[Congressional Record Volume 168, Number 183 (Tuesday, November 29, 2022)]
[Senate]
[Pages S6847-S6848]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]




           SAFEGUARD TRIBAL OBJECTS OF PATRIMONY ACT OF 2021

  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, I rise today to ask the Senate to send 
H.R. 2930, the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act, to the 
President's desk for his signature.
  The need for this legislation is pretty straightforward.
  In 2016, the Governor of the Pueblo of Acoma learned that a sacred 
ceremonial shield had been stolen and was about to be sold to the 
highest bidder in Paris. When Governor Riley informed me about this 
robbery of the Pueblo's cultural patrimony, I called on the State 
Department to take all possible action to halt the auction. Thankfully, 
intense public outcry and diplomatic pressure were enough to halt the 
illegal sale of a Tribe's cultural patrimony.
  Finally, in November 2019, more than 3 years after the shield was put 
on the auction block, it was voluntarily returned to the Pueblo. 
However, this only happened because of intense public outcry and 
notoriety. In most cases like this, the item has been sold or simply 
disappears into a private collection.
  Under current Federal law, it is a crime to sell certain protected 
Native American cultural objects, things like the Acoma shield, here in 
the United States. But there is still no Federal law prohibiting the 
export of stolen cultural items and requiring the cooperation of 
foreign governments in recovering them.

[[Page S6848]]

  In many cases, Tribes in New Mexico and across our Nation have been 
forced to effectively pay a ransom to recover their sacred items or had 
to stand by and watch the sale of their priceless religious and 
cultural items in international markets.
  The lack of an explicit ban on trafficking these items to foreign 
countries was actually cited by the French Government when they 
initially declined to stop the auction of the Acoma shield.
  Grave robbing is illegal in every single State in the United States, 
and yet we allow Tribal religious objects, many of which were stolen 
literally from grave sites, to be exported and sold in foreign auction 
houses. We cannot let this loophole that allows foreign trade in Native 
religious heritage to go on for even one more day, and I would urge my 
colleagues to pass this bill today and end this awful practice.
  Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent 
that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of H.R. 2930, 
which was received from the House and is at the desk; further, that the 
bill be considered read a third time and passed, and that the motion to 
reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  The Senator from Alaska.
  Ms. MURKOWSKI. Reserving the right to object, I would like to begin 
my brief comments here this evening by acknowledging the Senator from 
New Mexico and agreeing so much with him on this very, very important 
issue as we seek to protect objects of patrimony, whether in New Mexico 
or in my State of Alaska or in the home State of the chairman of the 
Indian Affairs Committee. It has been a travesty and it has been a 
crime that we have seen many of these objects that have been taken as 
art collections, that have been taken with no appreciation of the 
heritage, of the richness, of the tradition, and the respect to the 
Native people to whom they belong.
  And so the STOP Act, or the Safeguard Tribal Objects of Patrimony Act 
of 2021, is significant. I am proud to be the lead Republican 
cosponsor, along with Senator Heinrich, on this. It is an issue that 
many in my State have been urging action on.
  So I do not rise this evening to object to passage of the STOP Act, 
but at the same time I am acknowledging the significance of this, I 
also want to raise another bill that is also very important to my 
State, H.R. 441. We call it the Don Young Alaska Native Health Care 
Land Transfers Act.
  This is something that I have been working on for several Congresses 
now, with my friend the late Congressman Young. We took three land 
transfer bills. We consolidated them into one. We thought it was a 
pretty simple effort. All we are asking to do is to convey IHS land to 
two of our Alaska Native Tribal health consortia, as well as the Tanana 
Tribe in the interior part of the State.
  We passed stand-alone legislation on these three IHS bills earlier 
this Congress, but instead of passing that legislation, the House did 
what the House often does. They amended it with technical amendments. 
They sent it back here as one consolidated bill. That is H.R. 441.
  But, again, it is about public health, delivery of healthcare to 
Alaska Native people in rural and underserved villages, many of which 
are off the road system. But these simple land transfers would enable 
construction projects to move forward, to reconstruct and to construct, 
in some cases, new healthcare facilities to provide care to Alaska 
Native people, and to also ramp up the delivery of clean, safe drinking 
water and sanitation facilities in rural villages, which are so key to 
improving public health.
  I think we all would agree that basic services such as water 
sanitation are pretty important--so everything we can do to help 
facilitate that. I have pushed the urgent button on these land 
conveyance issues because time is running out. Construction seasons are 
very, very limited in Alaska, and so I have been trying to help 
facilitate that.
  I have good commitments from my colleagues who are here on the floor 
this evening to help us move through this process on our side, or 
certainly on the House side as well, so that we can see final 
resolution on the Don Young Alaska Native Health Care Land Transfers 
Act, and I look forward to working with them on that. And so having 
said this, I will not object to unanimous consent to advance the STOP 
Act this evening.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. The Senator from Hawaii.
  Mr. SCHATZ. With your permission, through the Chair, far be it from 
me to delay the passage of this law, which I know has been worked on by 
Native people and staffers for many, many years, but I just wanted to 
make my private commitment to the Senator from Alaska, the vice chair 
of the Indian Affairs Committee, public.
  We are absolutely committed, one way or another, to passing the Don 
Young lands act, and I just wanted to make that clear on the Senate 
floor.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Is there objection?
  Mr. HEINRICH. Mr. President, through the Chair, I just want to take a 
moment to articulate the same commitment publicly, and we look forward 
to working with my colleague from Alaska, who has been so helpful in 
putting the STOP Act to a successful resolution. I look forward to 
working with her to get the Don Young package moved as well.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER. Without objection, it is so ordered.
  The bill (H.R. 2930) was ordered to a third reading, was read the 
third time, and passed.
  The PRESIDING OFFICER (Ms. Hassan). The Senator from Hawaii.

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