Brian Schatz

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, the past 4 years have been historic for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs by almost any measure. We secured the largest investment in Native communities in American history, totaling more than $45 billion. We had the committee's most productive 4-year period ever, passing more than a dozen bills into law. And, just this month, we passed another 10 bills in the Senate that are waiting for action in the House. Taken together, these record investments and laws cover a wide range of priorities for native people--securing ancestral lands and waters, building safer communities for children and elders, and turning a new page on the boarding school era by promoting native languages, education, and healing. But the numbers alone don't tell the story because behind each of these statutes and investments are real, tangible benefits for Native communities everywhere--from the homes they live in to the roads they get around on to the water they drink every day--and I am proud that we have been able to deliver such important investments in Indian Country, on Hawaiian homelands, and in Alaska Native villages, whose needs have been so often overlooked or even sometimes harmed by the Federal Government. This progress means more people will have homes with working electricity and clean, piped water. Advance appropriations for the Indian Health Service, for the first time ever, means people don't have to worry about whether or not they can get to a doctor or not if the government shuts down. Significant investments in Tribal transportation and infrastructure means that communities are one step closer to making dirt roads and broadband deserts a thing of the past. And thanks to the provisions in the Violence Against Women Act reauthorization, Tribes can be in charge of their own safety again with the ability to keep their children and their neighbors safe. The committee has also enacted three water rights settlements into law and secured $2.5 billion to pay for these and the more than 30 other already enacted settlements. There is more work to do to get other settlements over the line, and we are going to continue to work with our House colleagues to get it done. Rebuilding Tribal homelands, expanding broadband, building out transportation projects were key priorities for our committee on a bipartisan basis. We were also focused on helping Native communities unlock clean energy and adapt to a changing climate. Elsewhere, we put real resources into the Federal Government's efforts to revitalize Native languages and work to bring healing around the Federal Indian boarding school era. From day one, our work was guided by the voices of Native leaders and community members--``nothing about me without me'' as the saying goes-- and we couldn't have done this without the incredible leadership of Native people across our great country, telling us what matters and holding us accountable. The progress, though long overdue, is still in progress. The bills we passed and the investments we have made will materially benefit people's lives--for American Indians, for Native Hawaiians, and Alaska Natives. Now, that doesn't mean we get to call it a day, because to say that this is the most productive period for Native people as it relates to congressional action in American history is to say two things: It is to say we did a lot. It is certainly to say we did a lot. We did it on a bipartisan basis. We did it with extraordinary staff from my Indian Affairs Committee staffers to Lisa Murkowski's staffers, to all of the Members and advocacy organizations. We did a lot. It is also to acknowledge that it was a damned low bar. Most Congresses not only didn't help Native communities much but actively harmed Native communities a lot. The official position of the United States Federal Government was the extermination of Tribal governments. The official position with the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. military, the Department of the Interior, and other Federal Agencies and their representatives was to essentially dismantle Native cultures--language, access to water, access to land. They cut the children's hair. They punished them physically if they spoke their Native language. They removed these children from their parents and incarcerated them in something that they called boarding schools, but let's be clear. It wasn't a boarding school in the sense of ``my kid is 16. We have some extra money. Maybe they are going to go to a good school on the east coast somewhere.'' They were incarcerated. So it is true that we have done a lot. It is also true that we have done a lot--that we have harmed Native communities for centuries, and this 4-year period marks a change in the relationship between the U.S. Federal Government and Native communities from Hawaii to Alaska and all across the continent. And so I am extraordinarily proud of the accomplishments of this committee, but I don't want anyone to mistake this for a victory lap. We have so much more to do to undo, literally, generations of injustice. No amount of work we are going to do in a year or even 4 years is going to suddenly and totally reverse generations of neglect and harm by the Federal Government. Yet this is a moment to recognize the great work we have done. It is broadband; it is water; it is economic opportunity; it is Native culture; it is Native language; it is Native music. It is people being in control of their own intellectual property, in control of their own destinies. That is what this is about. This is about the right of people--the first peoples of the United States--to self-determination. I am proud to be a small part of that legacy. I yield the floor. (Mr. BROWN assumed the Chair.)

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. SCHATZ. I know of no further debate on the bill, as amended.

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 561, S. 2908.

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendments be withdrawn; that the Heinrich substitute amendment at the desk be considered and agreed to; and that the bill, as amended, be considered read a third time.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of Calendar No. 560, S. 2783.

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the bill be considered read a third time.

Mr. SCHATZ. I know of no further debate on the bill.

