Indian Trust Asset Reform Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. NEWHOUSE. Mr. Speaker, I thank the chairman from California (Mr. McClintock) for yielding.

Mr. Speaker, last summer more than 400,000 acres of tribal land in the Northwest burned with the Colville and the Yakama Tribes, which are in my district, enduring the worst fire season in a generation.

The Colville Indian Reservation alone saw 250,000 acres burned, consumed, by that blaze, much of which consisted of commercial timber.

The Indian Trust Asset Reform Act, H.R. 812, will authorize Indian tribes on a voluntary basis to carry out forest management activities on their own tribal lands without requiring review and approval by the Bureau of Indian Affairs. It will allow the Colville, the Yakama, and other tribes across the West to move salvage log sales more quickly than is possible under the current BIA process.

Providing tribes who maintain their timber resources with the authority to make these management decisions will expedite on-the- ground activity and open new doors to attract investment. In fact, I would argue that we should also give more control to States and localities in addition to these tribes.

The new authority derived in H.R. 812 will provide additional benefits to tribes with timber resources. The Colville Tribe has been attempting to reopen a sawmill in Omak, Washington, also in my district, since 2009.

One of the primary impediments to reopening has been the BIA's unwillingness to approve longer term agreements between the tribe and third-party investors. This new authority in this bill will allow tribes to enter into these type of agreements on their own, resulting in the creation of additional jobs as well as economic activity.

Last September, while catastrophic wildfires continued to burn across central Washington, Secretary Jewell visited the Colville Reservation and saw the devastation firsthand. Mr. Speaker, before the next fire season begins, significant resources will be needed to replant these forests as well as rehabilitate these landscapes.

The administration has not done enough to provide these tribes with the resources they need. We must correct that. We must make this change in order to ensure that these forests can continue to be a viable and productive resource for the tribes and communities in my district, my State, and the rest of the country.

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