Andrea Joy Campbell: “Today I introduce a bill making certain technical amendments to laws relating to Native Americans. As my colleagues…”

“Today I introduce a bill making certain technical amendments to laws relating to Native Americans. As my colleagues know, Congress typically considers legislation like this every year or so. This bill provides an opportunity to address a series of corrections to the law or other non-controversial, minor amendments to Indian laws in one broad stroke, rather than having to introduce several separate bills. This bill includes amendments regarding issues of importance to a number of my colleagues that have been brought to my attention over recent months. The amendments include, for instance, one-year reauthorizations of the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and the Indian Alcohol and Substance Abuse Prevention and Treatment Act, as well as a clarification of a bill signed into law earlier this year relating to the status of certain lands held in trust by the Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians. All amendments included in this bill will serve to promote the original intent of the affected laws, and do not alter the meaning or substance of the laws they amend. I urge my colleagues to join me in supporting this bill, the sole purpose of which is to ensure that the laws this body has already passed are carried forward in the way we originally intended.”