Bush offers low figure to settle all trust fund claims

[Waya]

The Bush administration has proposed to settle all trust mismanagement claims and pay for trust reform with $7 billion despite acknowledging the price tag could run into the hundreds of billions.

In testimony to Congress two years ago this month, U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said the federal government's liability for tribal trust claims runs "more than $200 billion."

But in a letter to the Senate Indian Affairs Committee on Thursday, Gonzales and Interior Secretary Dirk Kempthorne offered a much lower amount. They said the administration was prepared to "invest" $7 billion to settle all trust mismanagement claims.

The money would end the more than 250 tribal cases as well as the billion-dollar Cobell lawsuit over individual Indian funds. In exchange, the administration demands Congress extinguish the government's liability for all future trust claims......



http://indianz.com/News/2007/001718.asp