Washington, D.C. – At a Senate Indian Affairs Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Catherine Cortez Masto (D-Nev.) pressed Biden Administration officials on the urgent need to address Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) law enforcement officer shortages to crack down on fentanyl across Indian Country. Cortez Masto is leading bipartisan legislation to strengthen tribal law enforcement and help recruit and retain BIA officers, which she urged her colleagues to pass to keep Native Americans safe.
“Nevada’s 28 Tribal communities—not all of them have law enforcement. They rely on the BIA [Bureau of Indian Affairs]. The challenge is they are under-resourced. Just recently I was with the Fort McDermitt Paiute and Shoshone Tribe, which is on the border of Nevada and Oregon, talking with BIA agents and there’s not enough officers to cover that territory and those vast distances,” said Senator Cortez Masto.
“If we can’t have BIA be honest with us and tell us the resources you need to cover the territory…what do we and the tribes do? …We are all asking for answers. That’s why I have my BADGES Act and the Parity Act, and why there is a lot of work trying to get at how we staff this and address the challenges and complexity of this,” the senator continued.
Bureau of Indian Affairs Deputy Bureau Director Glen Melville agreed to work with Senator Cortez Masto to improve recruitment and retention of Tribal law enforcement officers.
Senator Cortez Masto has been a strong advocate on behalf of Tribes in Nevada and across the country. She passed the bipartisan Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s Act, which were signed into law to protect Native women and girls, and has repeatedly advocated for additional federal funding to help Tribal communities combat violence. She is also leading bipartisan legislation to make it easier for the Indian Health Services (IHS) to recruit and retain physicians, which would help improve our health care workforce’s response to the rise of fentanyl addictions across the country, and she is pushing bipartisan legislation to help recruit and retain Tribal officers by improving their benefits.
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