BIA Appropriation Language

Pursuant to a congressional request, GAO reviewed the Department of the Interior's proposal to delete provisions from its 1994 appropriation act that freeze the statute of limitations on tribal and individual Indian claims against the Bureau of Indian Affairs' (BIA) management of Indian trust funds. GAO found that: (1) although the provision that tolls the statute of limitations is designed to allow interested parties to examine and evaluate all pertinent account information and reconcile all claims arising from BIA management of accounts, few audits and reconciliations have been completed; (2) the government needs to fulfill its fiduciary responsibilities and provide account holders with a full accounting regardless of the alternative used to reconcile account balances; and (3) until Interior finds a mutually acceptable basis for determining account balances and associated losses, its proposal for deleting the provision should be rejected as premature.