After the public comment period closes, you have the opportunity to revise or add to your draft law, based on public comments. Depending on your tribe’s procedure, you may also be given one final opportunity to present to the business council, before they bring the proposed law to a final vote. This might be a good time to give a small presentation on your draft law and/or hold a question and answer session. Make sure you highlight any important research findings you came across while checking your community’s readiness and defining the problem with data.
Rebecca’s Experience
We had representatives from the Tribal Health Native CARS program and Tribal Traffic Safety present to the business council a final time. This presentation highlighted the findings of the Native CARS study, stressing the data we collected during the 2011 car seat observation study. This study showed that not only did the tribal membership overwhelming approve of a car seat law on the reservation (92% approval), it showed that the rate of car seat use on the reservation compared to off the reservation supported the idea that a law would impact car seat usage. These facts, when paired with the fact that the law was drafted by a tribal program specifically for the reservation, helped influence the business council to vote for and approve a car seat law codification.