Nevada Appeal Capitol Bureau
Tuesday, November 2, 2021
U.S. Sen. Catherine Cortez Masto says federal officials are failing to properly implement legislation ordering them to protect Indigenous women and girls.
In a news release, the Nevada Democrat cited the Government Accounting Office report saying the Justice and Interior departments have missed several deadlines since the laws, the Not Invisible Act and Savanna’s Act, were passed.
“We’ve given the federal government some powerful tools to finally develop a strategy to stop the crisis of missing and murdered Indigenous women,” she said. “But the government has to implement our legislation in a timely manner, as this report indicates. There’s a lot more work to go and Native women and girls can’t wait.”
Cortez Masto and Sen. Lisa Murkowski, R-Alaska, sponsored the legislation to protect Native communities and combat what she described as an epidemic of missing, murdered and trafficked Indigenous women. The two pieces of legislation passed the Senate unanimously and were signed into law a year ago.
Not Invisible creates a point person in the Bureau of Indian Affairs to coordinate violent crime prevention across federal agencies and establish a commission to coordinate efforts between Justice and Interior.
Savanna’s Act requires federal law enforcement to create standards for responding to these crimes and increase data collection. It was named after Savanna LaFontaine-Greywind.
