Tom Udall: “this legislation will bring long overdue resolution to a dispute between the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Rio Arriba…”

“this legislation will bring long overdue resolution to a dispute between the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Rio Arriba County in the State of New Mexico. Both parties and the Secretary of the Interior have already executed the terms agreed to within the settlement agreement. All that stands between the parties to this dispute and the long-overdue resolution is congressional approval. This legislation upholds Congress' trust responsibility to the Jicarilla Nation by placing restrictive covenants on the trust land transferred to the county. As a result of the transferred land's proximity to the reservation, certain uses of the transferred land would have a detrimental effect on the remaining reservation. Therefore, this legislation allows the county to use the land only for governmental purposes and specifically prohibits the county from using the land for prisons, jails, or other incarcerated persons, and other purposes. Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support passage of this important legislation. Both the Nation and the county have waited years for this agreement to be implemented.”