To suspend temporarily the duty on Disperse Blue 359.

Madam Speaker, I rise to introduce a bill to ratify a conveyance of a portion of the Jicarilla Apache reservation to the county of Rio Arriba, New Mexico. This legislation will bring resolution to a long-standing dispute between the Jicarilla Apache Nation and Rio Arriba County. In the 109th Congress, H.R. 4876, a nearly identical bill, passed the House under suspension of the rules.

The dispute, which has been ongoing for nearly two decades, is over the ownership of a road on a parcel of land formerly referred to as Theis Ranch. The Jicarilla Nation purchased Theis Ranch in 1985 and, in March 1988, the Nation subsequently conveyed a trust deed for Theis Ranch to the United States. The Theis Ranch property then, by proclamation of the Secretary of the Interior, became part of the Jicarilla Reservation in September 1988.

A lawsuit was filed in October 1987 and the District Court was asked to determine the ownership status of the disputed road. In the original lawsuit, Rio Arriba County sought to establish that the county acquired the disputed road by prescription and, therefore, the county was the road's rightful owner. However, the Jicarilla Nation contended that the Nation owned the road because the road was, and continues to be, within the boundaries of the expanded 1988 Jicarilla reservation. On December 10, 2001, the District Court found in favor of the Jicarilla and determined that the disputed road traversed the Jicarilla Reservation in several locations. Rio Arriba County appealed the December 2001 District Court decision; the appeal is currently pending before the Court of Appeals of the State of New Mexico. In a separate yet relevant matter, Rio Arriba County appealed a February 2003 decision by the Southwest Bureau of the United States Department of the Interior to acquire a

tract of land referred to as the Boyd Ranch in trust for the Jicarilla Nation. Rio Arriba's appeal of this determination is currently pending before the Interior Board of Indian Appeals.

In an effort to settle the road dispute, the Jicarilla Nation and Rio Arriba County entered into mediation. The parties successfully reached a settlement that was subsequently executed by the Jicarilla Nation on May 3, 2003, and Rio Arriba County on May 15, 2003. Representatives of the Secretary of the Interior approved the settlement on June 18, 2003. The settlement agreement, which would be implemented by this legislation, provided that the Jicarilla Nation would transfer approximately 70.5 acres of land located with the expanded 1988 Jicarilla reservation to Rio Arriba County. In exchange for the Jicarilla Nation's land conveyance, Rio Arriba County agreed to permanently abandon any and all claims to the disputed road. The settlement also provides that the terms of the agreement do not take effect until all parties complete their respective promises in the agreement and the United States, pursuant to federal law, approves of the conveyance of this particular Jicarilla trust land to Rio Arriba County.

Both parties and the Secretary of the Interior have fully performed the terms agreed to within the settlement agreement. All that stands between the parties to this dispute and long overdue resolution is Congressional approval. Consequently, the legislation will adjust the Jicarilla Reservation border in order to account for the transfer. At the same time, this legislation upholds Congress' trust responsibility to the Jicarilla Nation by placing restrictive covenants on the trust land transferred to the County. In other words, this legislation recognizes that the transferred land is immediately adjacent to the remainder of the Jicarilla Nation. As a result of the transferred land's proximity to the reservation, certain uses of the transferred land would have a detrimental effect on the remaining reservation. Therefore, this legislation allows the County to use the land only for governmental purposes but specifically prohibits the County from using the land for prisons, jails, or other facility for incarcerating persons.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to expedite passage of this legislation. Both the Nation and the County have waited years for this agreement to be implemented. Congress must now do their part to provide long overdue resolution.