[Congressional Bills 106th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[S. 1525 Introduced in Senate (IS)]







106th CONGRESS
  1st Session
                                S. 1525

 To provide for equitable compensation of the Spokane Tribe of Indians 
 of the Spokane Reservation in settlement of its claims concerning its 
 contribution to the production of hydropower by the Grand Coulee Dam, 
                        and for other purposes.


_______________________________________________________________________


                   IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES

                             August 5, 1999

Mrs. Murray (for herself and Mr. Inouye) introduced the following bill; 
  which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs

_______________________________________________________________________

                                 A BILL


 
 To provide for equitable compensation of the Spokane Tribe of Indians 
 of the Spokane Reservation in settlement of its claims concerning its 
 contribution to the production of hydropower by the Grand Coulee Dam, 
                        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 ``Spokane Tribe of Indians of the 
Spokane Reservation Grand Coulee Dam Equitable Compensation Settlement 
Act''.

SEC. 2. FINDINGS.

    The Congress finds the following:
            (1) From 1927 to 1931, at the direction of Congress, the 
        Corps of Engineers investigated the Columbia River and its 
        tributaries to determine sites where power could be produced at 
        low cost.
            (2) The Corps of Engineers listed a number of sites, 
        including the site where the Grand Coulee Dam is now located, 
        with recommendations that the power development be performed by 
        local governmental authorities or private utilities under the 
        Federal Power Act.
            (3) Under section 10(e) of the Federal Power Act, licensees 
        must pay Indian tribes for the use of reservation lands.
            (4) The Columbia Basin Commission, an agency of the State 
        of Washington, applied for, and in August 1933 received, a 
        preliminary permit from the Federal Power Commission for water 
        power development of the Grand Coulee Site.
            (5) In the mid-1930's, the Federal Government, which is not 
        subject to the Federal Power Act, federalized the Grand Coulee 
        Dam project and began construction of the Grand Coulee Dam.
            (6) At the time the Grand Coulee Dam project was 
        federalized, the Federal Government knew and recognized that 
        the Spokane Tribe and the Confederated Tribes of the Colville 
        Reservation had compensable interests in the Grand Coulee Dam 
        project, including but not limited to development of 
        hydropower, extinguishment of a salmon fishery upon which the 
        Spokane Tribe was almost totally dependent, and inundation of 
        lands with loss of potential power sites previously identified 
        by the Spokane Tribe.
            (7) In an Act dated June 29, 1940 (54 Stat. 703; 16 U.S.C. 
        835d), Congress enacted legislation to grant to the United 
        States all the rights of the Indians in lands of the Spokane 
        Tribe and Colville Indian Reservations required for the Grand 
        Coulee Dam project and various rights-of-way over Indian lands 
        required in connection with the project. The Act provided that 
        compensation for the lands and rights-of-way required shall be 
        determined by the Secretary of the Interior in such amounts as 
        such Secretary determines just and equitable.
            (8) In furtherance of the Act of June 29, 1940, the 
        Secretary of the Interior paid to the Spokane Tribe the total 
        sum of $4,700. The Confederated Tribes of the Colville 
        Reservation received a payment of $63,000.
            (9) In 1994, following 43 years of litigation before the 
        Indian Claims Commission, the United States Court of Federal 
        Claims and the United States Court of Appeals for the Federal 
        Circuit, Congress ratified an agreement between the 
        Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation and the United 
        States that provided for past damages and annual payments of 
        $15,250,000 in perpetuity, adjusted annually, based on revenues 
        for the sale of electric power and transmission of such power 
        by the Bonneville Power Administration.
            (10) In legal opinions issued throughout the years by the 
        Department of the Interior Solicitor's Office, a Task Force 
        Study conducted from 1976 to 1980 ordered by the Senate 
        Appropriations Committee, and in hearings before the Congress 
        when the Confederated Tribes Act was enacted, it has repeatedly 
        been recognized that the Spokane Tribe suffered similar damages 
        and had a case legally comparable with that of the Confederated 
        Tribes of the Colville Reservation with the sole exception that 
        the 5-year statute of limitations provided in the Indian Claims 
        Commission Act of 1946 prevented the Spokane Tribe from 
        bringing its own action for fair and honorable dealings as 
        provided in that Act.
            (11) The failure of the Spokane Tribe to bring an action of 
        its own before the Indian Claims Commission can be attributed 
        to a combination of factors, including the failure of the 
        Bureau of Indian Affairs to carry out its advisory 
        responsibilities as required by the Indian Claims commission 
        Act (Act of August 13, 1946, ch. 959, 60 Stat. 1050), and an 
        effort of the Commissioner of Indian Affairs to impose improper 
        requirements on claims attorneys retained by Indian tribes 
        which caused delays in retention of counsel and full 
        investigation of the Spokane Tribe's potential claims.
            (12) As a consequence of construction of the Grand Coulee 
        Dam project, the Spokane Tribe has suffered the complete loss 
        of the salmon fishery upon which it was dependent, the loss of 
        identified hydropower sites it could have developed, the loss 
        of hydropower revenues it would have received under the Federal 
        Power Act had the project not been federalized, and it 
        continues to lose hydropower revenues which the Federal 
        Government recognized the Spokane Tribe was due at the time the 
        project was constructed.
            (13) Over 39 percent of the Indian-owned lands used for the 
        Grand Coulee Dam project were Spokane Tribe lands.

