February 23,2002
The Honorable George W. Bush
President of the United States
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue N.W.
Washington, DC 20500
Dear Mr. President;
Citizens Equal Rights Alliance (CERA) has spent over 15 years, informing and
educating the country about the increasing civil and constitutional problems
arising from Federal Indian Policies. We believe the current Shays-Meehan bill
will increase these problems because it ignores the issue of tribal government
campaign contributions. These political contributions are financed primarily
from federal funds, state and federal grants and by casino gambling revenues.
These revenues total approximately ten to twenty billion dollars.
On May 15, 2000, the FEC ruled in Advisory Opinion No. 2000-05 to essentially
allow tribal governments to contribute as much as they choose to political
campaigns each year. Under the ruling, tribal governments are considered as a
"person", but are not considered individuals. While individuals are
limited to the amount they can contribute annually to $25,000, tribal
governments are not. In reality, tribal governments are not "persons"
or "individuals" or "trade groups, associations and
partnerships," or even "special interest groups." They are
tax-supported, federally-recognized governments.
According to the National Journal, six of the top 10 soft money donors among
interest groups nationwide in 1999-2000 were Native American tribal government
interests. Tribal governments are the only governmental entities that can make
campaign contributions, and they can make them in essentially unlimited amounts.
We think this is clearly unfair and wrong.
In the 1996 election cycle, a report from Center for Responsive Politics showed
that tribal government interests gave more than $1.5 million to national party
committees. Interestingly, it appears the top individual recipient of this money
during the 2000 election may be campaign finance crusader John McCain, who also
sits on the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. Federal Indian policy, federal grants and the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act are
intended to improve the social and economic condition of tribal members not to
provide political contributions for partisan elections. While tribal leaders
sometimes talk about the great economic achievements from gambling (the
"new buffalo") the fact is, only a small number of Indians actually
benefit, and they often benefit enormously. According to Bill Lawrence, Editor
of Native American Press/Ojibwe News, the nation's only major independent Indian
newspaper, "... federal government expenditures on Indian reservations have
grown, doubled or tripled, in the last ten years. Indian graduation rates are
declining. Arrest and crime rates are increasing. Social problems, especially on
the reservations, are increasing. Despite extensive federal, state and tribal
housing programs, Indians are twenty times more likely to be homeless than the
majority population. Despite multiple nutrition programs, Indians disproportionately patronize food
shelves--and have the worst health and lowest life expectancies of any
identifiable group in the U.S."
Tribal government campaign contributions divert funds designed for the benefit
of tribal members. Tribal government campaign contributions can't represent the
diversity of their members and effectively force tribal members, without their
consent, to donate funds to political campaigns they may, or may not, personally
support. Tribal government campaign contributions provide tribal governments with an unfair political advantage
because tribal governments can effectively use tax, grant and gambling money
that is difficult, if not impossible, for opponents to match. This unfair
political advantage will be increased after the passage of the Shays-Meehan
bill. In fact, the possibility exists that tribal governments may become
conduits for the campaign contributions of other entities. Tribal governments
are cooperating with each other and are rapidly increasing the amount and
sophistication of their campaign contributions. These campaign contributions
threaten to corrupt the entire political process of this country at the local,
state and national level.
All governments should be equally barred from direct or indirect involvement in
this country's partisan political campaigns. Mr. President, we ask you to do
everything in your power to see that this bill is either amended or vetoed before it further corrupts Indian communities and our democratic process.
We further ask that you initiate a comprehensive and inclusive study of the
impact Federal Indian Policy is having on tribal members and the entire country.
Sincerely,
(Signed)
Howard B. Hanson