Political Quotes

“Mr. President, reserving the right to object, one of the bills in question--specifically, H.R. 478, would direct the Secretary of the Interior to take 55.3 acres of land owned by the Gila River Indian Community into trust. The Gila River Indian Community Reservation is already 583 square miles, with a population of 11,000. The Gila River Indian Community already owns this land, so why we need to take more land into trust and have the Federal Government more involved in the management of the land is not immediately obvious or apparent to me. The answer is not at all clear as to why it needs to be in trust. Trust land responsibilities for the Federal Government are significant and before we expand the size of our trust lands, we have to have an understanding of what we are doing and the actual need to do it Proponents of this legislation have claimed that the Tribe has a unique history with this particular plot of land--this particular 55.3 acres of land--adjacent to the trust land. But from the history shown, the Tribe's interaction with the land is mostly that they have had friendly neighbors with whom they have traded goods. As many of my colleagues are aware, I have great concerns that I have quite consistently expressed with further expanding the Federal Government's management or involvement in public lands, including trust lands.…”