Political Quotes

“Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 1722, the Grand Ronde Reservation Amendment Act of 2023 offered by my colleague from Oregon (Ms. Salinas). This legislation will correct a decades-old error that restricted the Confederated Tribes of Grand Ronde in raising land claims in the State of Oregon. During the ``termination era,'' a shameful time for our country, the Confederated Tribes, and other Tribes in Oregon, had their Federal recognition terminated by Congress in 1954. The Grand Ronde Tribe was later restored in 1983 with the passage of the Grand Ronde Restoration Act. However, in 1988, the Bureau of Land Management discovered a land surveying mistake on the eastern boundary of the Tribe's original reservation. The survey excluded an 84-acre piece of land known as the Thompson Strip. To compensate the Grand Ronde Tribe for the loss incurred by that error, the Bureau of Land Management subsequently arranged a land exchange with the Tribe to be approved by Congress. Unfortunately, through that legislation in 1994, the Grand Ronde saw their rights further restricted with language that prohibited the Tribe from making any additional land claims if new errors were delivered. Today's bill would end this unfair restriction on the Tribe so that they may pursue recourse if additional survey errors are ever found. No other Tribe in the State of Oregon faces this kind of legal restriction.…”