Mr. KENNEDY of Rhode Island. Mr. Speaker, I thank the gentleman for yielding me this time and for his leadership on sovereignty in this country on behalf of Native Americans, our very first Americans, the people who had America before Europeans settlers came here to take their land.

When the European settlers took their land, they took it and made one promise: We will give you what little land you have left, we will let you stay on that land and we will let you be in charge of it. And we will incorporate that into our various systems of government where we have a State government, we have city government, we have county government, and we will have tribal governments. But for purposes of tribal governments, they will have sovereignty that will surpass States so that the only relationship that these tribal governments will have will be the relationship between them and the Federal Government superseding States.

This was a part of the Constitution. It was decided by the Constitution and this legislation undermines that premise and forces tribes to negotiate with local counties, which is undermining 200 years of Federal policy for tribal sovereignty.

I ask for a ``no'' vote on this because its substance is bad, and the fact that it is being rushed through is bad as well.