Council to consider changes to Navajo Nation Code
By Noel Lyn Smith
Navajo Times
WINDOW ROCK, Jan 19, 20112
The first bill proposes to clarify the five-day public comment period for legislation posted on the Council's Web site.
The second proposes to authorize the Council's Law and Order Committee to recommend the agenda for each Council session.
This authority was formerly held by the Ethics and Rules Committee but was reauthorized to the Naa'bik'iyati Committee under last year's Title 2 amendments.
Alton Joe Shepherd (Cornfields/Ganado/Jeddito/Kin Dah Lichíí/Steamboat) is sponsoring these bills.
The third bill proposes amending the membership of the Naa'bik'iyati Committee to be composed of the chairs and vice chairs of the Council's four standing committees. Right now, all 24 members of the Council is a member of the Naa'bik'iyati Committee.
Danny Simpson (Becenti/Crownpoint/Huerfano/Lake Valley/Nageezi/Nahodishgish/Tsé Alnoaz'í'í/Whiterock) is sponsoring this legislation.
Simpson is sponsoring another bill that would restore about $2.4 million in supplemental appropriations that President Ben Shelly line-item vetoed from the legislative branch's budget in September.
The $2.4 million would be taken from the tribal reserves and would provide $1.5 million for assistants for the 24 Council delegates, $353,254 for the Green Economy Commission, $397,233 for Speaker Johnny Naize's office, and $130,050 for the Council's Resources and Development Committee's travel budget.
During the fall session in October, the Council approved the creation of the satellite offices for the Council assistants.
Naize (Blue Gap-Tachee/Cottonwood-Tselani/Low Mountain/Many Farms/Nazlini) is requesting that the Council oppose legislation in Congress that proposes mining operations in southeastern Arizona.
According to the bill, about 2,400 acres of federal lands in the Tonto National Forest would be opened for copper mining. This area is the ancestral lands of the San Carlos Apache Tribe.
If Congress approves the bill, it would lift a decades-old ban against mining. The land was set aside from mining by President Dwight Eisenhower in 1955 for recreation purposes.
Naize's bill states that the proposed mining activity would deplete and contaminate water resources from nearby watersheds and aquifers.
Naize will also present a report to the Council.
Lorenzo Curley (Houck/Klagetoh/Lupton/Nahata Dziil/Wide Ruins) is sponsoring a bill that proposes changing the tribe's primary election date to coincide with the state of Arizona's primary election date.
According to the bill, as of May there are 80,603 Navajos who are registered voters in Arizona, 42,992 in New Mexico and 2,981 in Utah.
Since Arizona has the highest number, the bill proposes that its primary date be used.
Under Navajo law, the primary election date for the Navajo Nation is 90 days prior to the general election.
Walter Phelps (Birdsprings/Cameron/Coalmine Mesa/Leupp/Tolani Lake) is sponsoring legislation to support the U.S. Congress and Senate to amend the federal Radiation Exposure Compensation Act.
Proposed changes to RECA would broaden the use of affidavits to cover all claim categories, allowing a combination of work histories, expanding the list of compensable diseases for miners, including core drillers as a compensable category, making the compensation level for onsite nuclear test participants and downwinders the same as uranium workers, and extending the time frame of coverage passed 1971.
Duane Tsinigine (Bodaway-Gap/Coppermine/K'ai'bii'tó/LeChee/Red Lake-Tonalea) is sponsoring the Uranium Ore Transportation Protection Act, which would set standards and regulations for transporting uranium ore over and across the Navajo Nation lands.
Also on the agenda are proposals to adopt the Navajo Nation Vulnerable Adult Protection Act, the Navajo Nation Workers' Compensation Act and the Navajo Nation Violence Against Family Act.
The Council will also hear the state of the nation address from President Ben Shelly.
