I have been speaking out regarding disturbing trends we have been seeing in Congressional Acts, through my messages to you, the Osage people.  As we have witnessed in the recent sessions of Congress, these trends have continued and gotten worse.  My staff has worked diligently providing sound advice regarding the separation of powers.  This advice has largely been ignored, leading me to veto several pieces of seriously flawed legislation and, when necessary, involving our Osage Court system.

I predicted a worsening outcome of the appropriations process when the Congress signaled they did not intend to fulfill their duty to complete appropriations within the constitutionally provided Congressional session.  Members of Congress claimed they needed the extra time, because they needed to complete the Nation’s budget.  Wrong answer.  The Executive Branch prepares the budget, and the Legislative Branch appropriates the funding levels necessary for the Executive Branch to operate according to and within the budget.  What we have seen in this and some previous sessions of Congress has been, in essence, an attempted legislative coup d’état where they offer appropriations bills that mimic budgets.  Members of Congress also usurp budgets line by line affecting personnel by cutting salaries and even eliminating entire positions with no justification or due process offered to protect the employees.  Further, Congress offers new definitions of commonly understood words and phrases in an attempt to control the lives and actions of others.  Again the lack of common sense and professional judgment is astounding.

What has become evident of this group in Congress is their contempt for the Constitution, our laws, and even their own rules.  In addition to the now infamous Congressional exemption to the ethics law and failure to police their own members, certain members of Congress voted to pass an Open Meetings Act, yet barred the doors and held an unannounced meeting to finalize the appropriations bills.  Members of Congress have criticized the press for not being “fair” because it isn’t hypercritical of my Office, and subsequently introduced amendments to get rid of the position responsible for the layout of the newspaper, making it impossible to produce the paper.  Some other “gems” in the appropriations bills include an unjustified $20,000 pay cut of the Treasurer, and a similar cut to the pay of my Chief of Staff.  Other positions crucial to the further development of the Nation and protection of our interests in my office were completely eliminated.  If the appropriations bills stand, the Osage Nation will no longer have professional representation in Washington, D.C. or in the State Capitol, and we will lose our pre-eminent economic development expertise.  In short, where national and state legislative ideas and actions will be occurring our Congress has chosen to blind us and tie our hands behind our backs.  These short-sighted, arbitrary and capricious attempts to cripple the Nation’s capabilities are tantamount to malfeasance.

While certain members of Congress run rampant through the budgets in their misguided appropriations maneuvers, we are experiencing historic levels of revenues coming in to the Nation.  We have not and do not project to budget even half of the revenues available to the Nation.  In short, the appropriations gang is playing with peoples’ lives for no good reason, other than to say that they can.  Welcome back to the old tribal council’s cruelty and absolute abandon of responsible professional judgment!

And we see no end in sight.  Congress has interpreted their rules to allow bills to remain alive between sessions, and begun the practice of going into special session and offering amendments to change our budgets throughout the year.  This creates a fundamentally flawed system, making it next to impossible to reliably manage programs effectively or recruit and retain personnel unwilling to kowtow to the Appropriations committee.  Congress is incapable of restraining and/or policing itself, even after having written all the laws to their advantage and giving themselves complete discretion.

As elected officials we all took an oath to uphold the Osage Constitution and we do so within our respective roles in the three equal branches of government.  We seek to advance our visions of what is best for the Osage Nation with our respective powers, ever mindful of the context in which we operate.  As government officials in positions of empowered with the public trust we conduct our business in the open for the Osage people to see and understand; but moreover in a democracy our citizens must feel welcome and comfortable participating in the affairs of our Nation.

Our young government has gone through some growing pains over the past three years.  And as we have all found out, democracies are not pretty, nor are the necessary compromises easy, but they all depend on the discussion of the issues in a fair system.  The Osage Congress under the leadership of the aforementioned group has been busy damaging the system of checks and balances meant to serve as a level playing field between the branches of government.  To operate in a democracy designed around three equal branches of government, it is natural to want to gain an advantage, but there is a line which must be recognized as sacred to the preservation of civil government and the powers given to us by our citizens.  Intra-governmental struggles should not be fought at the expense of the sustainability of the government itself—that would be damaging the Osage public trust in government.  Recognizing and respecting that line is a matter of judgment which the ruling group in Congress is incapable of achieving.

Unfortunately, despite our oaths and the Constitution, the old adage “you can’t teach an old dog new tricks” is ringing loud and clear through the halls of our Congress.  The current leadership clique in Congress, led by some of the Committee Chairs, is taking the Nation back into operating like the old tribal council, the system where the legislative body ran our businesses, programs and made personnel decisions without regard for due process.  It is a great disappointment to see people we all respect outside of government fail so miserably once elected to positions of power, people who have failed to evolve beyond the rejected old tribal council mindset.

In short, the attitude evidenced by certain members of Congress in their Congressional records, personal actions, and failure to learn and appropriately operate within the scope of their positions for the good of the Nation is truly disappointing.

While we evaluate the possibility of bringing action regarding the violation of the Opening Meetings Act against individual members of Congress, we hope Osage citizens will take immediate action by calling members of Congress regarding this deteriorating situation.  Ultimately, the only Osage body capable of holding the Congress accountable to the Osage people is the Osage people. And because the group in charge of Congress refuses to listen, or learn their proper roles, I will continue to appeal to the people as well as our courts to protect our employees, the Nation’s interests, and the Constitution.  Another immediate action you can take to express your concern is to support your Osage Congress members who have shown real leadership and spoken out against these egregious acts by their colleagues.  The integrity of the Osage Nation government is at stake, action must be taken.