Raúl Grijalva: “Today, we are debating a bill package that follows a very familiar playbook for House Republican leadership. This bill…”

“Today, we are debating a bill package that follows a very familiar playbook for House Republican leadership. This bill package is just the latest attempt by my Republican colleagues to push a highly partisan agenda by combining that divisive proposal with noncontroversial items. Today's bill includes two bills that passed Senate and House Natural Resources Committee by unanimous consent. One of these bills would make a technical correction to a previously passed Tribal water settlement, and the other would clarify that two pueblos in New Mexico should receive equal treatment when leasing their lands. Unfortunately, instead of quickly passing these bills and suspensions and sending them to the President to be signed into law, House Republican leadership has decided to take those two bills hostage and combine them with a highly divisive bill that is likely not going anywhere--H.R. 986, section 3 of this legislation--which I do not support. This political stunt seems doomed to fail. The only thing it will accomplish is wasting everyone's time. Meanwhile, a list of bills that are critical to Tribes across the country sit in the Natural Resources Committee and are just ignored by the majority.…”