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sibility for administering fish and wildlife funding to an entity 

 whose central mission is stewardship of fish and wildlife, and 

 which has formally demonstrated its trusteeship to the tribes. The 

 process for moving the money "to the ground" must be simplified 

 to reduce costly delays „ The tribes and the region must have ac- 

 countability for the investment of taxpayer and ratepayer funds. 

 The best accountability measures are completed projects and in- 

 creased salmon runs. Moving the funding duty to another agency 

 also allows us to revisit the financing mechanisms for fish and 

 wildlife investments. The Commission hopes to explore these issues 

 with BPA in the near fiiture. 



You have also asked a number of questions related to the current 

 system for managing operations of the Columbia basin's hydro- 

 electric system. I^et me say at the outset, the tribes Eire extremely 

 frustrated with the way the BPA, the Corps and the Bureau of Rec- 

 lamation have attempted to deal with these issues through the Sys- 

 tem Operation Review. These federal agencies just do not get it. 

 They do not pay attention to tribal concerns at the outset and their 

 belated attempts are inadequate. I question whether making BPA 

 a government corporation would improve this situation. Therefore 

 I respectfiilly ask this task force, Would BPA, as a government cor- 

 poration, be subject to the Federal Government's trust obUgation to 

 the tribes? 



When the United States and Canada entered into the Columbia 

 River Treaty, salmon were not part of that bargain. Today, we are 

 witnesses to failures to deal with the system as a whole. Letting 

 BPA and the Corps represent the tribes' interest in Columbia River 

 salmon to Canada m^es us very uncomfortable. Likewise, letting 

 the Bureau of Reclamation, Corps of Engineers, and BPA represent 

 our interests in salmon to the region's utilities throughout the Pa- 

 cific Northwest Coordination Agreement is unacceptable. Manage- 

 ment of the Columbia basin's water resources must fiilly respect 

 salmon needs and the tribes' interest in the salmon. The tribes are 

 best able to represent their own interests and existing processes 

 must be restructured accordingly. 



In conclusion, I again thank you for the opportunity to address 

 the task force. I welcome your attention to these important issues 

 and look forward to addressing these matters with you in the fii- 

 ture. 



[Prepared statement of Mr. Van Pelt follows:] 



