To amend the Grand Ronde Reservation Act to make technical corrections, and for other purposes.

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

Mr. Speaker, this is the last in the series of bills from the Resources Committee and, perhaps, the last time that I will be on the floor as ranking member and Chairman Hastings will be on the floor as chairman.

I just want to thank my colleague from Washington State for all of the work we have done together. We obviously don't always agree on issues, but I think the Resources Committee has reported out more bills and passed more bills in the House than any other committee in this Congress. We have been very active. We are hoping that the Senate will go along with a few that we have pending, and we will get some of those bills enacted into law.

In particular, I want to thank the chairman for his partnership on an issue absolutely critical to the Pacific Northwest, which is the management of the Columbia River system and the Bonneville Power Administration, in the phenomenal gift of that clean and inexpensive power to our region and to the Western U.S. generally.

We have some major issues looming, in particular, the negotiation or renegotiation or termination of the treaty with Canada regarding the Columbia River Treaty. A session that the chairman held in his district in Washington State on a cold day in February was, I think, very critical in helping move that discussion and debate in a productive direction for all the stakeholders and was particularly critical for a position of our region in this negotiation.

I am only hopeful that we will soon get the attention of the State Department and whomever else they have seen fit to involve in this process and have a recommendation from the State Department regarding modification or termination of that treaty so we can enter into meaningful negotiations with the Canadians. The gentleman played a particularly key role in that, and I want to thank him for that and, obviously, a lot of other work on forestry and other issues.

I yield to the gentleman.

Mr. Speaker, reclaiming my time, for too long, Federal policies have unfairly disadvantaged Indian tribes in western Oregon and, obviously, elsewhere around the country. After signing many treaties with the western Oregon tribes, the United States removed them from their original homelands throughout the western part of the State and put them on only two reservations, which were established at the time to house potentially people from more than 60 tribal governments.

Many of the tribes confederated on these reservations far from their ancestral homes. Other tribes refused to leave their ancestral homes and were basically forgotten by the United States, despite its promises that it had made in treaty agreements with them.

Later, in 1954, one of the darkest chapters was when all but one of the

Oregon tribes west of the Cascade Mountains lost their Federal recognition in the Western Oregon Termination Act.

The termination era, as scholars call it, was terrible Federal Indian policy. It was so bad that it was only 30 years later that it was formally rebuked by Congress.

Starting in the seventies, Congress began the process of restoring the western Oregon tribes to Federal recognition and of cleaning up the mess that the United States Government made in western Oregon. In fact, I began my congressional career as an original sponsor of the Coquille Restoration Act, legislation to restore one of Oregon's terminated tribes. I partnered with then-Senator Mark Hatfield on that legislation, which was later enacted into law.

While six Oregon tribes are now federally recognized, it remains difficult for these tribes to function as the sovereign nations they are and to govern themselves as effectively as they could.

Shifts in Federal Indian policy have made it time-consuming and expensive for western Oregon tribes--and other tribes around the country--and the Department of the Interior to work together on land- into-trust issues. These policy shifts have also deprived two of the tribes of sufficient land bases, and it has created a legal anomaly with regard to the Coquille Indian Tribe's forest.

H.R. 5701, the Western Oregon Indian Tribal Lands Act, is a long overdue, no-cost, commonsense bill that will go a long way to helping resolve some of the problems the Federal Government and its policy shifts over more than a century have created for the western Oregon tribes.

This legislation clarifies on-reservation land-into-trust procedures for the Grand Ronde and Siletz tribes, so the tribes don't have to face outrageous delays in dealing with the Department of the Interior. The bill also makes good on decades-old promises to restore land bases for the Coos and Cow Creek tribes, and it puts the Coquille Indian Tribe's forest on an equal footing with those of other Indian tribes nationwide.

H.R. 5701 deals only with Oregon issues, Oregon tribes, and Oregon constituents. All of the provisions in this Oregon tribal bill have received some form of consideration by both the House and the Senate. This package also enjoys bipartisan, bicameral support, the rarest of rare things, I would say, in Washington, D.C., these days.

I strongly encourage my colleagues here in the House to join with me in passing this legislation swiftly, so we can get it over to the Senate and hopefully get the Senate to act before the hopefully soon- looming adjournment of the 113th Congress.

I reserve the balance of my time.

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

You forgot I reserved, Doc, so I do get to respond.

I have to say we were looking for a logical reason for what I would say is your recalcitrance to further create wilderness so that areas may remain undisturbed for future generations. I thought that was potentially a plausible reason.

