Political Quotes

“I would like to offer my gratitude to the next speaker for the hard work she has put into this bill so that we can resolve this issue now and into the future. I yield 5 minutes to the gentlewoman from Minnesota (Ms. McCollum). Ms. McCOLLUM. Madam Speaker, I thank the gentlewoman from New Mexico for the generosity of the time. As the author of H.R. 4352, I rise to encourage all of my colleagues to join in this bipartisan effort to end discrimination against Tribal nations and to ensure that all 574 federally recognized Tribal nations have the equal ability to restore their homelands through the Department of the Interior's fee-to-trust process. This bill would confirm Congress' intent that the Indian Reorganization Act authorizes the Secretary of the Interior to place land into trust for all federally recognized Tribal nations, regardless of their date of recognition. Let's be clear, what is at the heart of this bipartisan legislation is equality. All 574 federally recognized Tribal nations deserve to have equal access to the Federal process for restoring their homelands. The U.S. Supreme Court's 2009 Carcieri decision violated this equality principle by forcing a two-tier system for the Department of the Interior's fee-to-trust process: One process for Tribal nations federally recognized before 1934 and a different process for Tribal nations recognized after 1934.…”