[Congressional Record Volume 167, Number 171 (Thursday, September 30, 2021)]
[Senate]
[Page S6838]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]





                 INFRASTRUCTURE INVESTMENT AND JOBS ACT

  Ms. CANTWELL. Mr. President, I rise today to discuss an important 
provision I authored in the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.
  Section 40336 of the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, H.R. 
3684, includes several provisions relating to the Act of June 29, 1940, 
54 Stat. 703, chapter 460; 16 U.S.C. 835d et seq., that facilitated the 
construction of the Grand Coulee Dam. The portion of the Columbia River 
that flows through the Colville and Spokane Indian Reservations 
formerly supported abundant anadromous salmon fisheries that were 
significant culturally and nutritionally to the Confederated Tribes of 
the Colville Reservation and the Spokane Tribe of Indians. Upon 
completion of the Grand Coulee Dam in 1942, these fisheries were 
destroyed, and the Columbia River upstream of the Grand Coulee Dam was 
inundated by its reservoir waters. In 1945, these reservoir waters were 
designated Franklin D. Roosevelt Lake and today are commonly referred 
to as Lake Roosevelt.
  The 1940 Act instructed the Secretary of the Interior to ``set aside 
approximately one-quarter of the entire reservoir area for the 
paramount use of the Indians of the Spokane and Colville Reservations 
for hunting, fishing, and boating purposes, which rights shall be 
subject only to such reasonable regulations as the Secretary may 
prescribe for the protection and conservation of fish and wildlife . . 
. .'' 16 U.S.C. 835d (emphasis added). Congress authorized the 
Secretary in the 1940 Act ``to perform any and all acts and to 
prescribe such regulations as [it] may deem appropriate'' to protect 
these paramount use rights. 16 U.S.C. 835h. The portions of Lake 
Roosevelt ultimately set aside for the paramount use of the Colville 
and Spokane Tribes pursuant to the 1940 Act are within the Colville and 
Spokane Reservations and are called the ``Reservation Zone'' of Lake 
Roosevelt.
  In a 1945 Opinion, Interior Solicitor Warner Gardner interpreted the 
1940 Act and confirmed that the 1940 Act provided the Tribes ``special 
rights'' to hunt, fish and boat within the Reservation Zones. 59 I.D. 
147 (Dec. 29, 1945). Solicitor Gardner also found that the Secretary 
has broad discretion to determine how to protect the Tribes' paramount 
rights, including the power to ``give the Indians exclusive rights of 
hunting, fishing, and boating'' in the Tribes' respective Reservation 
Zones.''
  In 1990, Interior entered an agreement with the Colville and Spokane 
Tribes establishing the framework for cooperative management of Lake 
Roosevelt between the Tribes, Bureau of Reclamation, National Park 
Service and Bureau of Indian Affairs. The agreement, commonly referred 
to as the ``S-Party Agreement,'' provides for the Colville and Spokane 
Tribes to ``manage, plan and regulate all activities, development and 
uses that take place'' within the Tribes' applicable portion of the 
Reservation Zones. The 5-Party Agreement also directs that the Bureau 
of Indian Affairs ``shall assist the tribes in carrying out the tribes' 
management of the Reservation Zone, and undertake such other activities 
as are authorized by law in support of the tribes.''
  At the Tribes' request, the Department of the Interior and its agency 
stakeholders previously initiated a process to consider potential 
solutions, including various possible Federal administrative actions to 
protect the Colville and Spokane Tribes' paramount rights. This process 
involved government-to-government meetings and communications with both 
Tribes and with the State of Washington. The Department of the Interior 
considered several options, including rulemaking. A summary of the 
parties' efforts in this regard were memorialized in a January 19, 
2017, letter from Interior Solicitor Tompkins to the State of 
Washington and the Colville and Spokane Tribes.
  The references to the Tribes' paramount use rights in section 40336 
are intended to reaffirm the 1940 act's recognition of those rights and 
to recognize that the Secretary of the Interior has both a federal 
trust responsibility and broad discretion to protect the Tribes' 
paramount use rights.
  Thank you.

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