[Congressional Bills 104th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 952 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







104th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                 S. 952

 To prohibit the taking of certain lands by the United States in trust 
   for economically self-sufficient Indian tribes for commercial and 
                gaming purposes, and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                June 21 (legislative day, June 19), 1995

 Mr. Lieberman introduced the following bill; which was read twice and 
              referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To prohibit the taking of certain lands by the United States in trust 
   for economically self-sufficient Indian tribes for commercial and 
                gaming purposes, and for other purposes.
    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 ``Indian Trust Lands Reform Act of 
1995''.

SEC. 2. PROHIBITION AGAINST TAKING CERTAIN LANDS IN TRUST FOR AN INDIAN 
              TRIBE.

    Section 5 of the Act of June 18, 1934 (commonly known as the 
``Indian Reorganization Act of 1934'') (48 Stat 935; 25 U.S.C. 465) is 
amended--
            (1) in the first undesignated paragraph, by striking ``The 
        Secretary of the Interior'' and inserting ``Except as provided 
        in the following paragraph, the Secretary of the Interior''; 
        and
            (2) by inserting after the first undesignated paragraph the 
        following new undesignated paragraphs:
    ``Except with respect to lands described in the following 
paragraph, the Secretary of the Interior may not take, in the name of 
the United States in trust for use for any commercial purpose 
(including gaming, as that term is used in the Indian Gaming Regulatory 
Act (25 U.S.C. 2701 et seq.)) by an economically self-sufficient Indian 
tribe, any land that is located outside of the reservation of that 
Indian tribe as of the date of enactment of the Indian Trust Lands 
Reform Act of 1995. The Secretary of the Interior shall, after 
providing notice and an opportunity for public comment, determine 
whether an Indian tribe is economically self-sufficient for purposes of 
this paragraph. The Secretary of the Interior shall promulgate 
regulations pursuant to section 553 of title 5, United States Code, to 
prescribe the criteria that shall be used to determine the economic 
self-sufficiency of an Indian tribe under this paragraph. The criteria 
described in the preceding sentence shall include a comparison of the 
per capita allocation of the gross annual income of an Indian tribe 
(including the income of all tribal enterprises of the tribe) among 
members of the tribe with the per capita annual income of citizens of 
the United States, and shall include the potential contribution of the 
lands at issue as trust lands toward efforts of the tribe to achieve 
economic self-sufficiency.
    ``The immediately preceding paragraph shall not apply with respect 
to any lands that are taken by the Secretary of the Interior in the 
name of the United States in trust for the establishment of an initial 
reservation for an Indian tribe under applicable Federal law, including 
the establishment of an initial reservation by the Secretary of the 
Interior in accordance with an applicable procedure of acknowledgement 
of that Indian tribe, or as otherwise prescribed by an Act of Congress. 
Neither shall the immediately preceding paragraph apply to any lands 
restored to an Indian tribe as the result of the restoration of 
recognition of that Indian tribe by the Federal Government.''.
                                 <all>