Political Quotes

“first, a brief comment on the Tribal Labor Sovereignty Act, which failed to move forward in the Senate last night. Indian Affairs has very rarely found its way to the floor of the Senate, despite a number of very pressing issues in Indian Country, including homelessness, educational disparities, language loss, healthcare access, broadband access, and many more. For a number of years, Democrats and Republicans on the Indian Affairs Committee have pushed legislation that would alleviate these problems. On our side of the aisle, Senators Udall, Tester, Smith, Baldwin, Heinrich, Heitkamp, Cantwell, and Murray have worked very hard on bills that deal with these very, very significant issues in Indian Country, but none of these bills have reached the floor. The leader has refused to put bills that would dramatically help Indian Country on the floor. When, finally, a Tribal bill was brought forward by the majority leader, it was closed to amendments and debate. Senator Udall, our ranking member, wished to have amendments. Senator Hoeven, the chairman of the Indian Affairs Committee, told me he wanted amendments. But the way Leader McConnell brought it to the floor was with no amendments, no debate, and no discussion. Even worse, it was a bill to scrap labor rights at a time when we should be doing everything we can to strengthen labor protections.…”