{"id":124508,"date":"2025-03-06T20:49:39","date_gmt":"2025-03-07T02:49:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/?p=124508"},"modified":"2026-03-12T21:09:23","modified_gmt":"2026-03-13T02:09:23","slug":"lets-get-em-all-done-senate-committee-moves-quickly-on-indian-country-legislation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/indianz.com\/News\/2025\/03\/06\/lets-get-em-all-done-senate-committee-moves-quickly-on-indian-country-legislation\/","title":{"rendered":"‘Let’s get ’em all done’: Senate committee moves quickly on Indian Country legislation"},"content":{"rendered":"
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The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs holds a business meeting to consider pending legislation on March 5, 2025.The committee approved a total of 25 bills a…<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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Indianz.Com Video: Senate Committee on Indian Affairs – Business Meeting to consider several bills – March 5, 2025<\/a>\r\n<\/figcaption>\r\n
‘Let’s get ’em all done’: Senate committee moves quickly on Indian Country legislation<\/div>\r\n
Thursday, March 6, 2025<\/div>\r\n
By Acee Agoyo<\/div>\r\n
Indianz.Com<\/div>\r\n

<\/P>\r\nThe Senate Committee on Indian Affairs<\/a> is moving quickly to advance Indian Country legislation amid a dramatically changed political environment.\r\n

<\/p>\r\nAt a business meeting that lasted just a few minutes on Wednesday<\/a>, the panel approved 25 bills. The number is believed to be a record for the committee with jurisdiction over Indian issues.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n\u201cWe\u2019re moving as quickly as we can to get these out of the committee, so we can get the full Senate to pass them and hopefully see them enacted into law,\u201d said Sen. Lisa Murkowski<\/a> (R-Alaska), the chair of the committee.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“These bills 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,” Murkwoski added.\r\n

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A whopping 26 bills are on the agenda as the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs advances pending legislation.<\/p>\n\t\t<\/a>\n\t<\/div>\n\t

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<\/p>\r\nThe bills include some big-ticket items, Murkowski noted. She said that 10 are water rights settlements, meaning that the United States, in carrying out its trust and treaty responsibilities to tribes and their communities, would have to contribute potentially billions of dollars.\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“These water rights settlements are the way that we help tribal nations obtain safe, reliable water supplies that in turn improve public health and enable economic growth,” Murkowski said. “These water settlements end decades of controversy and provide certainty to tribes and to surrounding communities regarding access to water resources, which of course is paramount across the West.”\r\n

<\/P>\r\n“But that said, Indian water rights settlements are expensive,” Murkowski continued, “and that’s largely because it costs a lot to build a new infrastructure to physically access and develop water rights so that there is actual wet water for tribal citizens.”\r\n

<\/P>\r\nWith President Donald Trump looking anywhere and everywhere to reduce the size of the U.S. government, federal funding would appear to be just as scarce as the water needed by tribal citizens. Murkowski admitted to being concerned about finding the money for the settlements. \r\n

<\/P>\r\n“I do worry this approach for settlements may be difficult to see through,” Murkowski said.\r\n

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