The South Dakota Senate Health Committee voted unanimously on a bill that would authorize a nursing home on the Pine Ridge Reservation.

The state has banned new nursing homes over concerns about Medicaid costs. The limitation has prevented tribes from opening their own facilities.

Sen. Jim Bradford (R), who represents Pine Ridge, hopes that will change if the bill becomes law. He said tribal families are forced to send their elderly to nursing homes far away from the reservation.

"What we're trying to do is be allowed to build a facility that would bring our family members home," Bradford said at a hearing, the Associated Press reported.

The Oglala Sioux Tribe would have until June 30, 2012, to build the nursing home.

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Bill would make Pine Ridge nursing home first in S.D. in 20 years (AP 2/4)