SEC. 3. STATEMENT OF PURPOSE.

    The purpose of this Act is to provide fair and equitable 
compensation to the Spokane Tribe on a basis that is proportionate to 
the compensation provided to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville 
Reservation for the damages and losses suffered as a consequence of 
construction and operation of the Grand Coulee Dam project.

SEC. 4. SETTLEMENT FUND ACCOUNT.

    (a) Establishment of Account.--There is hereby established in the 
Treasury an interest bearing account to be known as the ``Spokane Tribe 
of Indians Settlement Fund Account''.
    (b) Deposit of Amounts.--
            (1) Initial deposit.--Upon enactment of this Act and 
        appropriation of funds, the Secretary of the Treasury shall 
        deposit into the Fund Account a sum equal to 39.4 percent of 
        the sum paid to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville 
        Reservation in a lump sum pursuant to section 5(a) of the 
        Confederated Tribes Act, adjusted by the consumer price index 
from the date of that payment to the Confederated Tribes until the date 
of enactment of this Act, as payment and satisfaction of the Spokane 
Tribe's claim for use of its lands for generation of hydropower for the 
period from 1940 through November 2, 1994, the date of the enactment of 
the Confederated Tribes Act.
            (2) Subsequent deposits.--Commencing on September 30 of the 
        first fiscal year following enactment of this Act and on 
        September 30 of each of the 5 fiscal years following such 
        fiscal year, the Administrator of the Bonneville Power 
        Administration shall pay into the Fund Account a sum equal to 
        20 percent of 39.4 percent of the sum authorized to be paid to 
        the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation pursuant to 
        section 5(b) of the Confederated Tribes Act through the end of 
        the fiscal year during which this Act is enacted, adjusted by 
        the consumer price index to maintain the purchasing power the 
        Spokane Tribe would have had if annual payments had been made 
        to the Spokane Tribe on the date annual payments commenced and 
        were subsequently made to the Confederated Tribes of the 
        Colville Reservation pursuant to section 5(b) of the 
        Confederated Tribes Act.
    (c) Annual Payments.--On September 1 of the fiscal year following 
the enactment of this Act and of each fiscal year thereafter, payments 
shall be made by the Bonneville Power Administration, or any successor 
thereto, directly to the Spokane Tribe in an amount which is equal to 
39.4 percent of the annual payment authorized to be paid to the 
Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation in the operative and 
each subsequent fiscal year pursuant to section 5(b) of the 
Confederated Tribes Act.

SEC. 5. USE AND TREATMENT OF SETTLEMENT FUNDS.

