House Adopts Tribes’ Land Trust Bills in Rare Display of Bipartisan Unanimity

There’s not much consensus these days in the fractious U.S. House of Representatives. But for two proposals presented to the chamber floor on Feb. 6, there was a rare glimpse of what bipartisan accord looks like.

The House—in proceedings orchestrated by Speaker Pro. Tem. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene—adopted a pair of bills granting Native American tribes’ requests for trust designations on lands in Tennessee and California, ceding them to the U.S. Department of Interior (DOI) as shields against development.

Both measures had been previously approved the House, including in November 2021 in 407-16 votes, but failed to advance out of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee. They both advanced Feb. 6 in roll call votes without audible dissent.

The Eastern Band of Cherokee Historic Lands Reacquisition Act, sponsored by Rep. Chuck Fleischmann (R-Tenn.), places 76 acres of federal land managed by the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA) into trust on behalf of the Eastern Band of Cherokee. The land in Monroe County, Tennessee, includes the birthplace of Cherokee warrior and scholar Sequoyah.