously agrees that such initial transfer and distribution should be so exempted in view of the source of these funds. In each instance, the funds merely represent commutation into cash of capital assets originally held by the tribe. Following acquisition of these lands by the United States, and for more than 80 years thereafter, the Indians were denied both the use of the land and its commuted value. By virtue of the Court of Claims judgment of July 13, 1950, and the act of Congress of August 21, 1951 (65 Stat. 193), the Indians for the first time had confirmed in them their right to the funds arising directly as a result of the Federal land acquisition. The committee recommends that disbursements under this act should first be made from trust funds held by the Secretary of the Interior and bearing 5 percent interest.

H. R. 6173, as indicated above, will give the tribe greater control over, and more responsibility for, the use of its tribal funds, and is needed in order to make a constructive use of the judgment by the Court of Claims. The planned rehabilitation program will immedi ately raise the social and economic standards of the tribal members, and provide for their future integration into the social, economic, and political life of the area. The achievement of these objectives should make it possible to plan with the tribe in the future for the termination of the trust relationship between the Government and the tribe with respect to the tribe's property, and the responsibility of the Government to furnish special services to these Indians.