    (a) Transfer of Funds to Tribe.--The Secretary of the Treasury 
shall transfer all or any portion of the settlement funds described in 
section 4(a) to the Spokane Business Council not later than 60 days 
after such Secretary receives written notice of the adoption by the 
Spokane Business Council of a resolution requesting that such Secretary 
execute the transfer of such funds. Subsequent requests may be made and 
funds transferred if not all of the funds are requested at one time.
    (b) Use of Initial Payment Funds.--
            (1) General discretionary funds.--Twenty-five percent of 
        the settlement funds described in section 4(a) and (b) shall be 
        reserved by the Business Council and used for discretionary 
        purposes of general benefit to all members of the Spokane 
        Tribe.
            (2) Funds for specific purposes.--Seventy-five percent of 
        the settlement funds described in section 4(a) and (b) shall be 
        used for the following:
                    (A) Resource development program.
                    (B) Credit program.
                    (C) Scholarship program.
                    (D) Reserve, investment, and economic development 
                programs.
    (c) Use of Annual Payment Funds.--Annual payments made to the 
Spokane Tribe pursuant to section 4(c) may be used or invested by the 
Spokane Tribe in the same manner as other tribal governmental funds.
    (d) Approval of Secretary Not Required.--Notwithstanding any other 
provision of law, the approval of the Secretary of the Treasury or the 
Secretary of the Interior for any payment, distribution, or use of the 
principal, interest, or income generated by any settlement funds 
transferred or paid to the Spokane Tribe pursuant to this Act shall not 
be required and such Secretaries shall have no trust responsibility for 
the investment, supervision, administration, or expenditure of such 
funds once such funds are transferred to or paid directly to the 
Spokane Tribe.
    (e) Treatment of Funds for Certain Purposes.--The payments or 
distributions of any portion of the principal, interest, and income 
generated by the settlement funds described in section 4 shall be 
treated in the same manner as payments or distributions from the 
Investment Fund described in section 6 of Public Law 99-346 (100 Stat. 
677).
    (f) Tribal Audit.--The settlement funds described in section 4, 
once transferred or paid to the Spokane Tribe, shall be considered 
Spokane Tribe governmental funds and, as other tribal governmental 
funds, be subject to an annual tribal governmental audit.

SEC. 6. REPAYMENT CREDIT.

    Beginning in the fiscal year following enactment of this Act and 
continuing for so long as annual payments are made under this Act, the 
Administrator of the Bonneville Power Administration shall deduct from 
the interest payable to the Secretary of the Treasury from net proceeds 
as defined in section 13 of the Federal Columbia River Transmission 
System Act, a percentage of the payment made to the Spokane Tribe for 
the prior fiscal year. The actual percentage of such deduction shall be 
calculated and adjusted to ensure that the Bonneville Power 
Administration receives a deduction comparable to that which it 
receives for payments made to the Confederated Tribes of the Colville 
Reservation pursuant to the Confederated Tribes Act. Each deduction 
made under this section shall be credited to the interest payments 
otherwise payable by the Administrator to the Secretary of the Treasury 
during the fiscal year in which the deduction is made, and shall be 
allocated pro rata to all interest payments on debt associated with the 
generation function of the Federal Columbia River Power System that are 
due during that fiscal year; except that, if the deduction in any 
fiscal year is greater than the interest due on debt associated with 
the generation function for the fiscal year, then the amount of the 
deduction that exceeds the interest due on debt associated with the 
general function shall be allocated pro rata to all other interest 
payments due during that fiscal year. To the extent that the deduction 
exceeds the total amount of any such interest, the deduction shall be 
applied as a credit against any other payments that the Administrator 
makes to the Secretary of the Treasury.

SEC. 7. SATISFACTION OF CLAIMS.

    Payment under section 4 shall constitute full payment and 
satisfaction of the Spokane Tribe's claim to a fair share of the annual 
hydropower revenues generated by the Grand Coulee Dam project from 1940 
through the fiscal year prior to the fiscal year during which this Act 
is enacted and represents the Spokane Tribe's proportional entitlement 
of hydropower revenues based on the lump sum payment for damages from 
1940 through 1994 and the annual payments by the Bonneville Power 
Administration to the Colville Tribes commencing in fiscal year 1995 
through the fiscal year that this Act is enacted.

SEC. 8. DEFINITIONS.

    For the purposes of this Act--
            (1) the term ``Confederated Tribes Act'' means the 
        Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation Grand Coulee 
        Dam Settlement Act (P.L. 103-436; 108 Stat. 4577);
            (2) the term ``Fund Account'' means the Spokane Tribe of 
        Indians Settlement Fund Account established under section 4(a); 
        and
            (3) the term ``Spokane Tribe'' means the Spokane Tribe of 
        Indians of the Spokane Reservation.

SEC. 9. AUTHORIZATION OF APPROPRIATIONS.

    There are authorized to be appropriated such sums as may be 
necessary to carry out the purposes of this Act.
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