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Administrative Agencies Because the rights and interests of our clients are often affected by decisions, actions and regulations of federal and state administrative agencies, our practice regularly includes participation in proceedings before such agencies. This has included matters before the United States Department of the Interior, the Indian Health Service of the Department of Health and Human Services, the Environmental Protection Agency, the Federal Election Commission, the Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Department of Agriculture, and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, among others.
We have actively participated when agencies propose to develop regulations that affect our clients' interests by providing comments and recommendations on proposed regulations and, when regulations are to be developed through negotiated rulemaking, by active participation in the committees established for that purpose. This has included participation in all negotiated rulemaking committees established to implement the Indian Self-Determination and Education Act and other tribal programs, including, most recently, the Indian Reservation Roads Program Negotiated Rulemaking Committee and the Committee established to implement Title V of the Indian Self-Determination Act, on Tribal Self-Governance.
Our work before administrative agencies has also included representation of our clients through other administrative proceedings on matters that affect our client's interests. These have included, for example, participation in proceedings before agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers on applications for dredge and fill permits under section 404 of the Clean Water Act and the related environmental impact analysis required by the National Environmental Policy Act where the proposed project threatened to adversely affect our client's lands and interests in cultural and natural resources. Our work has also included proceedings before: the Bureau of Indian Affairs on tribal applications to place land into trust; the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on applications to relicence hydroelectric facilities, the National Indian Gaming Regulatory Commission on enforcement issues, and the Federal Election Commission on campaign finance matters.
In addition, our administrative practice also includes representation of our clients in hearings and administrative appeals provided by such agencies and in judicial proceedings that may follow and involve review of an agency's decision. For example, we successfully challenged a decision by the Department of Health and Human Services denying a tribal request for special Medicare reimbursement rate for services provided by the tribe's dialysis facility, Assiniboine and Sioux Tribes of the Fort Peck Reservation v. Shalala, 1995 WL 324710 (D.D.C. 1995) and were thereafter able to negotiate an appropriate reimbursement rate with the Department of Health and Human Services. Similarly, as a result of our success in establishing that tribal governments should be treated like other sovereigns for purposes of federal statutes, like the Fair Labor Standards Act, Reich v. Great Lakes Indian Fish and Wildlife Comm'n, 4 F.3d 490 (7th Cir. 1993), we have been able to successfully represent tribes in resolving administrative disputes with agencies, like the United States Department of Labor regarding similar such issues.
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