H.R. 1061 (111^th): Hoh Indian Tribe Safe Homelands Act

GovTrack’s Bill Summary

We don’t have a summary available yet.

Library of Congress Summary

The summary below was written by the Congressional Research Service, which is a nonpartisan division of the Library of Congress.

House Republican Conference Summary

The summary below was written by the House Republican Conference, which is the caucus of Republicans in the House of Representatives.

This summary can be found at http://www.gop.gov/bill/111/2/hr1061.

Background

According to findings listed in the bill, as well as House Report 111-306, the Hoh Indian Tribe's reservation sits on one square mile of land in the state of Washington. 90 percent of the reservation, which was established in 1893, is located within a flood zone and the tribe has experienced a number floods in the past decade, resulting in damage to the reservation's infrastructure. According to the Committee Report, "The current Hoh Indian Reservation is unsafe for habitation due to its location in both a tsunami and flood zone." The BIA has also provided funding for flood reconstruction efforts in the last five years. To address this situation, the tribe recently purchased roughly 260 acres of land and were transferred an additional 160 acres from the state of Washington in order to re-locate certain infrastructure. However, the only road connecting the reservation and the new land crosses Olympic National Park. Thus, transferring this parcel to the tribe and placing it in trust would allow the tribe to freely cross between their original reservation boundaries and their new land.

Summary

H.R. 1061 would transfer 37 acres of federal land in Olympic National Park from the National Park Service to the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) to be held in trust for the Hoh Indian Tribe in the state of Washington.  In addition to the land transferred from the Park Service to the tribe, the legislation would also require the BIA to take into trust approximately 460 acres of non-federal land recently acquired by the tribe.  Under the bill, land taken into trust shall become a part of the Hoh Indian reservation.   

The legislation contains a number of restrictions on the use of the land transferred to the tribe, including:

• No buildings shall be placed on the land being transferred into trust.
• The condition of the land at the time of transfer must be preserved.
• No logging or hunting shall be allowed on the land in order "to maintain its use as a natural wildlife corridor and to provide for protection of existing resources."
• No new roads or vehicle routes shall be constructed.

The bill also requires the Secretary of Interior and the tribe to enter into cooperative agreements for mutual emergency fire aid, upon completion of the Tribe's proposed emergency fire response building.

Finally, the bill would prohibit gambling operations on any new land taken into trust under the legislation.

Cost

According to CBO, H.R. 1061 would cost less than $500,000 over the FY 2010 through FY 2014 period. CBO states that the tribe would be entitled to seek funding from BIA and the Department of Housing and Urban Development for services on the new land, however, the legislation would not specifically authorize funding for those programs or activities, which would be subject to the ability of appropriated spending.

House Democratic Caucus Summary

The House Democratic Caucus does not provide summaries of bills.

So, yes, we display the House Republican Conference’s summaries when available even if we do not have a Democratic summary available. That’s because we feel it is better to give you as much information as possible, even if we cannot provide every viewpoint.

We’ll be looking for a source of summaries from the other side in the meanwhile.