[Congressional Bills 103th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4180 Reported in House (RH)]

                                                 Union Calendar No. 428

103d CONGRESS

  2d Session

                               H. R. 4180

                          [Report No. 103-781]

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL

  To prohibit the withdrawal of acknowledgement or recognition of an 
  Indian tribe or Alaska Native group or of the leaders of an Indian 
        tribe or Alaska Native group, absent an Act of Congress.

_______________________________________________________________________

                            October 3, 1994

Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee of the Whole House 
          on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed





                                                 Union Calendar No. 428
103d CONGRESS
  2d Session
                                H. R. 4180

                          [Report No. 103-781]

  To prohibit the withdrawal of acknowledgement or recognition of an 
  Indian tribe or Alaska Native group or of the leaders of an Indian 
        tribe or Alaska Native group, absent an Act of Congress.


_______________________________________________________________________


                    IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES

                             April 12, 1994

   Mr. Thomas of Wyoming (for himself, Mr. Richardson, Mr. Young of 
  Alaska, and Mr. Boehlert) introduced the following bill; which was 
             referred to the Committee on Natural Resources

                            October 3, 1994

Reported with amendments, committed to the Committee of the Whole House 
          on the State of the Union, and ordered to be printed
 [Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert the part printed 
                               in italic]
 [For text of introduced bill, see copy of bill as introduced on April 
                               12, 1994]

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
  To prohibit the withdrawal of acknowledgement or recognition of an 
  Indian tribe or Alaska Native group or of the leaders of an Indian 
        tribe or Alaska Native group, absent an Act of Congress.

    Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the 
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE.

    This Act may be cited as the ``Federally Recognized Indian Tribe 
List Act of 1994''.

SEC. 2. DEFINITIONS.

    For the purposes of this Act:
            (1) The term ``Secretary'' means the Secretary of the 
        Interior.
            (2) The term ``Indian tribe'' means any Indian or Alaska 
        Native tribe, band, nation, pueblo, village or community that 
        the Secretary of the Interior acknowledges to exist as an 
        Indian tribe.
            (3) The term ``list'' means the list of recognized tribes 
        published by the Secretary pursuant to section 4 of this Act.

SEC. 3. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds that--
            (1) the Constitution, as interpreted by Federal case law, 
        invests Congress with plenary authority over Indian Affairs;
            (2) ancillary to that authority, the United States has a 
        trust responsibility to recognized Indian tribes, maintains a 
        government-to-government relationship with those tribes, and 
        recognizes the sovereignty of those tribes;
            (3) Indian tribes presently may be recognized by Act of 
        Congress; by the administrative procedures set forth in part 83 
        of the Code of Federal Regulations denominated ``Procedures for 
        Establishing that an American Indian Group Exists as an Indian 
        Tribe;'' or by a decision of a United States court;
            (4) a tribe which has been recognized in one of these 
        manners may not be terminated except by an Act of Congress;
            (5) Congress has expressly repudiated the policy of 
        terminating recognized Indian tribes, and has actively sought 
        to restore recognition to tribes that previously have been 
        terminated;
            (6) the Secretary of the Interior is charged with the 
        responsibility of keeping a list of all federally recognized 
        tribes;
            (7) the list published by the Secretary should be accurate, 
        regularly updated, and regularly published, since it is used by 
        the various departments and agencies of the United States to 
        determine the eligibility of certain groups to receive services 
        from the United States; and
            (8) the list of federally recognized tribes which the 
        Secretary publishes should reflect all of the federally 
        recognized Indian tribes in the United States which are 
        eligible for the special programs and services provided by the 
        United States to Indians because of their status as Indians.

SEC. 4. PUBLICATION OF LIST OF RECOGNIZED TRIBES.

    (a) Publication of the List.--The Secretary shall publish in the 
Federal Register a list of all Indian tribes which the Secretary 
recognizes to be eligible for the special programs and services 
provided by the United States to Indians because of their status as 
Indians.
    (b) Frequency of Publication.--The list shall be published within 
60 days of enactment of this Act, and annually on or before every 
January 30 thereafter.

            Amend the title so as to read: ``A bill to provide for the 
        annual publication of a list of federally recognized Indian 
        tribes.''.