In fact, it was so plausible that the next day in the gym a Republican Member who was there that didn't know either me or you that well asked if that indeed was a true story. I played him along for just a brief period of time and said, ``No.'' I appreciate that you have corrected the record.

In the NDAA bill, we also did do a wilderness package as it relates to your State and some other wilderness bills that I think were very bipartisan and reasonable. I appreciate the fact you supported that.

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

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 5701) to require that certain Federal lands be held in trust by the United States for the benefit of federally recognized tribes in the State of Oregon, 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 to include extraneous material on the bill under consideration.

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

Mr. Speaker, I would first like to acknowledge the gentlemen from Oregon, Mr. DeFazio and Mr. Walden, for their hard work on this piece of legislation, which will benefit several Indian tribes in the State of Oregon.

H.R. 5701 is a compilation of several stand-alone bills, most of which have been reported out of the Natural Resources Committee and passed by the full House.

Title I of H.R. 5701 would ease the process for the Grand Ronde Tribe to apply for trust land within the original boundaries of its 1857 reservation, which encompassed 60,000-plus-acre acres in Polk and Yamhill Counties in Oregon.

Further, the bill deems property placed in trust for the tribe after 1988 to be part of the tribe's reservation.

Finally, specific tracts of land totaling 288 acres would be placed in trust for the tribe in its former reservation.

Mr. Speaker, title I is identical to H.R. 841, which previously passed the House.

Title II and title III are similar to provisions found in H.R. 1526, the Restoring Healthy Forests for Healthy Communities Act, which passed the House in September of 2014.

Title IV would make it easier for the Siletz Indian Tribe to apply for trust land within the original boundaries of the 1855 Siletz Coast Reservation, which encompassed a large part of the coast of Oregon. Gaming on this land to be held in trust would be prohibited. This is identical to the Natural Resources Committee-reported version of H.R. 931.

Finally, title V would correct a situation with respect to the management of the Coquille Tribal Forest in Oregon. This forest has been regulated as part of the Northwest Forest Plan, which is inconsistent with the management of other tribally-managed forests in the United States. Under this title, the Coquille Tribe would be able to manage its forest under the National Indian Forest Resources Management Act. This will provide the tribe with the ability to better manage their timber resources.

Mr. Speaker, this is a good piece of legislation, as I mentioned, encompassing three other pieces of legislation that the House and/or the committee has already acted on.

With that, I reserve the balance of my time.

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

Mr. Speaker, I commended two of my colleagues from Oregon for their work on this, Mr. Walden and Mr. DeFazio. I failed to mention Mr. Schrader, who was the author of H.R. 931, which is title IV of this bill. I want to correct that oversight that I made.

I want to thank my two colleagues for their very kind words. This will, I think, be the last time that I have the opportunity to manage a bill on the floor. I will just say that both gentlemen made the observation that while we don't always agree on things, at least we can understand when somebody comes from a particular position, you can deal with that.

I want to take this time then to correct an assertion that my friend from Oregon made when I had my portrait unveiled. I say that because I think most of my colleagues know my position on wilderness areas is probably contrary to what their vision is.

I want to correct the record because Mr. DeFazio asserted that my position on wilderness areas was because, as a child, I was lost in the wilderness when we were camping. I thought that was very clever, but it is not the truth, and so while what he said is not on the record, I get the last word here and will say on the record that I was not lost in the wilderness and that is not how I derived my position on wilderness areas.

With that, Mr. Speaker, I am prepared to yield back if the gentleman from Oregon is prepared to yield back, and I reserve the balance of my time.

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

I will just simply say it has been a pleasure for me to have worked with you in your position as ranking member, and I wish you the best as you move over to be the ranking member of T&I in the next Congress.

This is a good piece of legislation. As the gentleman from Oregon mentioned several times, tribal issues, particularly in Oregon, are somewhat contentious. I am somewhat familiar with that because I do go to the Oregon coast at least every other year.

I congratulate my colleagues from Oregon for this legislation, urge its passage, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde, which I have the privilege of representing, was terminated by the Federal Government in 1954. At that time, they not only lost their Federal recognition, but also its original reservation of over 60,000 acres.

In the decades that have ensued, members of the tribe have worked tirelessly to rebuild that Grand Ronde community. As was stated before, in 1983 these efforts resulted in the Grand Ronde Restoration Act, followed by the Grand Ronde Reservation Act in 1988, which restored nearly 10,000 acres of the tribe's original reservation to the Grand Ronde people.

