[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 161 (2015), Part 6]
[House]
[Pages 7960-7961]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




             REVOCATION OF MIAMI TRIBE OF OKLAHOMA CHARTER

  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass 
the bill (H.R. 533) to revoke the charter of incorporation of the Miami 
Tribe of Oklahoma at the request of that tribe, and for other purposes.
  The Clerk read the title of the bill.
  The text of the bill is as follows:

                                H.R. 533

       Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of 
     the United States of America in Congress assembled,

     SECTION 1. REVOCATION OF CHARTER OF INCORPORATION.

       The request of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma to surrender the 
     charter of incorporation issued to that tribe and ratified by 
     its members on June 1, 1940, pursuant to the Act of June 26, 
     1936 (25 U.S.C. 501 et seq.; commonly known as the ``Oklahoma 
     Welfare Act''), is hereby accepted and that charter of 
     incorporation is hereby revoked.

  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Pursuant to the rule, the gentleman from 
Utah (Mr. Bishop) and the gentleman from Virginia (Mr. Beyer) each will 
control 20 minutes.
  The Chair recognizes the gentleman from Utah.


                             General Leave

  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all 
Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks 
and include extraneous materials on the bill under consideration.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. Is there objection to the request of the 
gentleman from Utah?
  There was no objection.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Mr. Speaker, we have another piece of legislation that does wonderful 
things. It should have been done earlier than this, but this time we 
are going to get it all the way through the system.
  I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oklahoma 
(Mr. Mullin) to explain his legislation.
  Mr. MULLIN. I thank the chairman for yielding.
  The Miami Tribe's current charter of incorporation is an outdated 
governing structure that harms business and economic development. We 
wrote this bill because these charters can only be removed literally by 
an act of Congress.
  The Miami Tribe has said that the outdated charter is inoperable. It 
imposes restrictions on business operations that are unmanageable and 
unnecessary.
  Oklahoma is known for its entrepreneurial spirit, especially among 
our State's tribes. It is important that Congress remove these hurdles 
for investors, business partners, and potential customers.
  As lawmakers, it is our job in Congress to foster an atmosphere that 
promotes economic growth across the country. I take this responsibility 
very seriously, and I hope that you will join me today in eliminating a 
needless economic burden on the Miami Tribe in my home State of 
Oklahoma.
  Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.
  Mr. Speaker, at the request of the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma, H.R. 533 
simply revokes a corporate charter issued to it by the Federal 
Government.
  Under the Oklahoma Indian Welfare Act and the Indian Reorganization 
Act, many tribes were issued corporate charters in the 1930s and 1940s 
that were aimed at enabling them to better manage their own affairs and 
pursue business relationships with private entities.
  For some tribes, these corporate charters have proven unnecessary and 
end up hindering their business opportunities, as they will inevitably 
come up in negotiations with private entities and are looked upon with 
suspicion.
  The charter must be revoked by an act of Congress, and Mr. Mullin, on 
behalf of his constituents, is simply being a good Congressman and 
complying with the tribe's request through this bill.
  Similar legislation has passed over the years without event, and I 
ask my colleagues to stand with me in support of Mr. Mullin's 
noncontroversial bill.
  I reserve the balance of my time.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may 
consume.
  Let me say just a few words about this particular piece legislation 
by myself. It is a one-page piece of legislation that should be easy to 
read--and those are always dangerous because they are easy to read--
that grants the request from the Miami Tribe of Oklahoma to revoke a 
charter of incorporation which was issued back in the New Deal era--a 
1936 law that was implemented in 1940. And as we know, any of those 
pieces of legislation that age that well have got to be reviewed at a 
specific period of time.
  Right now, we have a situation in which this tribe funds itself in a 
cumbersome situation with an outdated

[[Page 7961]]

document that puts on limitations and uncertainty in the tribe business 
when they don't have to, because they are dealing instead with the 
business activities that come through their tribal constitution.
  They are doing it the right way. And unfortunately, it requires an 
act of Congress to allow them to do what they ought to be doing and are 
doing in the first place and just clean up this act. So only we can do 
that.
  It is in accordance with the tribal wishes, and it is in accordance 
with Congressman Mullin, who represents this particular tribe in the 
House. He has sponsored this. This is a good bill. The Department of 
the Interior does not object to this piece of legislation. An identical 
version passed in the House in the 113th Congress by a voice vote. I 
would hope we would do it again, and this time make sure we go all the 
way through the system and do what is right for this particular tribe.
  With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

