Office of the Secretary	CONTACT: Dan DuBray (DOI):
For Immediate Release: March 23, 2004	202-208-6416

Interior Seeks Reversal of March 15 Injunction which has Disconnected DOI Agencies from Internet

· Minerals Management Service informs 36 state governors electronic minerals royalty payments totaling $89.6 million will be disrupted by disconnection.

· K-12 and post-secondary Indian schools remain isolated from e-mail and
web access in compliance with Federal Court injunction.

(WASHINGTON) – Interior Secretary Gale A. Norton has asked a Federal Court to grant an emergency stay of its March 15 injunction that disconnected most of the Department of the Interior’s computer systems from the Internet. Secretary Norton says compliance with the order has created an immediate impact on its workforce and the public, preventing Americans from common access to key Federal agencies with incalculable added costs for taxpayers.

Secretary Norton told the Court that the harm caused by the implementation of the injunction will be “severe and widespread” and that DOI is “still in the process of discovering how far-reaching the injury to our programs and the public will be.” She says DOI has taken comprehensive steps to improve IT security within the Department.

“Interior has invested substantial time, effort and funding in improving our information technology security,” Secretary Norton told the Court. “It is a responsibility we take seriously.”

Today, Minerals Management Service (MMS) Director R.M. “Johnnie” Burton issued a letter to 36 state governors informing them that the Internet disconnection would forestall the processing and distribution of monthly Federal mineral payments until such time as electronic systems are restored. A total of $89,602,890 was disbursed to states in February. In 2003, a total of more than $1 billion was disbursed to 36 states through the electronic systems. The disconnection will have similar impacts of delaying royalty payments to Indian tribes, individual Indian allottees and other parties.

The Internet disconnection also impacts some 50,000 students at the 184 elementary and secondary day and boarding schools funded by the Department’s Bureau of Indian Affairs. The K-12 system operates on 63 Indian reservations in 23 states. Students at two BIA-funded post-secondary schools have also been disconnected from the Internet. BIA provides funding to Haskell Indian Nations University in Lawrence, Kansas, the Southwestern Indian Polytechnic Institute in Albuquerque, New Mexico and 25 other tribally-controlled post-secondary schools.

“More than ever before, these young people depend on the Internet as a vital educational resource,” Secretary Norton said today. “In many libraries, the web has all but replaced the encyclopedia volumes that we were familiar with in our school days. We are working closely with the Department of Justice to obtain an emergency stay of this injunction, which is clearly creating indiscriminate consequences across the nation.”

The preliminary injunction of the U.S. District Court in Washington, D.C., stems from ongoing, class-action litigation initiated in 1996 on behalf of individual American Indian trust account holders (Cobell v. Norton). Court-directed penetrations (‘hacking’) of DOI’s Indian trust IT systems have prompted ongoing and intensive internal scrutiny of the Department’s IT systems, particularly those that maintain records for Indian Trust beneficiaries.

While the majority of the Department’s 110,000 computers were ordered disconnected last week, only 6-percent of DOI computers – or about 6,600 – have access to personal Indian trust data. Last Monday, the day the injunction was issued, DOI estimates that only 1,100 of those 6,600 were connected to the Internet.

[Editor’s Note: A copy of the motion for an emergency stay, with the complete declarations of Interior Secretary Norton and DOI Chief Information Officer W. Hord Tipton are available on the U.S. Department of Justice website at www.usdoj.gov/civil/cases/cobell/index.htm

A table of total MMS minerals royalty disbursements to states for 2003 and February disbursements is attached.]

-DOI-

Minerals Royalty Disbursements by State Minerals Management Service
2004 State disbursements		2003 State disbursements
Alabama	$ 933,881	Alabama	$14,601,401
Alaska	882,023	Alaska	$13,126,183
Arizona	45,546	Arizona	$128,474
Arkansas	270,449	Arkansas	$4,379,518
California	5,355,643	California	$25,336,757
Colorado	5,291,916	Colorado	$62,703,158
Idaho	80,307	Florida	$387,298
Illinois	12,601	Georgia	$54
Kansas	4,276	Idaho	$1,880,786
Kentucky	3,948	Illinois	$100,822
Louisiana	1,795,935	Indiana	$6,438
Michigan	33,992	Kansas	$1,928,091
Mississippi	101,405	Kentucky	$55,782
Missouri	270	Louisiana	$31,561,211
Montana	2,547,445	Michigan	$425,844
Nebraska	3,534	Minnesota	$17,427
Nevada	72	Mississippi	$1,231,716
New Mexico	27,004,879	Missouri	$169,832
North Dakota	650,247	Montana	$26,906,699
Ohio	34,902	Nebraska	$15,125
Oklahoma	160,104	Nevada	$5,015,687
Oregon	2,246	New Mexico	$318,768,793
Pennsylvania	3,978	North Carolina	$118
South Dakota	34,986	North Dakota	$5,139,095
Texas	1,298,956	Ohio	$301,952
Utah	3,924,919	Oklahoma	$3,541,950
Washington	5,842	Oregon	$30,608
West Virginia	9,001	Pennsylvania	$22,312
Wyoming	39,109,587	South Carolina	$20,602
Total	$89,602,890	South Dakota	$413,977
		Texas	$19,069,085
		Utah	$54,443,508
		Virginia	$2,099
		Washington	$815,708
		West Virginia	$379,821
		Wyoming	$503,771,957
		Total	$1,096,699,888