Catawba Indian Nation Lands Act

Floor Speech

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Mr. CLYBURN. Madam Speaker, I rise today to call upon this august body for a favorable vote on H.R. 1619. That is a very interesting number for this legislation. This legislation is known as the Catawba Indian Nation Lands Act.

The Catawba Indian Nation Lands Act clarifies that the Catawba Indian Nation is subject to the well-established rules and regulations of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act on their modern and ancestral lands in the State of North Carolina.

This legislation will clarify the Tribe's 1993 Land Claims Settlement Act and reaffirm recent action taken by the Department of the Interior to take land into trust for the Tribe.

Most importantly, this bipartisan legislation is a very significant step toward rectifying historic injustices that have been perpetrated against the Catawba Indian Nation.

Like, in many other instances of current effects of historical inequities, the Catawba Nation experiences high unemployment and poverty rates causing many of its citizens to rely upon Federal and State governments for basic social services.

The enactment of this legislation is critical to helping the Catawba Indian Nation secure economic self-sufficiency as Congress originally intended when it passed the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988.

Madam Speaker, I respectfully ask my colleagues for a favorable vote on this Act.

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