Old Pascua Community Land Acquisition Act

Floor Speech

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

Madam Speaker, the Pascua Yaqui Tribe owns several parcels of land that it would like to use for gaming. This bill allows them to do that.

In May of 2021, the Governor of Arizona and 21 Tribes amended the Arizona Tribal State Gaming Compact to build a third gaming facility in the compact-designated area in Tucson.

The compact-designated area is known as the Old Pascua community, an area with deep historic ties to the Tribe. The compact requires land to be taken into trust by an act of Congress to open the gaming facility. H.R. 4881 does this by requiring the Secretary of the Interior to place any land owned by the Tribe within the compact-designated area into trust for gaming purposes.

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Madam Speaker, I yield such time as he may consume to the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva), the chair of the Natural Resources Committee.

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

Ms. LEGER FERNANDEZ. Madam Speaker, this bill, once again, demonstrates that there is strong bipartisan support for our Native American tribes and indigenous communities. I thank Ranking Member Westerman as well as Ranking Member Don Young on the Subcommittee for Indigenous Peoples of the United States.

The other thing this bill does, as has been highlighted by Chairman Grijalva, is it comes out of collaboration and conversation with everybody on the ground, the local communities, the States, the county, the Tribe. The people of southern Arizona are asking us to take action, and that is what we must do today.

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

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