Committee on Indian Affairs. Hearings held.
This bill settles long-standing water rights disputes for three Native American tribes in northeastern Arizona: the Navajo Nation, the Hopi Tribe, and the San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe. It gives each tribe defined amounts of water from the Colorado River and other sources, provides about $5.1 billion in federal funds to build a major water pipeline and other water projects, and creates trust funds to help the tribes manage their water systems. In exchange, the tribes give up the right to file future lawsuits over water claims.
Hundreds of thousands of Native Americans in northeastern Arizona lack reliable access to clean running water , some haul water for hours across desert roads. This bill would fund a major pipeline and water infrastructure to change that, representing one of the largest federal investments in tribal water access in U.S. history.