[Senate Report 116-7]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]


                                                       Calendar No. 38
116th Congress      }                                    {      Report
                                 SENATE
 1st Session        }                                    {       116-7
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  TO AUTHORIZE THE SECRETARY OF THE INTERIOR TO ASSESS SANITATION AND 
  SAFETY CONDITIONS AT BUREAU OF INDIAN AFFAIRS FACILITIES THAT WERE 
CONSTRUCTED TO PROVIDE AFFECTED COLUMBIA RIVER TREATY TRIBES ACCESS TO 
    TRADITIONAL FISHING GROUNDS AND EXPEND FUNDS ON CONSTRUCTION OF 
 FACILITIES AND STRUCTURES TO IMPROVE THOSE CONDITIONS, AND FOR OTHER 
                                PURPOSES

                                _______
                                

                 March 13, 2019.--Ordered to be printed

                                _______
                                

           Mr. Hoeven, from the Committee on Indian Affairs, 
                        submitted the following

                              R E P O R T

                          [To accompany S. 50]

      [Including cost estimate of the Congressional Budget Office]

    The Committee on Indian Affairs, to which was referred the 
bill (S. 50) to authorize the Secretary of the Interior to 
assess sanitation and safety conditions at Bureau of Indian 
Affairs (``BIA'') facilities that were constructed to provide 
affected Columbia River Treaty Tribes access to traditional 
fishing grounds and expend funds on construction of facilities 
and structures to improve those conditions, and for other 
purposes, having considered the same, reports favorably thereon 
without amendment and recommends that the bill do pass.

                                PURPOSE

    The purpose of this bill, S. 50, is to improve safety and 
sanitary conditions at twenty-seven tribal fishing sites 
located along the Columbia River by authorizing the BIA to 
assess conditions and execute improvements at the twenty-seven 
In-Lieu and Treaty Fishing Access Sites that the BIA manages on 
both sides of the Columbia River.
    This effort would be done in coordination with the four 
tribes outlined by statute\1\ and with whom the sites serve--
the Confederated Tribes and Bands of the Yakima Nation (WA), 
the Nez Perce Tribe (ID), the Confederated Tribes of the Warm 
Springs Indian Reservation of Oregon (OR) and the Confederated 
Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation (OR) (collectively, 
the ``Columbia River Treaty Tribes'').
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    \1\See Pub. L. No. 100-581 (102 Stat. 2944).
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                          NEED FOR LEGISLATION

    The bill, S. 50, will improve safety and sanitary 
conditions at twenty-seven tribal fishing sites located along 
the Columbia River by authorizing the BIA to assess conditions 
and execute improvements at the twenty-seven In-Lieu and Treaty 
Fishing Access Sites that the BIA manages on both sides of the 
Columbia River.

                               BACKGROUND

    The Columbia River Treaty Tribes, through a series of 
treaties in 1855, reserved access to ``usual and accustomed 
fishing areas'' and ancillary fishing facilities located along 
the Columbia River.\2\ These rights were secured by various 
treaties signed between the United States and the Columbia 
River Treaty Tribes, in 1855.
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    \2\See Yakima Treaty, 1855; Tribes of Middle Oregon Treaty, 1855; 
Cayuse, Umatilla, and Walla Walla Treaty, 1855; and Nez Perce Treaty, 
1855.
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    However, during the 1930s and 1950s the United States began 
the process of building dams along the Columbia River to 
provide much needed electricity to various communities 
throughout the states of Washington and Oregon. As a 
consequence of these dams being constructed, tribal and non-
tribal communities were flooded and needed to be relocated. 
Celilo Falls, one of the oldest and continuously inhabited 
tribal fishing communities in the United States, was lost to 
flooding by the construction of the Dalles Dam on the Columbia 
River.
    Congress passed the River and Harbor Act of 1945 to 
authorize the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (the ``Corps'') to 
acquire and replace tribal fishing areas along the Columbia 
River.\3\ Over the next twenty years, the Corps acquired five 
tribal access sites, which had been identified through a 1939 
settlement agreement between the United States and Tribes.
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    \3\Pub. L. No. 79-14 (59 Stat. 22).
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    In Title IV of Public Law 100-581 (102 Stat. 2944), 
Congress took additional action to affirm tribal access to 
these usual and accustomed fishing areas and authorized further 
construction of improvements for ancillary fishing facilities 
along the Columbia River. Title IV of Public Law 100-581 also 
directed the Corps to acquire lands from willing sellers to 
provide unfettered river access for members of the Columbia 
River Treaty Tribes. Following the acquisition of these lands, 
Congress directed the lands be transferred to the Department of 
the Interior for the purpose of maintaining the sites and 
providing law enforcement services.\4\
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    \4\Id.
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    The flooded tribal lands were later replaced with 31 
designated encampments.\5\ Since the Corps began acquiring 
these sites, all but two of these encampments have been 
transferred to the BIA for management.
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    \5\Legislative Hearing to receive testimony on the following bills: 
S. 2636, S. 3216, S. 3222, S. 3300 Before the S. Comm. on Indian 
Affairs, 114th Cong. (2016) (testimony of Paul Lumley, Executive 
Director Columbia River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission)
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    In 2013 the Portland Office of the Army Corps of Engineers 
commissioned a report to study the living conditions of the in-
lieu treaty fishing sites. In response to the 2013 report, the 
Corps' Portland District spokeswoman acknowledged the terrible 
living conditions near these sites.\6\
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    \6\Id.
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                          LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

