On June 3, 2014 the Internal Revenue Service issued Revenue Procedure 2014-35, Application of the General Welfare Exclusion to Indian Tribal Government Programs That Provide Benefits to Tribal Members. The application of the general welfare exclusion (or “GWE”) to tribal government programs has been a subject of active tribal engagement for several years. Tribes and…
“Climate change, once considered an issue for a distant future, has moved firmly into the present.” With this statement, the Third National Climate Assessment: Climate Change Impacts in the United States (Climate Assessment) signals a sea change in the way governments must think about climate change. Climate change is no longer a future phenomenon that…
The Department of the Interior recently proposed to amend the Department’s land-into-trust regulations, found at 25 C.F.R. Part 151, that currently exclude from the scope of the regulations, with one exception (Metlakatla), land acquisitions in trust in the State of Alaska. The proposed amendment will allow tribes in Alaska to place land into trust. This…
The poor state of roads and bridges in Indian country is well-documented, and all too familiar to tribal citizens who face impassable roads during storms, rough dirt roads that are the only routes to take children to school, and bridges that may only be accessible seasonally. The lack of road safety features result in crash…
For over 20 years, tribal contractors have fought with the United States to be paid the full administrative costs of their contracts, like other government contractors. The Supreme Court has affirmed that the requirement to pay the full amount of contract support costs due to tribes and tribal organizations under the Indian Self-Determination and Education…
As Chief Justice John Marshall wrote nearly two centuries ago, “the power to tax involves the power to destroy.” McCulloch v. Maryland, 17 U.S. 316, 431 (1819). In McCulloch, the Court held that a state tax on an instrumentality created by Congress was unconstitutional. Not long after McCulloch, the Supreme Court invalidated the application of…
