TITLE: Collecting and Reporting Data Concerning Tribally-Owned Public Transportation Facilities
WHEREAS, we, the members of the National Congress of American Indians of the United States, invoking the divine blessing of the Creator upon our efforts and purposes, in order to preserve for ourselves and our descendants the inherent sovereign rights of our Indian nations, rights secured under Indian treaties and agreements with the United States, and all other rights and benefits to which we are entitled under the laws and Constitution of the United States, to enlighten the public toward a better understanding of the Indian people, to preserve Indian cultural values, and otherwise promote the health, safety and welfare of the Indian people, do hereby establish and submit the following resolution; and
WHEREAS, the National Congress of American Indians (NCAI) was established in 1944 and is the oldest and largest national organization of American Indian and Alaska Native tribal governments; and
WHEREAS, the Tribal Transportation Program Coordinating Committee (TTPCC) has requested the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Division of Transportation to develop a methodology to compile an initial estimate of deferred maintenance needs for all Tribally-owned transportation facilities similar to the methodology used by the BIA to generate deferred maintenance needs on a quarterly basis for BIA System roads; and
WHEREAS, Indian tribes, BIA and Federal Highway Administration and Congress require deferred maintenance data on such routes if they are to fully understand and address transportation safety needs; and
WHEREAS, the tribes and Coordinating Committee are concerned that the National Tribal Transportation Facility Inventory, 23 U.S.C. §202(b), includes approximately 18,328 miles of existing tribally-owned public roads, yet there is little or no national compilation of the deferred maintenance needs for tribally-owned routes, many of which are school bus routes and routes frequently used by first responders; only 1,067 miles of these routes are paved (5.8%); the vast majority (93.2%) are gravel, dirt and unimproved earthen routes, which require significantly more resources to maintain; and
WHEREAS, the TTPCC has written a letter to the Chairman of the Tribal Interior Budget Committee detailing the need for Collecting and Reporting Data concerning Tribally-Owned Public Transportation Facilities.
NOW THEREFORE BE IT RESOLVED, NCAI urges the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) Division of Transportation and U.S. Department of Transportation Federal Highway Administration to develop a methodology to compile an initial estimate of deferred maintenance needs for all Tribally-owned transportation facilities, similar to the methodology used by the BIA to generate deferred maintenance needs on a quarterly basis for BIA System roads; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that the National Congress of American Indians does hereby support the efforts of the TTPCC to include road maintenance needs of Tribally-owned roads in budget requests formulated for the Department of Interior; and
BE IT FINALLY RESOLVED, that this resolution shall be the policy of NCAI until it is withdrawn or modified by subsequent resolution.
CERTIFICATION
The foregoing resolution was adopted by the General Assembly at the 2016 Midyear Session of the National Congress of American Indians, held at the Spokane Convention Center, June 27 to June 30, 2016, with a quorum present.