Senate Committee on Indian Affairs adopts 25-item agenda, advances tribal water, health and forestry bills

At a business meeting, the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs adopted 25 agenda items on a voice vote by unanimous consent, advancing multiple bills that address Indian water rights settlements, tribal forestry, veterinary public health services and the legacy of federal Indian boarding schools.

Committee Chair Senator Lisa Murkowski, opening the meeting, said the package included measures that cover "important issues for native people, public health and safety, forestry, the legacy of federal Indian boarding school policy, restoration of tribal lands and water issues." She said 10 of the bills before the committee were Indian water rights settlements and described those settlements as a way to "help tribal nations obtain safe reliable water supplies that in turn improve public health and enable economic growth." (Senator Lisa Murkowski, Chair.)

Murkowski cautioned that some settlements include mandatory funding. "I do worry this approach for settlements may be difficult to see through without a pay for that's identified and attached," she said, noting that mandatory funding can affect congressional scoring and requires identifiable offsets or funding sources.

Murkowski also described three measures she sponsors. She identified S.719 as a tribal forestry bill intended to expand cross-boundary forest objectives with the U.S. Forest Service and the Bureau of Land Management and to strengthen tribal self-determination by permitting tribes and Alaska Native corporations to carry out administrative and management functions for Tribal Forest Protection Act projects using 638 contracts. She described S.620 as a public health veterinary services measure to bring spaying and neutering services to native villages to help control rabies and other endemic diseases, and she identified S.761 as a bill to establish a commission on Indian boarding school policies "to bring truth and healing" regarding that legacy.

Vice Chairman Senator Brian Schatz spoke briefly and urged the committee to support the package, saying each bill had received due consideration and many had already been approved by the full Senate or voted favorably out of committee.

By unanimous consent, the committee agreed to take up and adopt agenda items 1 through 25 on block. The chair declared, "The ayes do have it," and the committee concluded its business without roll-call votes on individual items.

Senator Catherine Cortez Masto used the opportunity after the block vote to note three bills of hers that were on the agenda: the Badges for Native Communities Act (S.390, with Senator Hoven), the IHS Workforce Parity Act (S.632), and the Shoshone-Paiute Tribes of the Duck Valley Reservation Water Rights Settlement Act (S.546, with Senator Crapo). She thanked colleagues for bipartisan work on those measures.

No roll-call vote tally was recorded in the transcript for the block adoption; the committee proceeded by voice and unanimous consent. The committee adjourned after brief final remarks.

Votes at a glance: On a voice vote taken by unanimous consent, the committee agreed to consider and adopt agenda items 1 through 25 on block; no separate roll-call votes were recorded in the provided transcript excerpt.