    Senator Merkley introduced the bill, S. 50, on January 8, 
2019. Senators Wyden, Murray, and Cantwell joined as co-
sponsors.
    Predecessor Senate bills have been introduced in the 114th 
and 115th Congresses.
    During the 115th Congress, the predecessor bill, S. 669, 
was reported out of the Committee favorably on March 29, 2017. 
This bill, S. 669, was amended post mark-up to include a study 
by the Government Accountability Office (GAO) on the safety 
conditions of the sanitation facilities listed in the bill, and 
determine what improvements, if any, resulted due to the 
passage of the bill. The GAO would provide a report of their 
findings to the Committee. The bill, as amended, passed the 
full Senate by Unanimous Consent on November 29, 2017.
    The bill, S. 669, was received by the House of 
Representatives and referred to the Committee on Natural 
Resources of the House of Representatives on November 30, 2017. 
The Committee on Natural Resources of the House of 
Representatives reported the bill favorably during its business 
meeting on November 15, 2018 and it was placed on the House 
Union Calendar on December 3, 2018. No further action was 
taken.
    During the 114th Congress, the Committee held a legislative 
hearing on a predecessor bill, S. 3222, on September 14, 2016, 
at which Mr. Larry Roberts the Principal Deputy Assistant 
Secretary for Indian Affairs at the Department of the Interior 
(DOI) testified and provided technical corrections to improve 
the bill. Mr. Paul Lumley, Executive Director of the Columbia 
River Inter-Tribal Fish Commission also testified and supported 
the predecessor bill, S. 3222. No further action was taken on 
this bill.
    The DOI recommendations were incorporated into the 
subsequent bill, S. 669, and are also reflected in the current 
bill, S. 50. Those recommendations include clarifying that the 
BIA was the only agency authorized to carry out the bill 
activities and which tribes were defined as the ``affected 
Columbia River Treaty Tribes.''

        SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS OF BILL AS ORDERED REPORTED

Section l. Short title

    Section 1 titles the bill as the ``Columbia River In-Lieu 
and Treaty Fishing Access Sites Improvement Act.''

Section 2. Sanitation and safety conditions at certain Bureau of Indian 
        Affairs facilities

    Section 2 provides for the assessment of fishing access 
facilities and structures maintained by the BIA, establishes 
the BIA as the sole Federal agency tasked with executing the 
requirements of the bill, applies the Indian Self-Determination 
and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450 et seq.) to the 
contracting process for facility assessments, defines the 
affected Columbia River Treaty Tribes, and authorizes 
appropriations for assessments of the fishing access sites and 
facilities.
    Section 2(a) provides for the BIA to, in consultation with 
the Columbia River Treaty Tribes, assess any permanent federal 
structures and improvements on BIA lands that were set aside to 
provide the treaty access to traditional grounds.
    Section 2(b) provides that the BIA shall be the only 
federal agency authorized to carry out the activities in the 
bill.
    Section 2(b) also allows for tribes and tribal 
organizations to contract the assessment activities of the 
fishing access sites and facilities under the Indian Self-
Determination and Education Assistance Act (25 U.S.C. 450 et 
seq.).
    Section 2(c) defines the affected Columbia River Treaty 
Tribes as the Nez Perce tribe, the Confederated Tribes of 
Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the 
Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and the Confederated Tribes 
and Bands of the Yakama Nation.
    Section 2(d) authorizes appropriations for the bill, S. 50.

