HOBBS, STRAUS, DEAN & WALKER LLP STATUS OF INDIAN-RELATED LEGISLATION – 115th CONGRESS (Public Laws are highlighted in “Red” - other updates since last emailed are in “Blue”) ISSUE STATUS EXPLANATION ADOPTION AND FOSTER CARE: S. 684, the National Adoption and Foster 3/21/17-Referred to Senate Committee on Cosponsors: 1 Care Home Study Act, was introduced by Health, Education, Labor, and Pensions. Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand (D-NY) on 3/21/17. Establishes a national, research-based, and comprehensive home study assessment process for the evaluation of prospective foster parents and H. R.1650, the National Adoption and 3/21/17-Referred to Committee on Education adoptive parents and provide funding to States and Foster Care Home Study Act, was and the Workforce. Indian tribes to adopt such process. introduced by Rep. Jared Huffman (D-CA) on 3/21/17. Cosponsors: 3 H. R. 2952, the Foster Youth Mentoring Act 6/20/17-Referred to House Committee on Cosponsors: 7 of 2017, was introduced by Rep. Karen Ways and Means. Bass (D-CA) on 6/20/17. Supports the establishment or expansion and operation of programs using a network of public and private community entities to provide mentoring for children in foster care. Sec. 3. Programs for mentoring children in foster care. …“(3) Eligible Entity.—The term ‘eligible entity’ means—…“(D) an Indian tribe or a tribal organization; or Tribal provisions. S. 876, the Tribal Adoption Parity Act, was 4/6/17-Referred to the House Committee on Cosponsors: 6 introduced by Rep. Heidi Heitkamp (D-ND) Finance. Amends the Internal Revenue Code to allow on 4/6/17. Indian tribal governments to determine whether a child has special needs for the purposes of the adoption tax credit. S. 1795, the Higher Education Access and 9/12/17-Referred to Committee on Health, Cosponsors: 1 Success for Homeless and Foster Youth Education, Labor, and Pensions. Act, was introduced by Sen. Patty Murray Amends the Higher Education Act of 1965 to (D-WA) on 9/12/17. improve the financial aid process for homeless children and youths and foster care children and youth. … The term ‘foster care children and youth’— “(A) means children and youth whose care and placement are the responsibility of the State or Tribal agency that administers a State or Tribal plan under part B or E of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 621 et seq. and 670 et seq.), without regard to whether foster care maintenance payments are made under section 472 of such Act (42 U.S.C. 672) on behalf of such children and youth; and “(B) includes individuals who were age 13 or older when their care and placement were the responsibility of a State or Tribal agency that administered a State or Tribal plan under part B or E of title IV of the Social Security Act (42 U.S.C. 621 et seq. and 670 et seq.) and who are no longer under the care and responsibility of such a State or tribal agency, without regard to any such individual’s subsequent adoption, guardianship arrangement, or other form of permanency outcome.”… Other tribal provisions. ALASKA: H. R. 229, the Unrecognized Southeast 1/3/17-Referred to Committee on Natural Cosponsors: 0 Alaska Native Communities Recognition Resources. and Compensation Act, was introduced by 2/10/17-Referred to the Subcommittee on This bill amends the Alaska Native Claims Rep. Don Young (R-AK) on 1/3/17. Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs. Settlement Act to permit the Native residents of each of the Native villages of Haines, Ketchikan, . Petersburg, Tenakee, and Wrangell, Alaska, to organize as urban corporations and to receive certain settlement land. These urban corporations may establish a settlement trust to promote the health, education, and welfare of the trust beneficiaries, and preserve the Native heritage and culture of their communities. H. R. 230, the “Shee Atiká Land 1/3/17-Referred to Committee on Natural Cosponsors: 0 Entitlement Act” or the “SALE Act”, was Resources. introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) on 2/10/17-Referred to the Subcommittee on Declares that consideration received by the urban 1/3/17. Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs. Native corporation of Shee Atika under the agreement between Shee Atika and the United States must be treated as the receipt of land or interest in land pursuant to the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act or as cash to equalize the values of properties exchanged pursuant to that Act. (Under the Act, these considerations are not taxed.) Shee Atika may elect to accept payment from the Department of Agriculture for Cube Cove lands into an account that may be used to purchase property sold at public sale by a federal agency. Purchases made through that account must be considered to be conveyances under the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act. H. R. 348, the Ukpeagvik Inupiat 1/5/17-Referred to Committee on Committee Cosponsors: 0 Corporation Gravel Exchange Amendment on Natural Resources. Act, was introduced by Rep. Don Young 2/10/17-Referred to the Subcommittee on Seeks to more accurately identify and transfer (R-AK) on 1/5/17. Federal Lands. subsurface gravel sources originally intended to be made available to the Ukpeagvik Inupiat Corporation in exchange for its relinquishment of related property rights. H. R. 231, the Canyon Village Land 1/3/17-Referred to Committee on Natural Cosponsors: 0 Conveyance Act, was introduced by Rep. Resources. Don Young (R-AK) on 1/3/17. 2/10/17-Referred to the Subcommittee on Amends the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act Indian, Insular and Alaska Native Affairs. to require the Department of the Interior to convey to Kian Tr'ee Corporation, an Alaska Native village corporation, for the Native village of Canyon Village, the surface estate of up to 6,400 acres of public land selected by the corporation. Interior must convey an equal acreage of subsurface estate to Doyon Limited, an Alaska Native regional corporation. Canyon Village was established on the banks of the Porcupine River at the tribe’s traditional village site used for hunting. After the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (ANCSA) passed in 1971, Canyon Village was recognized by Congress as a Native village subject to ANCSA, and the Bureau of Indian Affairs certified Kian Tr’ee Corporation as the corporation for Canyon Village. However, despite continued assurances over decades, the original land selections by Canyon Village have never been conveyed. The members of Canyon Village continue to hold their traditional site at Canyon Village of historical and cultural importance, and have long advocated for their land selections authorized by ANCSA. According to Delma Fields, First Chief of Canyon Village, “Our family, an extended family, chose to live here as it is our hunting grounds, and was our ancestor’s hunting grounds for many, many years. Our culture and our lives are based around land, this land in particular.” In June 1976, Kian Tr’ee Corporation filed its land selection with the Bureau of Land Management pursuant to ANCSA for conveyance to the Native group. However, due to a series of federal actions, the people of Canyon Village have been denied their aboriginal land claims provided by ANCSA for over 40 years now. Today Kian Tr’ee is one of two certified Native group corporations in Alaska that has neither a conveyance nor a pending conveyance arranged by special legislation or negotiation, yet there is a remedy at hand. Congressman Don Young introduced HR 231 in January 2016. HR 231, or the Canyon Village Land Conveyance Act, amends ANCSA to require the secretary of the interior to convey up to 6,400 acres of land selected to Kian Tr’ee. Passage of the bill would provide renewed hope in final conveyance. Fields said, “As our elders pass on, it’s imperative that we keep our connection with the land to continue our heritage for the sake of our children, grandchildren and future generations.” H. R. 513, the Alaska Mental Health Trust 1/12/17-Referred to Committee on Natural Cosponsors: 0 Land Exchange Act of 2017, was Resources. introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) on 2/10/17-Referred to Subcommittee on Provides for the exchange of certain National 1/12/17. Federal Lands. Forest System land and non-Federal land in the State of Alaska, and for other purposes. S. 131, the Alaska Mental Health Trust 1/12/17-Referred to Committee on Energy Tribal provisions. Land Exchange Act of 2017, was and Natural Resources. introduced by Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-AK) on 1/12/17. Cosponsors: 1 H. R. 49, the American Energy 1/3/17-Referred to Committees on Natural Cosponsors: 0 Independence and Job Creation Act, was Resources; Energy and Commerce; and introduced by Rep. Don Young (R-AK) on Science, Space, and Technology. SEC. 11. Conveyance. …(1) to the Kaktovik 1/3/17. 2/10/17-Referred to the Subcommittee on Inupiat Corporation the surface estate of the lands Energy and Mineral Resources. described in paragraph 1 of Public Land Order 6959, to the extent necessary to fulfill the Corporation’s entitlement under sections 12 and 14 of the Alaska Native Claims Settlement Act (43 U.S.C. 1611 and 1613) in accordance with the terms and conditions of the Agreement between the Department of the Interior, the United States Fish and Wildlife Service, the Bureau of Land Management, and the Kaktovik Inupiat Corporation effective January 22, 1993; and … Other tribal provisions. S. 101, the King Cove Road Land Exchange 1/11/17-Referred to the Committee on Cosponsors: 1 Act, was introduced by Sen.