Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds business meeting for Klamath Tribes bill

Monday, October 23, 2017  

The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs has added a business meeting to its agenda this week.

Only one item is on the agenda for the meeting on Wednesday afternoon. It's S.1223, the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund Repeal Act.

The bill repeals a termination-era law that dictates how funds owed to the Klamath Tribes are distributed. The tribe has been pushing for action for years in order to gain more control of its own assets.

"This legislation denigrates sovereignty," attorney Don Wharton of the Native American Rights Fund, which represents the tribe, said of the Klamath Tribe Judgment Fund Act of 1965. "It disallows the tribe the ability to determine the distribution and the allocation of its own assets."

Congress terminated by the federal government's relationship with the tribe in 1954 but the 1965 law had to be written in order to account for a land claim and other funds owed to the tribe. The tribe's federal status was restored by Congress in 1986.

S.1223 was introduced on May 24. The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs held a hearing on July 12, when Wharton testified on behalf of the tribe.

The business meeting takes place at 2:30pm in Room 628 of the Senate Dirksen Office Building on Wednesday at 2:30pm Eastern. It will be immediately followed by a legislative hearing on three public safety bills.

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice:
Business Meeting to Consider S. 1223 (October 25, 2017)

Senate Committee on Indian Affairs takes testimony on three bills at hearing (July 12, 2017)
Senate Committee on Indian Affairs adds another hearing to July schedule (June 29, 2017)