Sponsors (2)
Introduced November 7, 2025 by Ken Calvert · Last progress November 7, 2025
The bill secures Agua Caliente tribal water rights, land, and substantial federal funding and legal certainty—advancing tribal self‑determination and infrastructure—while trading away broad legal claims, shifting costs and regulatory control, and imposing significant federal spending and administrative complexity.
Agua Caliente Tribe and Reservation residents gain a federally protected, long‑term water right (20,000 AFY) and clarified water allocations, securing long‑term water access and reducing litigation over water.
The Tribe receives large immediate and long‑term federal funding and trust resources (e.g., $50M deposit, $500M transfers and an investable trust) to implement water and development projects and support long‑term infrastructure.
The Act resolves many historic claims through mutual releases and a settlement, providing the Tribe and other parties with compensation and legal certainty while reducing future litigation and federal contingent liability.
Tribal members, Allottees, and other claimants give up many existing and prospective claims (broad waivers and mutual releases), which could bar larger future remedies or compensation and restrict legal recourse.
Taxpayers face substantial federal outlays (hundreds of millions in deposits/transfers and ongoing obligations), increasing federal spending and budgetary exposure.
The Tribe must assume major implementation costs (operation, maintenance, environmental compliance) and faces restrictions on fund use (no per‑capita distributions), which can deplete tribal resources and limit direct cash benefits to members.
Based on analysis of 28 sections of legislative text.
Recognizes and settles a tribal water right (up to 20,000 AFY), transfers federal land into trust, creates a funded settlement trust, authorizes payments, waives claims, and sets tax and water-management rules.
Recognizes and settles a federally held water right for the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (up to 20,000 acre-feet per year), transfers several specified federal parcels into trust for the Tribe, authorizes sale of specified Federal “Facility Land” to a local water district, and creates a permanent Agua Caliente Settlement Trust Fund seeded with hundreds of millions of dollars to implement water, groundwater augmentation, development, and O&M projects. The Act requires mutual waivers and releases of historic claims tied to the settlement, sets conditions for taxation of tribal possessory interests in Riverside County, establishes environmental and cultural‑resource protections, and makes implementation contingent on an Enforceability Date when specified conditions (funding, amended Agreement, court decree, and executed waivers) are satisfied.