                              {time}  1515

  Mr. BEYER. I yield back the balance of my time, Mr. Speaker.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I am going to speak very slowly as I 
am waiting for someone else to show up on the next bill and would, 
therefore, yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from 
Oklahoma (Mr. Mullin) for another couple of anecdotes as to why this 
piece of legislation is needed. I will tug on the gentleman's coat when 
he shows up and he can quit.
  Mr. MULLIN. Mr. Speaker, you know, this is a piece of legislation 
that unfortunately we have tried 2\1/2\ years, way too long, to try to 
get through this body; but it also opens an important conversation 
about taking a look at all of these charters.
  Why is it that Congress has to come together to pass commonsense 
legislation that should be up to the tribes themselves to make the 
decision? When they are hindering the businesses and the atmosphere 
that these tribes are able to operate under, they are not able to go 
out and provide jobs to not just their members but, also, to the 
communities which they live in and they thrive in.
  Miami Tribe is a large employer of the city of Miami. The city of 
Miami has been in a situation where they have lost two major employers, 
and they look to these tribes like this in the community to create not 
just jobs at a casino, but manufacturing jobs, jobs that help our 
national defense. Yet they are hindered constantly by the effect that 
they can't simply do the work without asking Congress' permission.
  They are a sovereign nation. Why is it that they would have to 
continue to come back on something that isn't needed, something that 
dates all the way back to the 1930s? Unfortunately, this is exactly 
where we find ourselves today.
  I am so glad that this is actually one of those things that is a 
bipartisan approach. Common sense does prevail in these Halls sometimes 
when we can come together and we can work at something that is 
noncontroversial. Even at that, we started this in the 113th Congress; 
and now we are in the 114th Congress, and we are still talking about 
it. We are 6 months into the 114th Congress, and we are trying to get a 
commonsense piece of legislation passed.
  If I remember correctly, last year, when we tried to put this 
through, there was only one ``no'' vote. If that is not bipartisanship, 
then, what is? This should have been on the President's desk already.
  So I join my colleagues in supporting this bill, but I also want to 
thank them for their patience, for the city of Miami and the tribe of 
Miami for their patience and the opportunity to bring this up again.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, I certainly don't want to break any 
protocols we may have. So, therefore, I want to echo what the gentleman 
from Oklahoma so brilliantly and so fluently and obviously not slowly 
enough said.
  With that, Mr. Speaker, once again, we will go through this concept 
that hopefully--does the gentleman from Virginia, even though I realize 
he has yielded back, would the gentleman like some of my time?
  Mr. BEYER. I would be happy to take some if the chairman wouldn't 
mind.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Bless you.
  I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Virginia 
(Mr. Beyer).
  Mr. BEYER. Mr. Speaker, I rise to extend my gratitude to the 
Congressman from Oklahoma for teaching me how to say ``Miami.'' I have 
been mispronouncing ``Miami'' all through my short presentation. I also 
want to thank him for his leadership and being so responsive.
  I think that there are perhaps many other laws on the books that we 
should look at in a very simple way to revoke the charters, as 
necessary.
  I would also like to offer my help to the Congressman from Miami with 
our two Virginia Senators. It sounds like, if it passed this House with 
only one negative vote last year, that perhaps the Senate is the place 
where this is being held up. If we can provide some support to him in 
his moving this through the Senate side, I would be delighted to do 
that.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, may I inquire how much time I have?
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The gentleman has 12\1/2\ minutes remaining.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. I yield such time as he may consume to the 
gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young).
  Mr. YOUNG of Alaska. Mr. Speaker, this bill is a good piece of 
legislation. I want to thank Mr. Mullin for bringing it up.
  While we are on the subject, I would like to talk about the necessity 
of ICWA, the Child Welfare Act of this Congress past which I was a 
sponsor of.
  The gentleman is here. So we won't talk about ICWA today. We will 
just let Mr. McClintock get in here and make his statement. Eventually, 
Mr. Speaker, I will talk about the foster care homes, the need for 
volunteers, so we don't have 300 children in my State staying with 
State supervision instead of adopted. So we will talk about that later.
  Mr. BISHOP of Utah. Mr. Speaker, with great appreciation to my good 
friends from Oklahoma and Virginia and Alaska, I yield back the balance 
of my time.
  The SPEAKER pro tempore. The question is on the motion offered by the 
gentleman from Utah (Mr. Bishop) that the House suspend the rules and 
pass the bill, H.R. 533.
  The question was taken; and (two-thirds being in the affirmative) the 
rules were suspended and the bill was passed.
  A motion to reconsider was laid on the table.

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