[Congressional Record Volume 140, Number 63 (Thursday, May 19, 1994)]
[Senate]
[Page S]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Printing Office [www.gpo.gov]


[Congressional Record: May 19, 1994]
From the Congressional Record Online via GPO Access [wais.access.gpo.gov]

 
                   TECHNICAL CORRECTIONS ACT OF 1994

  Mr. FORD. Madam President, I ask that the Chair lay before the Senate 
a message from the House of Representatives on S. 1654, a bill to make 
certain technical corrections.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER laid before the Senate the following message 
from the House of Representatives.

       Resolved, That the bill from the Senate (S. 1654) entitled 
     ``An Act to make certain technical corrections'', do pass 
     with the following amendment:
       Strike out all after the enacting clause and insert:

     SECTION 1. NORTHERN CHEYENNE INDIAN RESERVED WATER RIGHTS 
                   SETTLEMENT ACT OF 1992.

       (a) Environmental Costs.--Section 7(e) of the Northern 
     Cheyenne Indian Reserved Water Rights Settlement Act of 1992 
     (Public Law 102-374, 106 Stat. 1186 et seq.) is amended by 
     adding at the end thereof the following new sentences: ``All 
     costs of environmental compliance and mitigation associated 
     with the Compact, including mitigation measures adopted by 
     the Secretary, are the sole responsibility of the United 
     States. All moneys appropriated pursuant to the authorization 
     under this subsection are in addition to amounts appropriated 
     pursuant to the authorization under section 7(b)(1) of this 
     Act, and shall be immediately available.''.
       (b) Authorizations.--The first sentence of section 4(c) of 
     the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reserved Water Rights Settlement 
     Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-374; 106 Stat. 1186 et seq.) is 
     amended to read as follows: ``Except for authorizations 
     contained in subsections 7(b)(1)(A), 7(b)(1)(B) and 7(e), the 
     authorization of appropriations contained in this Act shall 
     not be effective until such time as the Montana water court 
     enters and approves a decree as provided in subsection (d) of 
     this section.''.
       (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section 
     shall be considered to have taken effect on September 30, 
     1992.

     SEC. 2. SAN CARLOS APACHE TRIBE WATER RIGHTS SETTLEMENT ACT 
                   OF 1992.

       (a) Amendment.--Section 3704(d) of the San Carlos Apache 
     Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-
     575) is amended by deleting ``reimbursable'' and inserting in 
     lieu thereof ``nonreimbursable''.
       (b) Effective Date.--The amendment made by subsection (a) 
     shall be considered to have taken effect on October 30, 1992.

     SEC. 3. TRIBALLY CONTROLLED COMMUNITY COLLEGES.

       The part of the text contained under the heading ``BUREAU 
     OF INDIAN AFFAIRS'', and the subheading ``operation of indian 
     programs'', in title I of the Department of the Interior and 
     Related Agencies Appropriations Act, 1994, which reads 
     ``Provided further, That any funds provided under this head 
     or previously provided for tribally-controlled community 
     colleges which are distributed prior to September 30, 1994 
     which have been or are being invested or administered in 
     compliance with section 331 of the Higher Education Act shall 
     be deemed to be in compliance for current and future purposes 
     with title III of the Tribally Controlled Community Colleges 
     Assistance Act.'' is amended by deleting ``section 331 of the 
     Higher Education Act'' and inserting in lieu thereof 
     ``section 332(c)(2)(A) of the Higher Education Act of 1965''.

     SEC. 4. WHITE EARTH RESERVATION LAND SETTLEMENT ACT OF 1985.

       Section 7 of the White Earth Reservation Land Settlement 
     Act of 1985 (25 U.S.C. 331, note) is amended by adding at the 
     end thereof the following:
       ``(f)(1) The Secretary is authorized to make a one-time 
     deletion from the second list published under subsection (c) 
     or any subsequent list published under subsection (e) of any 
     allotments or interests which the Secretary has determined do 
     not fall within the provisions of subsection (a) or (b) of 
     section 4, or subsection (c) of section 5, or which the 
     Secretary has determined were erroneously included in such 
     list by reason of misdescription or typographical error.
       ``(2) The Secretary shall publish in the Federal Register 
     notice of deletions made from the second list published under 
     subsection (c) or any subsequent list published under 
     subsection (e).
       ``(3) The determination made by the Secretary to delete an 
     allotment or interest under paragraph (1) may be judicially 
     reviewed in accordance with chapter 7 of title 5, United 
     States Code, within 90 days after the date on which notice of 
     such determination is published in the Federal Register under 
     paragraph (2). Any legal action challenging such a 
     determination that is not filed within such 90-day period 
     shall be forever barred. Exclusive jurisdiction over any 
     legal action challenging such a determination is vested in 
     the United States District Court for the District of 
     Minnesota.''.

