Political Quotes

“in a moment I am going to ask unanimous consent to address an amendment of mine to the national defense authorization bill, amendment No. 4066. There is legislation I have introduced with a number of my colleagues that then is reflected perhaps identically in the amendment I hope we will consider this evening. This amendment is related to the National Labor Relations Act, which was enacted in 1935. That legislation exempted Federal, State, and local governments but did not explicitly mention Native American governments from the purview of the National Labor Relations Act. Despite that not being mentioned for 70 years, the NLRB honored the sovereign status of tribes accorded to them by the U.S. Constitution. In fact, there is a good argument that the reason tribal governments were not listed in the Labor Relations Act was because the Constitution made clear the sovereign nation of tribes. So for 70 years, they were not affected by the NRLB. Unfortunately, in my view, beginning in 2004, the NLRB reversed its treatment of tribes and legally challenged the right of tribes to enact so-called right-to-work laws. The amendment I have offered to this bill is pretty straightforward. The National Labor Relations Act is amended to provide that any enterprise or institution owned and operated by an Indian tribe and located on tribal lands is not subject to the NLRA.…”