Chief Standing Bear's opening statement for 2016 Tzi-Zho Session
September 6, 2016
Good morning, Mr. Speaker, Assistant Chief Red Corn and Members of the Osage Congress. This Session will result in Congressional appropriations for the Divisions of the Executive Branch, for funding of our Judicial Branch, and for funding the Legislative Branch. On behalf of the Executive Branch I refer the Congress to not only the budgets we have submitted, but also to the Program Plans submitted to you July 15, to the July 15 Executive Branch Organizational Chart established by Executive Order 16-03, and to Executive Order 16-04 which requires Executive Branch funding for FY 17 to be organized by Divisions as detailed in the Executive Order. Together, these documents conform to the 25 Year Strategic Plan, the Osage Constitution, and Osage Nation law. The Executive Branch has worked hard to prepare the budget and to operate the Executive Branch under the guidance provided by the decision of the Osage Nation Supreme Court in the landmark case of Standing Bear vs Whitehorn. The Congress cannot make laws and then carry out the very laws they make. Instead, another separate and distinct Branch is to carry out the laws, and no law can precondition action or try to control the functions of any Department, program, or employee of the Executive Branch.
Likewise, the Executive Branch is not allowed to make the laws of the Osage Nation. For that matter, neither Congress nor the Executive Branch can make the laws for the operation of the Osage Mineral Estate although the Osage Supreme Court may rule any day that laws of general application to all elected officials of the Osage Nation will apply to the Minerals Council.
After the Supreme Court pronounced how we should proceed in this government I saw it would be no easy adjustment. And thus far this observation has been accurate. For that reason, I have been conservative in my approach to the budgeting process, even asking for Official Attorney General Opinions on the constitutionality of the Budget Parameter and Limitations Act and of the structuring of the Executive Branch FY 17 Funding into the Divisions as set out in Executive Order 16-04. Although all advisors, including legal advisors, and the staff believed our actions in the budget process were in compliance with the Osage Constitution and the laws of the Osage Nation, we now have the Official Attorney General Opinion number ONAG-2016-04 which verifies the organizational structure of Executive Order 16-04 as consistent with the Osage Constitution and the laws of the Osage Nation.
I ask you to recall another Attorney General Opinion which advises that large portions of the Budget Parameter and Limitations Act are unconstitutional. Accordingly, the budget is developed following this important guidance with the hope the Osage Congress will rewrite the laws of the Osage Nation to conform to the ruling of the Osage Nation Supreme Court.
A windfall to the budget process was recently achieved by the initiatives of the Osage Nation Gaming Commission and its Chair Marsha Harlan. In cooperation with the Osage Nation Gaming Enterprise Board and Osage Casino Management the transfer of certain day-to-day tasks from the Gaming Commission back to the Osage Casinos will increase efficiency in our security and surveillance at the casinos, keep us within the requirements of Osage law and federal laws and regulation and save the Osage Nation budget an estimated $3.9 million dollars for this upcoming fiscal year. This process was reviewed by no less than five attorneys, including the Osage Nation Attorney on the Tulsa Casino and Bluestem Ranch loan. All of these attorneys found the transaction lawful and for the benefit of the Osage Nation and its casinos and that there was no adverse effect to the loan or to the distribution to the Osage Nation of gaming funds. I made the final authorization for this process in Executive Order 16-05 which simply reversed an Executive Order of a previous Osage Principal Chief.
The fee-to-trust process of the recently acquired 43,000 acres is proceeding at a fast pace. In cooperation with the United States Department of Interior, the Osage Nation has the benefit of additional surveyors assigned to the project. Federal environmental personnel are on site and in Tulsa, the massive task of review of all land title issues has been bolstered by the commitment of the Office of the Solicitor of an additional two attorneys. We appreciate this unprecedented effort and our goal is still to accomplish one of the largest fee-to-trust transactions in a matter of mere months instead of the normal two or more years.
This Session I am requesting this Congress amend our Osage LLC laws to have some return of investment from all these Osage LLC’s. We all know businesses can lose money but after all these years and tens of millions of dollars invested in Osage LLC’s has there ever been one dollar returned to the Osage Nation Treasury? There needs to be a middle ground between no return on investment and some other alternative. The Congress has the time this session to address this serious shortcoming in Osage law.
We are glad to report that over $1.93 million dollars remains in the Osage Treasury which was never appropriated during this last fiscal year. This is not unspent program money, this is tribal money never encumbered by legislative appropriation. In addition, we have $2.9 million dollars of carry-over money from Fiscal Year 2015. How this money will be used is going to be the subject of your activities in the next few weeks.
Thank you