     SEC. 5. AMENDMENTS.

       Section 1(c) of the Act entitled ``An Act to establish a 
     reservation for the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde 
     Community of Oregon, and for other purposes'', approved 
     September 9, 1988 (102 Stat. 1594), is amended as follows:
       (1) delete ``9,811.32'' and insert in lieu thereof 
     ``9,879.65''; and
       (2) delete everything after ``5  8  17 All 640.00'' and 
     insert in lieu thereof the following:

``6   8    1   SW\1/4\SW\1/4\, W\1/2\SE\1/4\SW\1/4\              53.78
``6   8    1   S\1/2\E\1/2\, SE\1/4\SW\1/4\                       9.00
``6   7    8   Tax lot 800                                        5.55
                                                         ---------------
               Total....................................     9,879.65''.
                                                                        

  Mr. FORD. Madam President, I move that the Senate concur in the House 
amendments with two further amendments that I now send to the desk on 
behalf of Senators McCain and Inouye, and I ask unanimous consent that 
the amendments be agreed to en bloc, and that the motions to reconsider 
en bloc be laid upon the table; and, further that any statements 
relating to the measure appear at the appropriate place in the Record 
as though read.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The amendments were agreed to as follows:


                           Amendment No. 1736

  Mr. FORD offered an amendment No. 1736 for Mr. McCain and Mr. Inouye.
  The amendment is as follows:

    (Purpose: To clarify provisions of the Northern Cheyenne Indian 
             Reserved Water Rights Settlement Act of 1992)

       On page 1, strike all of Section 1 and insert in lieu 
     thereof the following:
       (a) Environmental Costs.--Section 7 of the Northern 
     Cheyenne Indian Reserved Water Rights Settlement Act of 1992 
     (Public Law 102-374, 106 Stat. 1186 et seq.) is amended by 
     adding the following new subsections (f) and (g) and 
     redesignating the succeeding subsections accordingly:
       ``(f) Environmental Costs.--All costs associated with the 
     Tongue River Dam Project for environmental compliance 
     mandated by federal law and fish and wildlife mitigation 
     measures adopted by the Secretary are the sole responsibility 
     of the United States. Funds for such compliance shall be 
     appropriated pursuant to the authorization in subsection (e), 
     and shall be in addition to funds appropriated pursuant to 
     section 7(b)(1) of the Act. The Secretary is authorized to 
     expend not to exceed $625,000 of funds appropriated pursuant 
     to subsection (e) for fish and wildlife mitigation costs 
     associated with Tongue River-Dam construction authorized by 
     the Act, and shall be in addition to funds appropriated 
     pursuant to section 7(b)(1) of the Act.
       ``(g) Reimbursement to State.--The Secretary shall 
     reimburse Montana for expenditures for environmental 
     compliance activities, conducted on behalf of the United 
     States prior to enactment of this subsection (g), which the 
     Secretary determines to have been properly conducted and 
     necessary for completion of the Tongue River Dam Project. 
     Subsequent to enactment of this subsection (g), the Secretary 
     may not reimburse Montana for any such environmental 
     compliance activities undertaken without the Secretary's 
     prior approval.''
       (b) Authorizations.--The first sentence of section 4(c) of 
     the Northern Cheyenne Indian Reserved Water Rights Settlement 
     Act of 1992 (Public Law 102-374; 106 Stat. 1186 et seq.) is 
     amended to read as follows: ``Except for authorizations 
     contained in subsections 7(b)(1)(A), 7(B)(1)(B), and the 
     authorization for environmental compliance activities for the 
     Tongue River Dam Project contained in subsection 7(e), the 
     authorization of appropriations contained in this Act shall 
     not be effective until such time as the Montana water court 
     enters and approves a decree as provided in subsection (d) of 
     this section.''
       (c) Effective Date.--The amendments made by this section 
     shall be considered to have taken effect on September 30, 
     1992.


