White House aide vows support for fix to land-into-trust decision

Tuesday, March 1, 2011  

The Obama administration supports a "clean" fix to the U.S. Supreme Court decision in Carcieri v. Salazar, a White House aide said on Monday.

President Barack Obama asked Congress to fix the decision in his fiscal year 2012 budget proposal. The fix ensures that all tribes, regardless of the date of their federal recognition, can follow the land-into-trust process.

"It's got the full weight of the White House," Kim Teehee, the senior policy advisor for Native American Affairs, told tribal leaders at the National Congress of American Indians winter session in Washington, D.C.

The House included the fix in an appropriations bill last year. But it was removed in the Senate due to controversy over Indian gaming.

A new version of the fix will be introduced in the House by Rep. Dale Kildee (D-Michigan) and Rep. Tom Cole (R-Oklahoma), an aide to Kildee said at the NCAI meeting yesterday.

Supreme Court Decision:
Syllabus | Opinion [Thomas] | Concurrence [Breyer] | Dissent [Stevens] | Concurrence/Dissent [Souter]

Land-into-trust fix in limbo amid dispute on appropriations bill (12/17)