Mr. SCHATZ. I ask that the motion to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, we are going to try to make some laws in the next week in the area of jurisdiction where I am chair--the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. We have already had the most constructive and productive period for Native people in congressional history. We have invested more in water, in transportation, in broadband, in energy, in culture, and in economic development. We have passed an extraordinary number of bipartisan bills. But we are not done. We have about a week left, and we have a number of bipartisan bills that have to get across the finish line. So I am going to summarize four bills and try to pass them out of the Senate, and then we will do more work next week on a bipartisan basis to finish out this Congress strong, to make sure we do everything we can for Native people from Hawaii, to Florida, and everywhere in between. S. 2783, the Miccosukee Reserved Area Amendment Act, will amend existing law to add culturally important land to the Miccosukee Tribe's reservation, and it would also authorize up to $14 million to protect the land from flooding caused by Federal projects to restore the Everglades National Park ecosystem. This is a commonsense bill that passed the Indian Affairs Committee unanimously. S. 2908, the Indian Buffalo Management Act, introduced by Senators Heinrich and Mullin, would improve the capacity of Tribes and Tribal organizations to manage buffalo and buffalo habitat and clarify the applicability of State and Federal law. It would establish a $14 million annual grant program for 7 years within the Department of the Interior to help Tribal nations play a pivotal role in this recovery effort, especially on their own lands. S. 4365, Veterinary Services to Improve Public Health in Rural Communities Act is the Vice Chair Lisa Murkowski's bill, and it would allow public health officers from the U.S. Public Health Service to offer some veterinary services at IHS facilities to control domestic animal populations and to prevent the spread of rabies and other diseases to humans. Finally, the Tribal Forest Protection Act Amendments Act, also introduced by Vice Chair Murkowski, and it will help to mitigate wildfire threats on Federal lands and Tribal or Alaska Native or corporation forest lands. It removes an existing requirement for mitigation work to take place on Federal lands next to Tribal lands. It also expands eligibility to include Federal lands with special geographic, historical, or cultural significance to a Tribe, and it authorizes up to $15 million annually through the fiscal year 2030. We have a couple of other bills that we are not quite done negotiating about, in particular, a bill introduced by Senator-elect Gallego--Representative Gallego--and Senator Lujan to protect children who are victims of abuse and to help Tribes, to help families to recover. We have to do some final clarifications with our counterparts on the Republican side, and I am hopeful that we will land that one as well. We also have a couple of bills from Senator Cortez Masto having to do with law enforcement. And, finally, a bill that is arguably the most important out of all of these in terms of its national impact, and that is to establish a commission to reckon with the shameful legacy of boarding schools, in which children were basically incarcerated, removed from their Tribal communities, and forced to speak a language they didn't speak. Sometimes, forcibly, their hair was cut. Many times they were punished for speaking in their native language or singing their native songs. This is a legacy of abuse at the hands of the Federal Government that we have to reckon with, and this would simply establish a commission to start to delve into this history and come through it to a place of healing, but we are not there yet on those bills. So here comes the lawmaking part.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following bills en bloc, Calendar No. 574, S. 4370; and Calendar No. 563, S. 4365.

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the committee-reported amendments, where applicable, be agreed to; that the bills, as amended, be considered read a third time.

Mr. SCHATZ. I know of no further debate on the bills, as amended, en bloc.

Mr. SCHATZ. I ask that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table en bloc.