                           amendment no. 1737

  Mr. FORD offered an amendment No. 1737 for Mr. McCain and Mr. Inouye.
  The amendment is as follows:

 (Purpose: To prohibit regulations that classify, enhance, or diminish 
  the privileges and immunities of an Indian tribe relative to other 
      federally recognized Indian tribes, and for other purposes)

       At the end of the bill add the following: ``Section 16 of 
     the Act of June 18, 1934 (25 U.S.C. 476) is amended by adding 
     at the end of the following new subsections:
       ``(f) Privileges and Immunities of Indian Tribes; 
     Prohibition on New Regulations.--Departments or agencies of 
     the United States shall not promulgate any regulation or make 
     any decision or determination pursuant to the Act of June 18, 
     1934, (25 U.S.C. 461 et seq., 48 Stat. 984) as amended, or 
     any other Act of Congress, with respect to a federally 
     recognized Indian tribe that classifies, enhances, or 
     diminishes the privileges and immunities available to the 
     Indian tribe relative to other federally recognized tribes by 
     virtue of their status as Indian tribes.
       ``(g) Privileges and Immunities of Indian Tribes; Existing 
     Regulations.--Any regulation or administrative decision or 
     determination of a department or agency of the United States 
     that is in existence or effect on the date of enactment of 
     this Act and that classifies, enhances, or diminishes the 
     privileges and immunities available to a federally recognized 
     Indian tribe relative to the privileges and immunities 
     available to other federally recognized tribes by virtue of 
     their status as Indian tribes shall have no force or 
     effect.''.

