Winnebago Land Transfer Act of 2023

Floor Speech

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Mrs. FISCHER. Mr. President, the Winnebago Land Transfer Act brings a simple issue of fairness to the Senate floor. I introduced this bill with my colleagues after hearing from members of the Winnebago Tribe about the trials they have faced over decades. These trials were sadly imposed by our own government, and that is why our government must resolve them.

In the mid-1800s, the government forcibly removed the Winnebago Tribe from their homeland. They settled in a new home in 1865--the Winnebago Indian Reservation in my home State of Nebraska.

The government promised that land to the Winnebago Tribe, and they promised it forever, but they did not keep that promise. In 1970, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers condemned 1,600 acres of the Tribe's reservation land for a proposed recreation project--a project that was never even started. The land seizure launched over half a century of legal battles between the Winnebago Tribe and the U.S. Government-- battles that never brought this matter to a just resolution.

But America is defined by our striving toward the ideals of justice and equality. Our government was established to protect these ideals, and that is what we will do by passing the Winnebago Land Transfer Act. Our legislation will restore the Tribe's rightful land, transferring the remaining tracts of land back from the U.S. Army Corps.

The House of Representatives passed this legislation earlier this year, and that is the version we are voting on today. They passed it because, like I said, it is a simple issue of fairness--one that all of us, no matter our political party, can get behind.

I am hopeful that today the Senate will follow suit, that we will uphold those ideals of justice and of equality. I am hopeful that we will pass this bill to return the land to its rightful owner, the Winnebago Tribe.

411, H.R. 1240.
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Mrs. FISCHER. I know of no further debate on the bill.

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