Alaska Native Settlement Trust Eligibility Act

Mr. President, I am really very glad we were able to reach agreement today to pass these four bills by unanimous consent and will send them to the President to be signed into law.

I want to acknowledge and thank my colleague and friend from Nevada Senator Cortez Masto. I also want to acknowledge Senator Markey from Massachusetts. They worked with us to try to get us to the place we are today in which we were able to move these bills across the floor.

I also want to thank the chairman of the Energy Committee and the ranking member, Chairman Lee and Ranking Member Heinrich. Their teams worked with us on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, as well as the cloakroom teams, to make sure we were able to be successful today.

The Senate passed all four of these measures last December, so we have seen them once. Now we have seen them twice. But the House ran out of time at the end of the last Congress to take them up, so we are where we are. But now these bills are going to be going to the President for his signature.

Two of the bills we just passed are important for Alaska Natives, and I am proud to have been able to work on these important measures. It has been a multiyear effort to get them to the President's desk. Again, I don't care, really, if we send an H.R. or if we send a Senate bill to the President; we just want to get it accomplished. We want to get some things done for Alaska.

The first measure, which is H.R. 42, amends the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA. It amends it to ensure that when Alaska Native elders, the blind, and the disabled receive dividends from their settlement trusts, they do not inadvertently become, then, ineligible to participate in Federal needs-based assistance programs.

This is pretty common sense. You have a situation where Alaska Natives who are aged, blind, or disabled should not have to choose between accepting the settlement trust income they are entitled to or qualifying for Federal benefits such as supplemental security income, SSI, or SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, as well as housing assistance. Now, with this bill, they are not going to have to make that choice.

The second measure is H.R. 43, the Alaska Native Village Municipal Lands Restoration Act. What this does is eliminate a requirement under ANCSA, section 14(c)(3), that Alaska Native village corporations convey land to the State of Alaska to be held in trust for future municipalities, which are not likely to ever be established.

So what we are doing with this measure is sunsetting this requirement and allowing village corporations to regain title to conveyed lands. This will allow village corporations to fully utilize their lands for the benefit of their communities. This is what we want to see happen. Again, it has been a long time coming. So I am pleased that we are here.

I am hopeful that the Senate can pass more of these similar, very noncontroversial bills through the unanimous consent process. We shouldn't get into the practice where we wait until the end of a Congress or perhaps even multiple Congresses for a package to be knit together. People in these communities are waiting on us, as Senator Cortez Masto noted in her State of Nevada and in my State of Alaska. They are waiting on us to deliver these small legislative priorities that will allow them to move forward, whether it is economic development or just making sure that there is a level of equity and fairness.

So I thank my colleagues, I thank the Energy Committee, as well as the floor team, and my staff who helped us move these measures forward.

I yield the floor.

I know of no further debate on the bills en bloc.

Finally, I ask unanimous consent that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, all en bloc.

Mr. President, we just passed a bipartisan package of bills. Some of them were passed by the Senate in the last Congress, and recently some of them were passed by the House.

The package includes one of my pieces of legislation which was needed in Nevada, which was H.R. 618, the Apex Area Technical Corrections Act. This bill will cut through redtape at the Apex Industrial Park in North Las Vegas and speed up the cumbersome and unnecessary permitting process for businesses looking to build or expand there. Here is how:

All Nevada developers know that the Federal Government owns more than 80 percent of the land in our State. That requires us to have this Federal partnership. Every time a company wants to develop a project on public land, they need a permit from the Bureau of Land Management. That process, as we all know, can take years, and in that time, we are losing out on economic growth and on new job creation. That is what is currently happening at the Apex Industrial Park in North Las Vegas.

APEX has over 7,000 acres of developable land where various companies are building new sites. That includes Air Liquide's largest hydrogen plant in the world, an 885,000 square foot distribution center for the grocery chain Smith's, and a 1 million square foot distribution center for the footwear company Crocs. The Smith's center is projected to add 250 jobs for Nevadans, while the Crocs center could create up to 1,200 jobs.

Unfortunately, because of an outdated permitting law, too many businesses that want to set up shop at APEX are bogged down by burdensome obstacles.

When the Apex Industrial site was created in 1989, Congress passed legislation to transfer Federal land to private ownership, but the Bureau of Land Management maintained control over large utility corridors that crisscrossed throughout the whole development. That means every business that wants to start constructing or even expand at APEX has to go through the complicated Federal permitting process if they want to access necessities like gas, power, sewage, access roads, and broadband lines across those BLM-controlled corridors.

In the initial law passed in 1989, Congress gave Clark County, NV, the authorization to speed up the permitting process, but since then, APEX's primary management has changed to the city of North Las Vegas and the Apex Industrial Park Owners Association as well. Unfortunately, these two entities don't have the authority to permit new pipelines, power connections, or roads for businesses and their facilities. That has caused delays that could last years.

That is why I am fighting to pass the Apex Area Technical Corrections Act. This bill will give the city of North Las Vegas and the Apex Industrial Park Owners Association the authority they need to issue permits and get new and existing businesses the utilities they need to operate.

This legislation cuts through unnecessary government obstacles and allows our businesses to grow at a sustainable pace. It is essential to ensure businesses can efficiently continue to build and expand in Nevada, including at the Apex Industrial Park, bring new jobs to North Las Vegas, and continue to strengthen our economy.