  Mr. McCAIN. Madam President, I am pleased to join the chairman of the 
Committee on Indian Affairs, Senator Inouye, in offering an amendment 
to S. 1654, a bill to make certain technical corrections. The purpose 
of this amendment is to clarify provisions of the Northern Cheyenne 
Indian Reserved Water Rights Settlement Act of 1992.
  Not long after enactment of the settlement act, representatives of 
the State of Montana and the Interior Department found themselves in 
disagreement over their respective responsibilities for costs of 
compliance with environmental laws and fish and wildlife mitigation 
under the terms of a water rights compact signed by the State, the 
tribe, and the Department, and under the language of the settlement act 
(Public Law 102-374, 106 Stat. 1186 et seq.).
  Article VI(C) of the water rights compact states that ``The Secretary 
of the Interior shall comply with all aspects of the National 
Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act and other 
applicable environmental acts and regulations in implementing this 
Compact''. Accordingly, the Congress, in section 7(e) of the settlement 
act, authorized ``such sums as are necessary to carry out all necessary 
environmental compliance associated with the water rights compact 
entered into by the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the State of Montana, and 
the United States, including mitigation measures adopted by the 
Secretary''.
  The centerpiece of the settlement is the Tongue River Dam Project, 
which includes repairing the dam to cure safety defects and enlarging 
it to provide additional water for the Northern Cheyenne Tribe. The 
bulk of the contemplated environmental compliance and fish and wildlife 
mitigation is associated with this project. However, because funds for 
the project are authorized under section 7(b) of the settlement act, 
the Department and Montana were unclear as to what work would be 
considered funded under that section and what would be funded under 
section 7(e).
  In 1993, the Senate passed S. 1654, which included language intended 
to clarify the language of the settlement act. Section 1 of S. 1654 was 
drafted to accomplish three purposes, described in Senate Report 103-
191 as to make clear that first, ``all costs of environmental 
compliance and mitigation associated with the compact, including 
mitigation measures adopted by the Secretary, are the sole 
responsibility of the United States''; second, ``section 7(e) 
environmental compliance funds are authorized in addition to funds 
authorized in section 7(b)(1) for the Tongue River Dam Project''; and, 
third, ``section 7(e) funds can be expended prior to the Montana water 
court's issuance of a settlement decree''.
  Subsequent to the Senate's action, the administration, while agreeing 
to sole responsibility for environmental compliance associated with the 
Tongue River Dam Project, expressed concern that the new language might 
preclude the Secretary from seeking third party, nontribal cost-sharing 
for environmental compliance and mitigation for development projects on 
the Northern Cheyenne Reservation, unrelated to the Tongue River Dam 
Project, that would use water secured to the tribe under the compact. 
Efforts to address these concerns while S. 1654 was pending in the 
House of Representatives failed to produce agreement prior to the House 
passing the bill and returning it to the Senate.
  Subsequently, all parties to the settlement have worked with the 
staffs of the Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Natural 
Resource Committee to develop an amendment that would resolve the major 
issues in disagreement. I am pleased to state that the amendment 
Chairman Inouye and I offer today achieves that end.
  Our amendment makes clear that the costs associated with the Tongue 
River Dam Project for environmental compliance mandated by Federal law 
and fish and wildlife mitigation measures adopted by the Secretary of 
the Interior are the sole responsibility of the United States.
  The amendment limits the amount of money authorized by the settlement 
act which the Secretary may spend on fish and wildlife mitigation 
associated with the Tongue River Dam Project to $625,000. It further 
provides that these funds, as well as funds for compliance with Federal 
environmental laws, are authorized by section 7(e) and are in addition 
to funds authorized for the Tongue River Dam Project in section 
7(b)(1).
  The amendment authorizes the Secretary to reimburse Montana for 
expenditures of State funds for environmental compliance activities 
undertaken prior to enactment of the amendment. The Secretary is 
required to reimburse the State only for those compliance activities 
that the Secretary determines have been properly conducted and are 
necessary for completion of the Tongue River Dam Project. Subsequent to 
enactment of this amendment, the Secretary could not reimburse Montana 
for environmental compliance activities undertaken without his prior 
approval.
  The amendment also corrects references in section 4(c) of the 
settlement act to reflect the intent of Congress and the settlement 
parties that, except for a total of $1,400,000 authorized for the 
Tongue River Dam Project for fiscal year 1993 and 1994, and the funds 
authorized under section 7(e) for environmental compliance, no funds 
could be appropriated for the project until the Montana water court 
enters and approves a settlement decree.
  I would like to emphasize that the amendment neither adds to nor 
eliminates or reduces any existing authorization of appropriations in 
the settlement act, nor does it provide any new authorization of 
appropriations for any purpose.
  The amendment leaves intact the language in 7(e) of the settlement 
authorizing such sums necessary for the Secretary to comply with 
applicable environmental law associated with implementing the compact. 
The Secretary can rely on this authority to request necessary funds in 
cases such as where the Northern Cheyenne Tribe seeks to use its right 
to water in Yellowtail Reservoir, or to develop facilities for 
irrigated agriculture, or to develop coal or other minerals on the 
reservation. Such requests would necessarily be within the discretion 
of the Secretary, and of course, the relevant congressional 
appropriations committees.
  I would like to make the point that neither the language of the 
existing section 7(e) nor the language of the amendment would preclude 
the Secretary from following existing policy and practice of requiring 
nontribal third parties involved in development of a tribe's natural 
resources to contribute to the costs of environmental compliance or 
fish and wildlife mitigation.
  Madam President, this amendment has been reviewed and agreed to by 
the Montana delegation, the State of Montana, and the leadership of the 
Northern Cheyenne Tribe. Today we received from the Department of the 
Interior a letter, cleared by the Office of Management and Budget, 
expressing the administration's support for the amendment.
  The Northern Cheyenne Indian reserved water rights settlement, 
together with the water rights compact it ratifies, are major 
accomplishments that reflect great credit on the tribal, State, and 
Federal representatives who negotiated and assembled them. Having been 
involved in efforts to achieve several such settlements in my State of 
Arizona, I can attest to the aggravation and difficulty that the 
settlement process entails.
  I commend all of the parties involved for their good will and 
cooperation, and join them in the hope and belief that adoption of this 
amendment, together with the other agreements required by compact and 
by the settlement act, will clear the way for expedited work on Tongue 
River Dam and full implementation of the Northern Cheyenne settlement.
  Madam President, I am pleased to offer an amendment to S. 1654, a 
bill to make certain technical corrections. The amendment I am offering 
will amend section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934 [IRA] 
and it is cosponsored by my good friend, the chairman of the Committee 
on Indian Affairs, Senator Inouye.
  This amendment is similar to S. 2017, which Senator Inouye and I 
introduced on April 14, 1994. The purpose of the amendment is to 
clarify that section 16 of the Indian Reorganization Act was not 
intended to authorize the Secretary of the Department of the Interior 
to create categories of federally recognized Indian tribes. In the past 
year, the Pascua Yagui Tribe of Arizona has brought to our attention 
the fact that the Department of the Interior has interpreted section 16 
to authorize the Secretary to categorize or classify Indian tribes as 
being either created or historic. According to the Department, created 
tribes are only authorized to exercise such powers of self-governance 
as the Secretary may confer on them.
  After careful review, I can find no basis in law or policy for the 
manner in which section 16 has been interpreted by the Department of 
the Interior. One of the reasons stated by the Department for 
distinguishing between created and historic tribes is that the created 
tribes are new in the sense that they did not exist before they 
organized under the IRA. At the same time, the Department insists that 
it cannot tell us which tribes are created and which are historic 
because this is determined through a case-by-case review.
  All of this ignores a few fundamental principles of Federal Indian 
law and policy. Indian tribes exercise powers of self-governance by 
reason of their inherent sovereignty and not by virtue of a delegation 
of authority from the Federal Government. In addition, neither the 
Congress nor the Secretary can create an Indian tribe where none 
previously existed. Congress itself cannot create Indian tribes, so 
there is no authority for the Congress to delegate to the Secretary in 
this regard. Not only is this simple common sense, it is also the law 
as enunciated by the Federal courts.
  The recognition of an Indian tribe by the Federal Government is just 
that--the recognition that there is a sovereign entity with 
governmental authority which predates the U.S. Constitution and with 
which the Federal Government has established formal relations. Over the 
years, the Federal Government has extended recognition to Indian tribes 
through treaties, executive orders, a course of dealing, decisions of 
the Federal courts, acts of Congress and administrative action. 
Regardless of the method by which recognition was extended, all Indian 
tribes enjoy the same relationship with the United States and exercise 
the same inherent authority. All that section 16 was intended to do was 
to provide a mechanism for the tribes to interact with other 
governments in our Federal system in a form familiar to those 
governments through tribal adoption and Secretarial approval of tribal 
constitutions for those Indian tribes that choose to employ its 
provisions.

