A bipartisan coalition of senators and representatives is pressing congressional leaders to act on Tribal Water Rights Settlements pending before the U.S. Senate, warning that failure to do so will unleash decades of costly litigation and delay critical access to water for Native American communities.
In a sharply worded letter dated Sept. 4, Sens. Steve Daines, R-Mont., Martin Heinrich, D-N.M., Tim Sheehy, R-Mont., and Ben Ray Luján, D-N.M., joined by Reps. Ryan Zinke, R-Mont., Teresa Leger Fernandez, D-N.M., and others, urged Congress to move forward with a slate of settlement bills or make technical corrections to keep them alive.
“Without Congressional action, the fulfillment of water rights in our states will be adjudicated in court at great taxpayer expense and over the course of the next several decades,” the lawmakers cautioned.
Navajo-Gallup Project: A $2 Billion Lifeline
One of the central measures is the Navajo-Gallup Water Supply Project Amendments Act, which would inject vital funding to complete a $2 billion infrastructure effort delivering drinking water to underserved communities in northwestern New Mexico.
