Political Quotes

“I thank the gentleman for yielding. As the chair and ranking member said, this is bipartisan, and I am sure will be bicameral, and, in fact, it is necessary because not only is H.R. 1975 necessary in order to put land in trust, but we, for more than 20 years now, have had to put most land that gets into trust in trust because of action by the Congress. I want to take this opportunity on behalf of the 18 Tribes that I represent and have represented for most of my 20 years in Congress and say that this is the kind of bill that I hope we will pass further legislation to make unnecessary. The essential right of our first people to reclaim their ancestral land and have it placed into trust on a pro forma basis, on a nearly automatic basis, should not require action by Congress time and time again. The Pala Band of Indians had to buy this land at their own expense in order to gift it, essentially, to the Federal Government. They do so because of the importance of their ancestral land and their pride in the people they are and the people they have been since before man, Western man, walked into California and disrupted their lives. So I am proud that, once again, we are putting land in trust. I am proud of the Pala Indians who worked for more than 30 years to recapture this land, to keep it from being effectively taken away in perpetuity. They have done the right thing.…”