  Clearly the interpretation of section 16 which has been developed by 
the Department is inconsistent with the principle policies underlying 
the IRA, which were to stabilize Indian tribe governments and to 
encourage self-government. These policies have taken on additional 
vitality in the last 20 years as the Congress has repudiated and 
repealed the policy of termination and enacted the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act and the Tribal Self-
Governance Demonstration Project. The effect of the Department's 
interpretation of section 16 has been to destabilize Indian tribal 
governments and to hinder self-governance of the Department's 
unilateral and often arbitrary decisions about which powers of self-
governance a tribal government can exercise.
  Mr. INOUYE. Madam President, will my good friend, the distinguished 
vice chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs yield for the purpose 
of a colloquy on the amendment?
  Mr. McCAIN. I would be pleased to engage in a colloquy on the 
amendment with the chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs.
  Mr. INOUYE. I thank the Senator. I have reviewed section 16 of the 
Indian Reorganization Act [IRA] and have reached the conclusion that on 
its face it does not authorize or require the Secretary to establish 
classifications between tribes or to categorize them based on their 
powers of self-governance. As the legal scholar Felix Cohen noted in 
his 1942 Handbook on Federal Indian Law, the IRA--``had little or no 
effect upon the substantive powers on tribal self-government vested in 
the various Indian tribes.'' I believe that the Federal courts have 
also consistently construed the IRA to have had no substantive effect 
on inherent tribal sovereign authority.
  Apparently, the Department of the Interior began making this 
distinction on the basis of whether reservations had been established 
for those tribes that were removed from their aboriginal homesteads by 
the Federal Government. Tribes for whom reservations were established 
in areas to the west of their traditional lands suddenly became created 
tribes, even though such tribes had existed for hundreds of years prior 
to the arrival of Europeans on this continent. Strangely, although the 
Department was apparently making this distinction amongst tribes, it 
appears that the Department never notified the affected tribes or the 
Congress of their new status. Had they done so, we would have acted to 
correct this unauthorized arbitrary and unreasonable differentiation of 
tribal status long ago.
  The amendment which we are offering to section 16 will make it clear 
that the Indian Reorganization Act does not authorize or require the 
Secretary to establish classifications between Indian tribes. As my 
good friend, the Senator from Arizona has noted, the Department cannot 
even tell us how many Indian tribes have been placed in each 
classification. As I understand it, our amendment would void any 
past determination by the Department that an Indian tribe is created 
and would prohibit any such determinations in the future. Is that also 
the understanding of the Senator from Arizona?

