Neil Abercrombie: “With all due respect to my good colleague and friend, Mr. Hastings from Washington State, I have to oppose this…”

“With all due respect to my good colleague and friend, Mr. Hastings from Washington State, I have to oppose this amendment because it has no precedent--or indeed any place I believe in Federal law that has been in place for well over 150 years as that law relates to Native governments. Under our Constitution, the citizens of the United States are the only citizens who are authorized and recognized as having a right to have a say in the laws which govern our Nation, be they Federal statutes or amendments to our Constitution. In a similar manner, the citizens of one State in our Union do not get to weigh in on the laws of another State or any proposed amendments to another State's constitution. Put simply, they cannot vote for changes in the law of a State for which they are not citizens. It goes without saying that foreign governments have no role to play in the formulation of the laws of the United States or the U.S. Constitution. All of these fundamental principles have in their foundation the fact that each government is a separate sovereign, and only the citizens of that sovereign government may determine what governmental powers and authorities that sovereign government may exercise. It is no different for native governments in the United States.”