[Congressional Record Volume 165, Number 75 (Tuesday, May 7, 2019)]
[House]
[Page H3452]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




                   EQUAL RIGHTS TO TRIBAL TRUST LANDS

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The Chair recognizes the gentlewoman from 
Minnesota (Ms. McCollum) for 5 minutes.
  Ms. McCOLLUM. Mr. Speaker, the Federal Government has an obligation 
to equally protect the rights of all 573 federally recognized Tribal 
nations.
  Since the passage of the Indian Reorganization Act of 1934, those 
rights have included the ability to have lands placed into trust. The 
intent of the original Indian Reorganization Act was clear: to restore 
and to protect Tribal homelands for all sovereign Tribal nations.
  Congress clearly did not intend to limit this right based on the date 
of a Tribe's recognition. After all, Tribal nations did not get to 
decide when the Federal Government would give them the recognition they 
were due. But in 2009, the Supreme Court ruling in a case of Carcieri 
v. Salazar called into question whether Tribes recognized after 1934 
should have equal rights to trust land.
  Tribal leaders united to ask Congress for legislation to fix this 
problem, to right this wrong, and I am honored to have worked hand in 
hand in a nonpartisan fashion with my good friend, Congressman   Tom 
Cole, to lead that effort.
  Tomorrow the House will vote on H.R. 375, a clean legislative fix 
that is necessary to ensure that we are fulfilling one of our country's 
most sacred obligations. I urge my colleagues on both sides of the 
aisle to support a clean Carcieri fix.

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