Another Deadline For Cobell Settlement Approval To Expire
Despite a July 9 deadline from the parties, approval by Congress of the landmark settlement in the Cobell v. Salazar Native trust asset case is not imminent. The tax-related legislation to which the approval amendment was attached has stalled in the Senate, and the recent death of Senator Robert Byrd made passage of the bill by the latest deadline essentially impossible.
A half-dozen deadlines set by the Cobell legal team have now come and gone, and the settlement is no closer to Congressional approval than it was nine months ago. The deadline concept has no discernible impact on the members of Congress, and setting unenforceable deadlines appears to have become a waste of time. A change in tactics is clearly needed, either through attaching the settlement authorization to legislation that is ready for near-term passage, or by calling on President Obama to utilize his political capital to push for Congressional approval.
They need to put it before President Obama to get it through and quit stalling. They stalled for all these years and they are doing now what they did then, Don't want to give the money to who it belongs.
I agree with Dolores, Obama needs to step in and use his political strong arm to get the settlemet passed. There are reasons the Senate has the 'filibuster' so they can stall on passing whatever the people want or whatever the opposing party wants. The democrats are on our side but the conservative republicans are stalling on approving the settlement because they know it will give some tribal autonomy BACK to the Blackfeet nation. The United States government never takes accountability for their harmful actions and they never apologize for their wrong doings. No one is saying it, but I think this 'stalling' is just another systematic approach by the government to exploit tribal holdings even more than they already have and continue to institute racist policy that victimize American Indians.
I totally agree with Dolores and Dustin. Republicans will do whateve they can to stall and not pass something unless it is to their benefit, especially when it comes to money. They are the greediest people on this earth. The more money they have, the more they want. I am sure they will want something out of this settlement before they agree to it.