Tribal General Welfare Exclusion Act of 2013

Floor Speech

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Mr. Speaker, I thank Mr. Nunes for doing this. Thank you for the bipartisan support from everyone, and particularly in the Ways and Means Committee.

This is one of those sort of semijoyous moments where we actually get to do something that is good legislation and good policy, and sometimes you desperately wish around here we had more of this.

Being from Arizona, I have 22 tribes in my State. As a much younger man in the legislature, I actually chaired the Indian Affairs Committee in my State legislature, and we spent years working with our communities to become self-sufficient, to maximum their sovereignty and respect it. So many of my tribes in Arizona now are actually engaging in activities to bolster their population, to provide them the basic benefits that you and I would receive from our city council, from our county, from our State. The clarification this provides just puts them on equal footings with what happens in our other communities and for those who live off reservation. That is why this is such good legislation. It is rational, it makes sense, and continues to incentivize the right direction, the right sovereignty, the right approach for our Native American people in this country.

With that, Mr. Nunes, thank you for doing this.

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