Dear USET/USET SPF Family,
The Department of the Interior (DOI) has issued a Dear Tribal Leader Letter on Tribal data priorities to ensure quality data is used to inform policy making, resource distributions, and effective program management. An Indian Country Data Working Group was established by federal agencies to identify shared goals and actions to present to Tribal Nations through consultation efforts. This Working Group has identified goals and actions to improve data quality, collect new data sources, and develop economic and programmatic research projects.
Details regarding this upcoming consultation are as follows—
On July 8, 2022, USET SPF submitted comments to DOI on its proposal to collect Tribal Nation enrollment data annually. We expressed support for DOI to collect this data to ensure that past mistakes would not be repeated in the allocation of dollars to Indian Country, such as those that occurred during the allocation of the Coronavirus Relief Fund in 2020. We also supported the self-certification of Tribal Nation enrollment data, that enrollment data should not be shared without Tribal Nation consent, and that the data should be protected from Freedom of Information Act requests.
To view Framing Questions for this consultation as well as the Indian Country Data Working Group’s Data Priorities, please view the Dear Tribal Leader Letter. Comments are due Thursday, July 20, 2023 by 11:59pm ET and can be submitting to veronica.lane@bia.gov with the email subject title, “Tribal Data Priorities.”
For more information, please contact Brian Howard, USET SPF Senior Policy Analyst, at bhoward@usetinc.org.
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