Via Teleconference | South Court Auditorium | 11:50 A.M. EST
THE PRESIDENT: Thank you, Madam Secretary.
And I say to the press, “Excuse my back.” (The President turns to the
video call screen behind him.) Next time in Washington, okay? I see
you all up on the board behind me, and I hope we do this in person. I
hope, I hope, I hope. That’s my — that’s my hope. Thank you.
Good
morning. I want to thank you for joining us. This is a big day. I
think, as my mother would say, former Senator Dan Inouye is looking down
going, “Finally. Finally.” I was raised by Dan Inouye in the United
States Senate.
And to President Fawn Sharp and Chairman Hill of
the Oneida Nation, and our President Holsey: I thank you all for what
you’re doing, and I want to recognize you.
And, Chairman Hill, I
thought going — being from Upstate New York, in college, and my
deceased wife is from Skaneateles Lake, not far from Oneida, New York — I
thought that the Oneida Nation was all in Central New York, but
obviously you’re up in Wisconsin. Come down and see us in Oneida.
(Laughs.)
Anyway, I want to thank you, Madam Secretary, for your
remarks. But I also want to thank you, Deb, for being willing to join
when I asked you to come along and to serve. And as I said, I was
confident, at the time, you would be incredibly important.
When I
got to the Senate, Dan Inouye took me under his wing. He helped me
understand the simple truth that I had only been vaguely aware of, and
that is that Tribal Nations do better when they make their own
decisions. That’s why some of the votes I took as a young senator are
among my proudest: supporting the Indian Self-Determination and
Education Assistance Act, the Indian Child Welfare Act, the Native
American Graves Protection and Repatriation Act, and so much more.
When
I ran for President, it was important for me to continue to make
progress. And that’s what we’ve done since I took office. When
COVID-19 struck in Indian — it hit Indian Country with devastating
consequences. Native Americans contracted the virus at over three times
the rate of white Americans, nearly twice the rate of lives lost; twice
as many died as a percentage.
But Tribal Nations stepped up.
And today, the Native Americans have gone from being a population most
harmed by COVID to one of the populations most vaccinated against
COVID. That success has a lot to do with Tribal leadership, but it also
has to do with the American Rescue Plan, which included over $31
billion — $31 billion for Tribal Nations — the most significant
investment in the history of Indian Country. Long overdue.
Now
we’re taking the next step. Today, I’m signed — and I’ll shortly sign —
a Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal. Everyone knows we’re long overdue to
make major investments in infrastructure, but nobody knows that better
than Indian Country. Tribal lands have been chronically underfunded for
generations.
And so I’m very proud to say that when I sign the
bill outside on the South Lawn shortly, the single-largest investment in
Tribal infrastructure ever is going to occur: more than $13 billion in
direct investments to Indian Country and tens of billions more in grants
and future funding opportunities — funding for clean drinking water,
high-speed Internet, roads and bridges, environmental cleanups, and so
much more.
But we can’t stop there. We need Congress to pass my
Build Back Better plan as well. Today, 1 in 10 Native American parents
have reported having to quit or change their jobs or turn down an
opportunity due to a childcare challenge. This bill would save most
families thousands of dollars per year in childcare, helping moms and
dads rejoin the workforce.
But also, this bill, when it passes,
will allow every three- and four-year-old in the nation to attend
high-quality preschool, increasing considerably their chances of getting
all the way through the first 12 years of primary school and on to
college. It includes the most significant investment to tackle the
climate crisis in history.
And I might note parenthetically: No
group of Americans has created and cared more about preserving what we
inherited than the Tribal Nations. And it will be expand — will — this
also will expand health coverage, lower costs for millions of Americans.
You
know, we have to continue to stand up for the dignity and sovereignty
of Tribal Nations. My dad used the word “dignity” I think more than any
other word. He said, “Everyone is entitled to be treated with
dignity.”
I was proud to reestablish the White House Council on
Native American Affairs and to issue a memorandum my first week in
office instructing my entire administration to engage in regular,
meaningful consultation with Tribal Nations.
I was kidding my
wife Jill, who’ll be out here shortly: She’s visited the Navajo Nation
so many times I’m worried she’s not going to come home.
But,
look, I’ve been proud — I’m proud to –- of the — to name Native American
leaders in my administration: not only the first Native American
Cabinet Secretary — and it won’t be the last in history — but more than
50 Native Americans now serving in significant roles in my
administration.
We’ve also taken action to protect Tribal
lands: revoking the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline; preserving and
protecting their sacred homeland, including Bears Ears and the Grand
Staircase-Escalante. It’s part of who we are as a nation. And I’m
grateful to the Tribes who led the effort.
You know, we also
can be proud of that progress, but there’s still so much more to do.
So, today, I’m announcing five new initiatives.
First, a new
initiative involving 17 departments and agencies to protect Tribal
treaty rights and the work of the federal government.
Second, a new initiative to increase Tribal participation in the management and stewardship of federal lands.
Third,
my administration will be the first to work with the Tribes to
comprehensively incorporate Tribal — Tribal ecological knowledge into
the federal government’s scientific approach, helping us fight climate
change.
And fourth, taking action to protect the Greater Chaco
Landscape in Northwest New Mexico from future oil and gas drilling and
leasing.
And fifth, I’m about to sign an executive order, in a moment, addressing the crisis of violence against Native Americans.
Today,
I’m directing federal officials to work with Tribal Nations on a
strategy to improve public safety and advance justice. This builds on
the work we did together in reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act
in 2013, when we granted authority to try to exercise jurisdiction over
non-Indian offenders who commit violence on Tribal lands. We’re going
to reauthorize that again. We’re going to expand the jurisdiction to
include other offenses like sex trafficking, sexual assault, and child
abuse.
These efforts — again, to use the word my dad would use
much — are a matter of dignity. That’s the foundation of our
nation-to-nation partnership. That’s what this summit is all about.
So, I want to thank everyone who’s here for participating, and I look forward to continuing to work together.
And
now it’s my honor to sign an executive order. And a couple of my
friends are going to be coming out here, I’m told — Cabinet members.
But, you know, here we go.
Where is everybody? (Laughter.) Jill.
THE FIRST LADY: Hi. (Laughs.)
THE PRESIDENT: Jill is here. The Attorney General. We got — oh, everybody is there. All right, Jill.
I
don’t know what was going on back there, but I — (laughter). You’re
all here. Okay. I was worried you weren’t going to come out here.
(Laughter.) Good to see you. All right.
The title of this
legislation is “Improving Public Safety and Criminal Justice for Native
Americans and Addressing the Crisis of Missing or Murdered Indigenous
People.”
And I’m proud to sign it. It’s long overdue.
(The executive order is signed.)
Thank you all so very much.
We’re going to make some substantial change in Indian Country, and it’s going to continue.
Thank you all. (Applause.)
Q Mr. President, are you confident that Build Back Better will pass the House (inaudible)?
THE
PRESIDENT: You ask me that all the time and I give you the same
answer. I’ve been confident since the day I stepped into office.
12:00 P.M. EST
