To allow binding arbitration clauses to be included in all contracts affecting land within the Gila River Indian Community Reservation.

Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of H.R. 3351, the Native American Technical Corrections Act of 2005. This bill would allow shareholder consideration of making Settlement Common Stock under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) available to Alaska Natives born after December 18, 1971.

The Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, as originally enacted, limited Alaska Native Regional Corporations from enrolling Natives born after December 18, 1971, as shareholders in their respective corporations. Subsequent amendments to ANCSA have allowed Regional Corporations to include Natives born after December 18, 1971, often referred to ``New Natives,'' ``Afterborns'' or ``Shareholder Descendents'', if existing shareholders of the Corporation adopt a resolution at an annual meeting. Thus far, very few Native Corporations have adopted resolutions to include Shareholder Descendents, in part because the standard for adopting a resolution is too high.

Existing law provides that a resolution is considered approved by the shareholders of a Native Corporation if it receives an affirmative vote from a ``majority of the total voting power of the corporation.'' At any given annual meeting, however, the total voting power of the corporation is not exercised. Accordingly, eighty-five to ninety percent of the voting proxies at an annual meeting would be required to vote in favor of a Shareholder Descendent resolution. This is an extremely difficult threshold to meet.

Section 103 of H.R. 3351 would allow a Shareholder Descendents resolution to be approved by a majority of the shares present or represented by proxy at an annual meeting. If a change is not made to the existing voting standard for adoption of a Shareholder Descendents resolution, the promises of ANCSA are potentially left unfulfilled. This legislation would allow a Regional Corporation, provided the majority voted in favor of adopting a Shareholder Descendents vote, to enroll two generations of Shareholder Descendents to become shareholders in their respective corporation. I urge a ``yes'' vote on this important legislation affecting my Alaska Native ``afterborns.''

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 3351) to make technical corrections to laws relating to Native Americans, and for other purposes, as amended.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

H.R. 3351 addresses a number of minor noncontroversial tribal issues in one legislative package. H.R. 3351 contains 11 proposed amendments to our current law to assist tribes with matters that are relatively small in nature but very important to Native Americans across our Nation.

Specifically, this legislation makes technical corrections to laws relating to Native Americans and Alaskan natives by reauthorizing certain Native American programs, clarifying statutes relating to particular tribes and approving a 99-year land lease for certain tribal lands.

H.R. 3351 makes these beneficial changes in areas relating to tribal sovereignty, culture and areas with potential to encourage economic development. Numerous tribes will be able to move forward on projects that will help to strengthen their tribal government and better illuminate their history and culture. Each year, Congress passes a bill like this relating to technical corrections, and, thankfully, we have been able to utilize the consultation of many tribal leaders in examining this legislation.

I hope we can now act in a bipartisan fashion. I look forward to the support of this Congress for H.R. 3351.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I yield 2 minutes to the gentleman from Minnesota (Mr. Kline).

Mr. Speaker, I know that Chairman Young is in considerable support of this legislation and will be submitting a written statement for the Record.

Mr. Speaker, I yield the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I rise today in support of the Native American Technical Corrections Act of 2005, and I am especially pleased by the inclusion of the Prairie Island Conveyance Act of 2005, which addresses a critical issue for my constituents.

I extend my appreciation to the gentleman from California (Mr. Pombo) and the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Young) for including my legislation in their bill and for its consideration today.

Upon being elected to Congress 3 years ago, I was approached by members of the Prairie Island Indian Community, located in Minnesota's Second Congressional District. The Prairie Island Indian Community has been working for years to transfer a section of land known as parcel D from the Army Corps of Engineers to be held in trust at the Department of Interior.

Parcel D, which contains 1,290 acres of the Prairie Island Community's homeland, was seized by the Department of War in 1934 with the promise it would one day be returned to them to welcome their ancestors home. This promise has not yet been fulfilled. Instead, the Department of War used the parcel D land to build a lock and dam on the Mississippi River, causing flooding across over 800 acres. These 800 acres, which remain underwater today, contain hundreds of burial mounds, 12 stone memorials, dozens of lodge circles, and 18 village sites of importance to the Prairie Island Community.

The leaders of the Prairie Island Indian Community have received the support of the nearby City of Red Wing and surrounding Goodhue County, as well as the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and the Department of the Interior for their efforts to reclaim this ancestral land. I am pleased their efforts are finally close to being realized.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 327) to allow binding arbitration clauses to be included in all contracts affecting land within the Gila River Indian Community Reservation.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members may have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

Mr. Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 327 was introduced by Representative Grijalva, my colleague from Arizona; and I join him as an original cosponsor.

This bill is to allow binding arbitration clauses to be included in all contracts, including leases affecting lands within the Gila River Indian Community in the State of Arizona. Without such binding arbitration clauses, many investors would not be interested in doing business with the tribe because there would be no means of enforcing contracts.

Unfortunately, an amendment to a related provision of law has made it unclear whether the tribe may put the binding arbitration clauses into all of its contracts and leases. This bill clarifies that the tribe may include binding arbitration clauses in all contracts for business developments on its reservation.

It is a simple, but much-needed, bill with bipartisan support. I am glad to see my good friend on the other side of the aisle here.

Mr. Speaker, I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, again I thank my colleague from Arizona; and, likewise, I have no additional requests for time, and I yield back the balance of my time and urge passage of H.R. 327.

Mr. Speaker, I ask unanimous consent to revise and extend my remarks. I yield myself such time as I may consume.

I rise in strong support of this legislation and to congratulate our colleague from Arizona, Raul Grijalva. Mr. Grijalva has worked tirelessly over the last several months to bring this bill before us. Once enacted, this legislation will enhance and assist the Gila River Indian Community in Arizona with all new business ventures.

Mr. Grijalva's provision would authorize the Gila River Indian Community to enter into contracts with outside businesses and agree to binding arbitration if a problem arises from the contract work. This will remove a hurdle to economic development for the Gila River Community.

One serious problem which runs throughout Indian country is a hesitancy by non-Indian businesses to enter into large, long-term contracts with Indian tribes out of concern for the competency of tribal courts. The ability of the tribe to agree, at the start, to binding arbitration has been shown to ease concerns of non-Indian businesses. An additional component needed is to strengthen tribal courts, which is

yet another issue Mr. Grijalva has been working on for Indian tribes.

I pay tribute to Congressman Grijalva for his tenacity in getting this bill moved through the House and urge all of our colleagues to support passage of H.R. 327.

I reserve the balance of my time.