Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I, again, rise in qualified support of the Hualapai Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act. This bill would settle the Hualapai Tribe's last water rights claims in Arizona pertaining to the Colorado River Basin and the Verde River Basin. The first settlement, which only focused on the Bill Williams River Basin, was completed in 2014. Unlike the settlements passed in 2010, which often promised to construct a specific water project for the Tribe to develop its water rights, this is a fund-based legal settlement meant to provide finality for all supplement parties. This would allow the Tribe to make its own decisions regarding how, when, and where to develop water infrastructure on its Reservation. I have personally visited the Tribe and have seen firsthand how important this settlement is to the Hualapai. Unfortunately, the process by which this bill has moved through Congress has been flawed from the beginning. During the Natural Resources Committee's consideration, the Biden administration failed to provide a witness with any knowledge of the settlement. Instead, it submitted written testimony which afforded our members no opportunity to engage in a discussion of the merits or concerns of the bill before us today. That hearing was as far as the bill went, as the majority chose not to mark up the bill thereafter.…”