Politics

If you want to know what drives Navajo Nation President Russell Begaye, it can be summed up in one word: jobs.

As 2016 ended, the Speaker of the Navajo Nation Council, LoRenzo Bates, deliberated on some of the biggest issues of the past year: the continued need to create more jobs on the reservation, concerns over the future of Navajo gaming, the dwindling power of tribal chapters and any fallout that may exist because of what a court judge called a betrayal of trust by many members of the tribal council between 2006 and 2010.

Navajo Nation Controller Jim Parris was only confirmed into his position a year ago, but the Navajo Nation Council’s Budget and Finance Committee is asking for Parris to be removed.

He vetoed funding for the Election Administration Office, an appropriation for a Department of Water Resources Management study of the Little Colorado River, and a proposal to penalize programs by clipping 10 percent of their non-personnel operating costs as a penalty.