Since restoration, the tribe has continued their pursuit of securing its sovereignty by acquiring additional parcels of its original reservation and providing much-needed on-reservation jobs and services to tribal members.

Unfortunately, the tribe's efforts have been hampered by a lengthy, expensive, and cumbersome BIA process, as you have heard. After the tribe acquires a parcel of land in fee, the tribe must prepare a fee- to-trust application package for BIA. The BIA then processes this application, either as an on-reservation or off-reservation acquisition.

Because the tribe does not have exterior reservation boundaries, all parcels are, therefore, processed under the much more rigorous and oftentimes unneeded off-reservation acquisition regulations, even if the parcel is located within the original boundaries of the reservation.

I introduced H.R. 841 to correct this problem and streamline the bureaucratic process the tribe continues to face as it brings parcels of land into trust. Under my legislation, any property located within the boundaries of the tribe's original reservation will be treated as ``on-reservation'' land for the purpose of processing acquisitions of property into trust, and deemed a part of the tribe's reservation once taken into trust.

Once enacted, H.R. 841 will not only save the Grand Ronde time and money, which could be better utilized serving their community and membership, but would also streamline the BIA's land-into-trust responsibilities to the Grand Ronde, thus saving taxpayer money.

There is no opposition in my State by State officials or local governments, and CBO scores this as no cost to the Federal Government. I am proud to say that H.R. 841 has the delegation's support, the Bureau of Indian Affairs' support, and unanimous support from the two counties affected by the legislation.

I want to thank my Oregon colleagues in particular for their continued support and efforts to move this bill forward; and, frankly, I would personally like to thank Chairman Hastings, Ranking Member Grijalva, Chairman Young, Ranking Member Hanabusa, and Representative DeFazio for their assistance in moving this important legislation forward and the tireless efforts that their staffs have put forward, particularly Travis Joseph and Chris Fluhr. Finally, I would like to thank the members of the Grand Ronde who have been very, very, very patient throughout this whole process.

With that, I ask Members of the House for their support for this important bill.

Mr. Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 841) to amend the Grand Ronde Reservation Act to make technical corrections, 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 as much time as I may consume.

Mr. Speaker, H.R. 841 clarifies the administrative process for the Grand Ronde Tribe in Oregon to apply for new trust lands as long as the lands are within the tribe's original 1857 reservation.

The bill also deems property placed in trust for the tribe after 1988 to be part of the tribe's reservation and adjusts the tribe's Reservation Act to reflect several previous trust land acquisitions.

Mr. Speaker, in 1954, Congress terminated the Grand Ronde Tribe and its 60,000-acre western Oregon reservation. While Congress restored the tribe in 1983, the process of rebuilding the land base for it has been done in a somewhat piecemeal fashion, beginning in 1988.

H.R. 841 resolves a problem the Grand Ronde Tribe has experienced when it applies to the Department of the Interior for trust lands within its former reservation area. Applications for such land are considered under a set of ``off-reservation'' rules that are quite cumbersome.

The bill requires the Department to treat land acquisition applications under less cumbersome ``on-reservation'' rules. It does not, however, reestablish the original 1857 reservation.

The bill was reported favorably out of the Natural Resources Committee and has bipartisan support from the entire Oregon congressional delegation.

I also want to point out that the suspension text contains an amendment to the reported bill. The new language prohibits the Grand Ronde Tribe from gaming under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act on all lands it acquires through the Department's ``on-reservation'' process unless the lands are within a 2-mile radius of its existing rural casino.

Within the 2-mile radius, existing restrictions under the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act remain in effect.

Mr. Speaker, I urge adoption, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Mr. Speaker, I urge support for the legislation and yield back the balance of my time.

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

H.R. 841 makes technical corrections to the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde Reservation Act. In the past, efforts by the tribe have been hindered in its effort to restore traditional land within its original reservation by a very cumbersome and long process.

The bill would end the current two-step process that requires the tribe to take the former reservation land into trust with approval from Interior and then get congressional approval to be designated reservation land.

Also, the bill would allow the property taken into trust within the boundaries of the tribe's original reservation after September 9, 1988, to be part of the reservation.

Congressman Schrader is to be commended for his leadership on this legislation and his commitment to working on behalf of our first Americans.

H.R. 841 has wide support, including the entire Oregon delegation, and I urge its passage today.

Mr. Speaker, I yield as much time as he may consume to the gentleman from Oregon (Mr. Schrader), the sponsor of the legislation.

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