Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I spoke on this a year or two ago, and not much has happened except more time has passed since this land was taken from this Tribe. I represent 21 Tribes in my congressional district. I believe that when I come to the floor, people look and say, well, you are always representing Tribal issues. I represent the issues that became an issue when Ulysses S. Grant recognized what he had done wrong to Tribes. We began the process over 100 years ago of turning around that challenge. As the ranking member mentioned, in 1934, we passed significant legislation. Much has happened since that time. One of the things that has happened is, here on the House floor, we talk about CBO scoring. I want to touch on that today, which I didn't do a year ago. CBO says this has a cost. Yes, when we move land into trust, when we move it into Federal ownership, it loses property tax so there is a small cost. This is not a cost objected to by my county or any of the surrounding cities. The Native American Tribes in my district have more than compensated the community from the revenues they earn, and they have been good stewards. This land failed to even qualify as a landfill over decades. This is land that, to many, would be considered not usable. It has water challenges that the Tribe will be spending time and money making sure that they prevent the runoff, that they preserve. They have antiquity on this site. They will be investing in that.…”