
Indian Country bills crawl to final approval in busy election cycle
Tuesday, September 22, 2020
Indianz.Com
A slew of Indian Country bills are finally over their last hurdle on Capitol Hill, giving Republicans, Democrats and maybe even Donald Trump a chance to declare victory ahead of the presidential election.
With the action on Monday, lawmakers from both parties quickly took credit after the U.S. House of Representatives passed five tribal measures. Each bill cleared by the Democratic-controlled chamber under a suspension of the rules, meaning they enjoyed overwhelming support from both parties, despite a divided political climate.
And since all five already passed the U.S. Senate, which is in Republican hands, all that’s needed is the president’s signature. Assuming that happens, they will be the first standalone Indian Country measures to become law since last December.
Yes, that’s right. It’s taken almost a year for lawmakers to get five more pieces of seemingly simple and straightforward pro-tribal legislation — all of which had bipartisan backing — over the finish line in the 116th Congress, whose work has been upended by the COVID-19 pandemic, much in the same way tribal communities have been disrupted by the ongoing health crisis.
But in the case of S.209, the Practical Reforms and Other Goals To Reinforce the Effectiveness of Self-Governance and Self-Determination (PROGRESS) for Indian Tribes Act, the wait for approval has been an incredibly slow-moving one. The bill fulfills long-standing requests to update the self-governance programs that hundreds of tribes have used to exercise greater control over their own futures. “Versions of this bipartisan bill have lain before this House and the Senate for nearly two decades, passing each body several times,” Rep. Deb Haaland (D-New Mexico) observed as she led debate on the House floor on Monday. “It is time to finally push this legislation across the finish line so that tribes can finally move to effectively-managed programs for their people.” Yet one Republican couldn’t resist making a final jab at S.209, which was sent over by the Senate with strong support from the GOP. Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyoming) said the PROGRESS Act “doesn’t quite get there,” citing concerns about water projects that could come under tribal control. But even though Cheney urged colleagues to reject the bill, her protests were largely symbolic. The House passed S.209 without any formal objections and without a request for a recorded vote from anyone in the chamber.It’s a busy week for Indian Country’s legislative agenda on Capitol Hill, with the House of Representatives scheduled to pass a slew of bills affecting self-governance, treaties and missing and murdered loved ones. #MMIW #NotInvisible #116th https://t.co/IHTHsfpKF5
— indianz.com (@indianz) September 21, 2020
- S.256, the Esther Martinez Native American Languages Programs Reauthorization Act. The new law reverses decades of federal policy in which Native Americans were discouraged or prevented from speaking their own languages.
- S.50, the Columbia River In-Lieu and Treaty Fishing Access Sites Improvement Act. The new law fulfills a promise made in tribal treaties to maintain fishing sites and villages along the Columbia River in Washington and Oregon.
- S.216, the Spokane Tribe of Indians of the Spokane Reservation Equitable Compensation Act. The new law compensates the Spokane Tribe for the loss of its lands to the Grand Coulee Dam in Washington state.
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