Mr. SCHATZ. I yield the floor. I suggest the absence of a quorum.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, I ask unanimous consent that the mandatory quorum call be waived.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent to withdraw the cloture motion with respect to the Ditelberg nomination.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, we are running out of time. We have just over a week left before Congress goes home for the holidays, and we cannot leave town without passing long-term disaster relief. People have waited and waited and waited and waited for help to arrive, and every day that we don't get this done is another day that survivors can't start to get back to life as they knew it--going to work, going to school, dropping their kids off at basketball practice, getting together with friends and neighbors. For the people in Lahaina, help cannot come soon enough. Almost a year and a half after the tragic fires, it is as hard as ever to make ends meet. Housing is scarce. Prices are going up. Jobs are hard to come by. People are doing everything they can to get by and to help each other out. So it is not for a lack of trying; it is that they were never meant to confront this recovery alone. When you have lost everything, when you are still mourning friends and loved ones, when you are 16 months into a recovery and normalcy still feels so far away, you need help, and getting that help is the difference between people being able to stay on Maui or leaving. People are leaving the only place they have ever called home. Those are the stakes. They are not theoretical. This is happening to hundreds of families in West Maui. Lahaina is not the only community that has been devastated by a disaster. Communities in 40 States are building back from a disaster of some kind--a flood, a wildfire, a hurricane--and more than 25 States are relying on long-term Federal assistance to get survivors back on their feet. No one is asking for charity. What they are asking for is the kind of aid that has helped to restore so many communities across the country over many, many years. This is what Congress is supposed to do--Louisiana after Hurricane Katrina, New York and New Jersey after Hurricane Sandy, Puerto Rico after Hurricane Maria, California after the 2018 wildfires, and more than a dozen States nationally as recently as 3 years ago. The Community Development Block Grant Disaster Recovery Program-- known as CDBG-DR--works. It has supported millions of Americans struck by disaster over the last 30 years by giving them flexible, long-term assistance. So to fail to do this now for people in Lahaina and across the country would be quite unusual and shameful. We have a simple task here: to help our fellow Americans in their hour of need. I want to be perfectly clear. We cannot and we will not leave town without passing disaster aid. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate resume consideration of the Marzano nomination.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Madam President, as President Biden considers candidates for clemency in the final weeks of his term, the Native American activist Leonard Peltier is among those who deserve grace and mercy. Peltier was arrested in 1975 for his alleged involvement in the murder of two FBI agents in a shootout on the Pine Ridge Reservation in South Dakota. But the process that led to his conviction had major issues and inaccuracies from the start. For example, one witness whose statements were used at trial said she was told to lie and say that she was in a relationship with Peltier and that she had witnessed him shoot the agents. She later recanted that statement saying: I was forced into this, and I feel very awful. I just wish that Leonard Peltier would get out of prison. In another instance, according to reporting, a juror who, on day two of the trial, professed her prejudice against Native Americans was allowed to remain on the panel. If that wasn't enough, take it from the very U.S. attorney who tried the case. The prosecutor who tried the case, James Reynolds, said Peltier had served his sentence on ``the basis of minimal evidence, a result that I strongly doubt would be upheld in any court today.'' In the same letter, Reynolds urged President Biden to commute Peltier's sentence, writing: I write today from a position rare for a former prosecutor. To beseech you to commute the sentence of a man who I helped put behind bars. With time, and the benefit of hindsight, I have realized that the prosecution and continued incarceration of Mr. Peltier was and is unjust. We were not able to prove that Mr. Peltier personally committed any offense on the Pine Ridge Reservation. Peltier is now 80 years old and has been in prison for 50 years. He is in declining health, experiencing vision loss and other illnesses. And in spite of all that, earlier this year, Federal officials denied his request for compassionate release and parole. And so even if you believe that he did, in fact, commit the crime, surely now, the time is now to let him spend whatever remaining days he has at home to die with his family. He has done his time. He is of old age and in poor health. This is what clemency is for. This is what mercy is for. He poses little threat to society. If there was ever a case that merited compassionate release, Leonard Peltier's is it. This is exactly what this awesome Presidential power is for--to right a historic wrong. And if not that, then just to show mercy and let an old man die with his family. I yield the floor.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. I ask unanimous consent I be permitted to speak for up to 4 minutes and Senator Kennedy be permitted to speak for up to 30 minutes prior to the scheduled vote.

Mr. SCHATZ

Mr. SCHATZ. Mr. President, the past 4 years have been the most productive ever for the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs. Working on a bipartisan basis, we have secured the largest investment in Native communities in American history and enacted more than two dozen bills into law. The progress we have made is real, it is tangible, and it is meaningful. But there is still a lot of work to do to live up to our responsibilities to these communities, including in the final weeks of this Congress. There are currently more than a dozen bills that have advanced out of our committee on a unanimous, bipartisan basis but have yet to receive full Senate consideration, and there is no good reason for them to languish for months or even years without action. My bill, S. 385, makes technical corrections to the Native American Tourism and Improving Visitor Experience Act, which authorizes grants to Indian Tribes, Tribal organizations, and Native Hawaiian organizations for recreational travel and tourism activities. This bill was reported out of committee more than a year and a half ago. There has been more than enough time to raise concerns and rectify any issues. It is time to get this done now. S. 1322, the Unlocking Native Lands and Opportunities for Commerce and Key Economic Developments, or UNLOCKED, Act would enable Indian Tribes to lease their own land for up to 99 years for business and other purposes and to approve certain rights-of-way on their lands under existing law. Senator Murkowski and I introduced this legislation that will incentivize more businesses to invest in Indian Country. This commonsense legislation will support Tribes and their economic development needs. Finally, S. 2868 was introduced by Senator Smith on behalf of the Lower Sioux Indian Community to revoke the Tribe's Indian Reorganization Act, Section 17 Charter of Incorporation. The Tribe testified in committee that the charter is actively hindering its economic development activities because it can't do things without the Interior Secretary's approval. The Tribe's charter has been in place since 1937. Only Congress has the power to revoke such charters and has acted to revoke such charters previously for a number of Tribes. So, as if in legislative session, I ask unanimous consent that the Senate proceed to the immediate consideration of the following bills en bloc: Calendar No. 34, S. 385; Calendar No. 342, S. 1322; and Calendar No. 490, S. 2868.

Mr. SCHATZ. I know of no further debate on the bills, as amended, where amended, en bloc.

Mr. SCHATZ. I further ask that the committee-reported substitute amendment to S. 1322, be considered and agreed to; and that the bills, as amended, where amended, be considered read a third time, en bloc.

Mr. SCHATZ. I ask that the motions to reconsider be considered made and laid upon the table, en bloc.