H.R. 4463 would amend the Catawba Indian Tribe of South Carolina Land Claims Settlement Act of 1993 to eliminate the requirements that a person seeking tribal enrollment must be a lineal descendant of a member on the final base membership roll and must have maintained continuous political relations with the Tribe.
H.R. 4463 could increase the number of people classified as tribal members, although federal agencies, primarily the Department of the Interior (DOI) and the Indian Health Service (IHS), do not provide services only to people who meet the membership requirements established under the 1993 settlement act. Those agencies currently can provide services to anyone who might become a tribal member under H.R. 4463, as long as that person meets a program’s underlying eligibility requirements. On that basis and using information from DOI and the IHS, CBO estimates that enacting H.R. 4463 would have no effect on the federal budget.
The CBO staff contacts for this estimate are Julia Aman (for the Department of the Interior) and Robert Stewart (for the Indian Health Service). The estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Director of Budget Analysis.