This bill has already passed through the House of Representatives, and I look forward to the President signing it into law soon.

With that, I yield the floor.

Madam Speaker, I move to suspend the rules and pass the bill (H.R. 42) to amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to exclude certain payments to aged, blind, or disabled Alaska Natives or descendants of Alaska Natives from being used to determine eligibility for certain programs, and for other purposes.

Madam Speaker, I ask unanimous consent that all Members have 5 legislative days to revise and extend their remarks and to add extraneous material on H.R. 42, the bill now under consideration.

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

Madam Speaker, H.R. 42 would exclude the amounts distributed or benefits provided from the Alaska Native corporation, or the ANC, settlement trusts to Alaska Natives who are blind, disabled, 65 years or older, or their descendants, when determining eligibility for means- tested Federal benefits.

Federal means-tested benefits include programs such as Supplemental Security Income, Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, and Federal housing benefits.

In 1988, Congress amended the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act, or ANCSA, to exclude the first $2,000 any Alaska Native individual receives from an ANC when determining eligibility for means-tested Federal benefits.

Additionally, the 1988 amendments authorized ANCs to establish settlement trusts to distribute benefits to Alaska Native beneficiaries.

Yet, benefits from settlement trusts were not excluded when determining recipient eligibility for government assistance programs, as with the first $2,000 of other benefits Alaska Natives can receive from ANCs.

ANCs have brought forward concerns with this discrepancy and the impact it has on Alaska Natives, particularly those who are aged, blind, or disabled. Often these individuals are placed in the position of choosing between accepting the settlement trust income or qualifying for government assistance programs.

H.R. 42 would address this oversight and exclude the amounts for benefits distributed to aged, blind, or disabled Alaska Natives from settlement trusts when determining eligibility for means-tested Federal benefits.

I thank the sponsor of this legislation, our freshman Member from Alaska, Mr. Begich, for his leadership in addressing this important issue and for introducing this bill on the first day of the 119th Congress so it could quickly be brought to the floor for consideration.

Madam Speaker, I support the bill, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from Alaska (Mr. Begich), who is the lead sponsor of this bill.

Madam Speaker, I have no further requests for time. I am prepared to close, and I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, again, this legislation would ensure that amounts distributed or benefits provided from Alaska Native corporation settlement trusts to Alaska Natives who are blind, disabled, or elders aged 65 and older, or their descendants, are excluded when determining eligibility for means-tested Federal benefits.

Again, Madam Speaker, I thank Mr. Begich for his work on an important issue for Alaska Natives, I urge the adoption of the bill, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I yield myself such time as I may consume. I rise in support of Representative Begich's H.R. 42, the Alaska Native Settlement Trust Eligibility Act.

Congress passed the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act in 1971 to address land claims in the State of Alaska. Per an agreement, Alaska Native corporations were established, and the Federal Government transferred to them 44 million acres and $962.5 million in compensation funds.

However, when an individual receives a distribution from an Alaska Native settlement trust, part of this law requires that the Federal Government include that distribution when determining the person's eligibility for various governmental programs such as for housing and supplemental income and nutritional assistance.

H.R. 42 would amend the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act to exclude from that calculation any such distributions provided to aged, blind, or disabled Alaska Natives.

These are critical services that support the livelihoods of some of the most vulnerable Alaska Natives. Over the years, the failure to address this issue has often forced Alaska Natives to choose between receiving the settlement trust fund benefits they are entitled to or qualifying for need-based Federal benefits. H.R. 42 would solve this problem, which is great news.

I will remind my colleagues, though, that this bill of course, doesn't remove the risk that this administration will try to illegally freeze or pause anyone's Federal benefits. Moreover, this bill will be of small comfort if Republicans make good on their promises to cut need-based Federal programs to pay for their billionaire tax breaks. These aren't hypotheticals. The House Republican Study Committee's budget proposal last fall called for cutting SNAP, the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, by about 22 percent, for example.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bill, but I also urge them to oppose the lawlessness we have been seeing in the administration and to oppose cuts to programs that help the most vulnerable people in our communities. I reserve the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support the legislation, and I yield back the balance of my time.

Madam Speaker, I rise today in support of my bill, H.R. 42, the Alaska Native Settlement Trust Eligibility Act. This legislation makes a simple but necessary fix to Federal law, ensuring that certain benefits distributed through Alaska Native corporation settlement trusts do not unreasonably disqualify vulnerable Alaskans from receiving assistance.

For decades, Alaska Native corporations have provided vital support to their shareholders, including through settlement trusts, an essential tool Congress authorized in 1988 to deliver benefits in a structured, perpetual way. However, due to an oversight in the law, payments from these trusts are counted as income when determining eligibility for Federal programs like Supplemental Security Income, SNAP, and housing assistance.

That means visually impaired and disabled Alaska Natives and elders are forced to make an impossible choice: accept the benefits from their settlement trusts or maintain their access to critical assistance.

By ensuring that these benefits are not counted as income, H.R. 42 aligns settlement trust distributions with other Alaska Native benefits already excluded from eligibility calculations. It upholds the original intent of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act and protects the most vulnerable in need in our Alaska Native communities.

Madam Speaker, I urge my colleagues to support this bipartisan, commonsense legislation. Let's ensure that no one has to choose between their critical assistance and their well-being.