  Mr. McCAIN. The Senator from Hawaii is correct. I would also state 
that our amendment is intended to prohibit the Secretary or any other 
Federal official from distinguishing between Indian tribes or 
classifying them based not only on the IRA but also based on any other 
Federal law. We have been advised that other agencies of the Federal 
Government may have developed distinctions or classifications between 
federally recognized Indian tribes based on information provided to 
those agencies by the Department of the Interior. In addition, we have 
been advised that the Secretary of the Interior may have carried these 
erroneous classifications into decisions authorized by other Federal 
statutes such as sections 2 and 9 of title 25 of the United States 
Code. Accordingly, our amendment to section 16 of the IRA is intended 
to address all instances where such categories or classifications of 
Indian tribes have been applied and any statutory basis which may have 
been used to establish, ratify or implement the categories or 
classifications.
  Mr. INOUYE. I thank the Senator. I also believe that our amendment 
will correct any instance where any federally recognized Indian tribe 
has been classified as ``created'' and that it will prohibit such 
classifications from being imposed or used in the future. Our amendment 
makes it clear that it is and has always been Federal law and policy 
that Indian tribes recognized by the Federal Government stand on an 
equal footing to each other and to the Federal Government. That is, 
each federally recognized Indian tribe has the same governmental status 
as other federally recognized tribes by virtue of their status as 
Indian tribes with a government-to-government relationship with the 
United States. Each federally recognized Indian tribe is entitled to 
the same privileges and immunities as other federally recognized tribes 
and has the right to exercise the same inherent and delegated 
authorities. This is true without regard to the manner in which the 
Indian tribe became recognized by the United States or whether it has 
chosen to organize under the IRA. By enacting this amendment to section 
16 of the IRA, we will provide the stability for Indian tribal 
governments that the Congress thought it was providing 60 years ago 
when the IRA was enacted. I thank the vice chairman of the Committee on 
Indian Affairs for his leadership on this matter.
  Mr. McCain. I thank the chairman of the Committee on Indian Affairs 
for his assistance on this legislation. I certainly agree with all of 
his remarks. I would like to add just a few comments. First, our 
amendment will also remove what appears to be a substantial barrier to 
the full implementation of the policies of self-determination and self-
governance. It is my expectation that the Department will act as 
promptly as possible after enactment of this amendment to seek out and 
notify every Indian tribe which has been classified or categorized as 
``created'' that the classification no longer applies and to take any 
other steps which are necessary to implement the amendment.
  Lastly, Madam President, I want to express my gratitude to the Pasdua 
Yaqui Tribe of Arizona for bringing this matter to our attention and 
for providing the leadership necessary to focus the attention of the 
Congress and other Indian tribal governments on a solution. I would 
note for my colleagues that the Committee on Indian Affairs has 
reported H.R. 734 to the Senate for its consideration. This bill would 
amend the legislation which extended Federal recognition to the Pascua 
Yaqui Tribe to prohibit the Department of the Interior from classifying 
the tribe as ``created.'' H.R. 734 also enables the Tribe to complete 
the process of enrolling its members and authorizes several studies 
intended to assist the tribe in providing basic services and developing 
their tribal economy. H.R. 734 will soon be before the Senate and I 
urge all of my colleagues to support this long overdue legislation.
  Mr. BAUCUS. Madam President, the Senate will soon consider S. 1654, 
technical amendments proposed by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, 
which includes technical amendments to the Northern Cheyenne-Montana 
Water Rights Compact. I urge my colleagues to support this legislation.
  The Northern Cheyenne-Montana Water Rights Compact was ratified by 
the Montana Legislature in June of 1991. Federal legislation ratifying 
this compact passed the Congress in September of 1992. The compact 
quantifies the Northern Cheyenne Tribe's water rights and provides for 
the enlargement and seriously needed repair of the dangerously 
deteriorated Tongue River Dam in Montana.
  Legislation that passed the Congress in 1992 required technical 
correction to allow the Department of the Interior to reimburse the 
State of Montana for environmental compliance and fish and wildlife 
mitigation work associated with the rehabilitation of Tongue River Dam.
  The purpose of these amendments is to clarify the relationships and 
responsibilities among the parties to this compact as they relate to 
environmental compliance and mitigation. It should be stated that these 
amendments, like the Northern Cheyenne-Montana compact, are the result 
of extensive negotiations among the Northern Cheyenne Tribe, the State 
of Montana and the Federal Government. It is my understanding that all 
parties have agreed to these technical corrections.
  I encourage the parties to continue their efforts to work 
cooperatively together to implement the compact and allow the Northern 
Cheyenne Tribe to develop their water resources and to proceed with the 
critical task of expansion and safety improvement of the Tongue River 
Dam. I want to thank the able staff of the Senate Indian Affairs 
Committee for their assistance with this effort. I offer my support for 
these amendments and encourage my colleagues to do the same.

                          ____________________