(SitNews) Metlakatla, Alaska - Alaskan Milo Booth has been appointment as the Federal Emergency Management Agency’s (FEMA) National Tribal Affairs Advisor. Booth, an Alaska Native tribal member of the Metlakatla Indian Community (MIC), will lead the new Tribal Affairs Branch in Intergovernmental Affairs and serve as a key advisor on tribal affairs to senior FEMA leadership.

Milo Booth served as the Metlakatla Indian Community Director of Forestry and Land Resource for 16 years and joins FEMA after serving most recently as a specialist for the U.S. Forest Service’s Lands and Realty Management program. His experience working with tribal, state and federal agencies on land management and energy resource development issues will be an added resource to FEMA’s Office of External Affairs.

U.S. Senator Mark Begich (D-AK) today congratulated Alaskan Milo Booth on his appointment. Begich said, “Mr. Booth has 18 years of experience building and strengthening relationships with tribes and will help move FEMA in the right direction as they develop plans for consultation and other key tribal priorities across the country,” said Begich. “As an Alaska Native, he has seen first-hand the unique challenges and opportunities that exist in relationships between tribes and the federal government and I look forward to working with him in his new capacity to assure FEMA remains committed to this engagement.”

Joined by Senator Jon Tester (D-MT), Begich stated in a news release that he used his position on both the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs and Indian Affairs Committees to admonish FEMA’s lack of sustained communication and outreach with tribes across the country.

In a letter sent in February, the Senators Tester and Begich urged the Administration to appoint qualified tribal liaisons at the Regional and Headquarters levels to assure tribal concerns are heard and acted upon. As a result of a major policy change in the Sandy Recovery and Improvement Act of 2013, Federally-recognized tribes were given the authority to request major disaster declarations from the President. Begich continues to pressure FEMA to develop a tribal consultation plan and is encouraged that FEMA will host outreach meetings in Alaska this summer to assess the impacts of this policy change to Native communities.



Source of News: 

Office of U.S. Senator Mark Begich
www.begich.senate.gov

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