[Congressional Record Volume 141, Number 88 (Thursday, May 25, 1995)]
[Extensions of Remarks]
[Page E1123]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]


                H.R. 971 AND ITS EFFECTS ON INDIAN TRIBES

                                 ______


                          HON. BILL RICHARDSON

                             of new mexico

                    in the house of representatives

                         Wednesday, May 24, 1995
  Mr. RICHARDSON. Mr. Speaker, last week when the House passed H.R. 
961, the Clean Water Amendments of 1995, certain provisions were 
included in the bill that would seriously undermine the tribes' 
authority to regulate their environments through Clean Water Act 
programs. These provisions, amending section 518 of the Clean Water 
Act, would change current Federal law and the established Federal 
policy of maintaining a government-to-government relationship between 
tribes and the Federal Government, a relationship that has been 
affirmed by every President of the United States for the past 30 years. 
The practical effect of the amendments would be to reverse the current 
authority for tribes to safeguard their environments, as currently 
provided for in the Clean Water Act. This would leave reservation 
waters less protected, and less capable of being protected, than the 
rest of the Nation's waters. In certain situations, this arguably would 
abrogate Federal obligations to the tribes.
  The implementation of the Clean Water Act provisions for tribal 
authority since 1987 has been an environmental success story. The 
impetus for these amendments is a few hypothetical situations which 
stem from long-standing disputes over tribal-State jurisdiction. These 
jurisdictional disputes are the product of the variety and 
contradictions among the changing Federal laws and policies governing 
tribal land tenure over the past century and a quarter--including 
termination, assimilation, and the General Allotment Act. If the 
authority to set water quality standards is determined by the 
checkerboard pattern of tribal and non-Indian fee lands left by these 
laws and policies, it would create a water management scheme that is 
administratively unworkable and environmentally destructive.
  State-tribal cooperative agreements may be an effective tool for 
environmental management where those agreements are freely negotiated 
and mutually agreeable. However, the agreement process outlined in H.R. 
961 will likely lead to coerced negotiations. Also, the amendments will 
create burdensome procedures for dispute resolution and judicial 
review. They also may sharply limit tribal authority to regulate waters 
within reservation boundaries, a function consistent with tribal self-
governance and the general trend to allow more local control over local 
environments.
  In the past few years, EPA and the tribes have begun to build strong 
partnerships to protect tribal environments. The bill as passed will 
undermine that progress and should not be a part of any reforms to the 
Clean Water Act.


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