Statements on Introduced Bills and Joint Resolutions

Floor Speech

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Mr. PADILLA. Mr. President, I rise to introduce the Agua Caliente Land Exchange Fee to Trust Confirmation Act.

This legislation would place certain lands into trust for the Tribe in order to finally allow the Agua Caliente Band of Mission Indians to manage these lands that are of special, cultural value to their people .

Land that has traditionally been held by Agua Caliente has been divided into a checkerboard between the Tribe, Federal Government, and private landowners.

In 1999, the Bureau of Land Management and Agua Caliente entered into an agreement to acquire and exchange lands within what would become the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument. In 2000, legislation was enacted to establish the monument and authorize the land exchange.

For 17 years, Agua Caliente worked with the Bureau of Land Management to finalize an agreement to exchange the lands that are addressed by this legislation, and in March 2019, the land exchange was finalized. However, since the original legislation didn't expressly address the status of land transferred to the Tribe, the lands covered in this bill were not placed in trust. My legislation would correct that and provide the fix to finally place the exchanged land into trust and made part of Agua Caliente's reservation.

This bill represents the final step to complete the original 1999 agreement between Agua Caliente and the Bureau of Land Management.

Importantly, enactment of this legislation would allow for improved land management and allow Agua Caliente to manage these lands that have a longstanding cultural and natural resource value to the Cahuilla people.

The land is in a remote wilderness area within the Santa Rosa and San Jacinto Mountains National Monument, and the Tribe will manage the land as conservation lands similar to how it is managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

I thank Congressman Ruiz for his partnership on this effort and for his commitment to honoring the Federal Government's trust responsibility. I also thank the bipartisan Members of the House who have supported this legislation and Senator Feinstein for coleading this effort with me in the Senate.

I look forward to working with my colleagues to enact the Agua Caliente Land Exchange Fee to Trust Confirmation Act as quickly as possible.

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