Section 3. Study of assessment and improvement activities

    Section 3 directs the Comptroller General of the United 
States, in consultation with the Committee, to conduct a study 
to evaluate whether the sanitation and safety conditions on 
lands held by the United States for the benefit of the affected 
Columbia River Treaty Tribes' sanitation facilities (as defined 
in section 2(c)) have improved as a result of the activities 
authorized in this bill and to submit this report to the Senate 
Committee on Indian Affairs and the House Natural Resources 
Committee.

                   COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS

    The following cost estimate, as provided by the 
Congressional Budget Office, dated February 19, 2019.

                                     U.S. Congress,
                               Congressional Budget Office,
                                 Washington, DC, February 19, 2019.
Hon. John Hoeven,
Chairman, Committee on Indian Affairs,
U.S. Senate, Washington, DC.
    Dear Mr. Chairman: The Congressional Budget Office has 
prepared the enclosed cost estimate for S. 50, the Columbia 
River In-Lieu and Treaty Fishing Access Sites Improvement Act.
    If you wish further details on this estimate, we will be 
pleased to provide them. The CBO staff contact is Jon Sperl.
            Sincerely,
                                                Keith Hall,
                                                          Director.
    Enclosure.
    
    
    S. 50 would authorize the appropriation of whatever amounts 
are necessary to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to assess 
and improve the sanitation and safety conditions on land held 
in trust by the United States for the four Columbia River 
Treaty tribes (the Nez Perce Tribe, the Confederated Tribes of 
Umatilla Indian Reservation, the Confederated Tribes of the 
Warm Springs Reservation of Oregon, and the Confederated Tribes 
and Bands of the Yakama Nation).
    For this estimate, CBO assumes that S. 50 will be enacted 
in fiscal year 2019 and that the necessary amounts will be 
appropriated for each fiscal year starting in 2020.
    Currently, BIA funds operations and maintenance of 28 
fishing sites on the Columbia River. Using information provided 
by BIA, CBO estimates that implementing S. 50 would require one 
new full-time equivalent (FTE) position to oversee an 
improvement plan and maintenance, and seven new law enforcement 
FTEs to ensure the safety and security of the facilities with 
average annual salaries of around $70,000. All equipment 
necessary to make upgrades to the facilities' electric, sewer, 
and water infrastructure would cost around $1 million a year 
over this period and preparing an improvement plan in 2020 also 
would cost about $1 million, CBO estimates.
    As shown in Table 1, CBO estimates that implementing the 
bill would cost $11 million over the 2019-2024 period. The 
costs of the legislation fall within budget function 450 
(community and regional development).

                       TABLE 1.--ESTIMATED INCREASES IN SPENDING SUBJECT TO APPROPRIATION
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                                                            By fiscal year, millions of dollars--
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                                                                                                          2019-
                                              2019      2020      2021      2022      2023      2024      2024
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Estimated Authorization...................         0         3         2         2         2         2        11
Estimated Outlays.........................         0         3         2         2         2         2        11
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    The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Jon Sperl. The 
estimate was reviewed by H. Samuel Papenfuss, Deputy Assistant 
Director for Budget Analysis.

                        EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

    The Committee has received no communications from the 
Executive Branch regarding S. 50.

               REGULATORY AND PAPERWORK IMPACT STATEMENT

    Paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the Standing Rules of the 
Senate requires each report accompanying a bill to evaluate the 
regulatory and paperwork impact that would be incurred in 
carrying out the bill. The Committee believes that S. 50 will 
have a minimal impact on regulatory or paperwork requirements.

                 CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW (CORDON RULE)

    On February 6, 2019, the Committee on Indian Affairs of the 
Senate unanimously approved a motion to waive the Cordon rule. 
Thus, in the opinion of the Committee, it is necessary to 
dispense with subsection 12 of rule XXVI of the Standing Rules 
of the Senate to expedite the business of the Senate.

                                  [all]