Chris Dodd: “let me emphasize, I am offering this amendment now with the full understanding that my dear friend and colleague from…”

“let me emphasize, I am offering this amendment now with the full understanding that my dear friend and colleague from Hawaii, the chairman of the committee, is reviewing this amendment to see whether it might be accepted. If it is, obviously we will deal with it in a different manner. Since we have some time and we are about to leave the Interior bill to go back to homeland security, it may be another day or two before we get back to the Interior appropriations bill. So I thought I would take advantage of this pause in the consideration of the Craig amendment to lay out what this amendment is, why I am offering it, and why it is so terribly important that we adopt it, or something like it, if we can. It is with some reluctance that I offer this amendment to address the process for recognizing Indian tribes in this country. I would have preferred to have the matter addressed at a different time and under different circumstance, but I raise it now because the matter has considerable urgency and importance in my State and other States. Currently, there are 200 petitions pending at the Bureau of Indian Affairs by groups throughout our country seeking Federal recognition as Indian tribes. Nine of the petitions are in my State of Connecticut, a State 110 miles by 630 miles square.…”