Sponsors (21)
The bill grants the Lumbee Tribe federal recognition and access to land-into-trust tools and federal programs—improving services and development opportunities for many members—while creating fiscal costs, preserving state jurisdictional limits that constrain tribal self-governance, and producing potential administrative and geographic disparities in benefits access.
Members of the Lumbee Tribe gain federal recognition and become eligible for federal services, benefits, and programs available to other recognized tribes.
Lumbee people living in Robeson, Cumberland, Hoke, and Scotland counties are treated as residing on or near a reservation for benefit delivery, improving their access to federal programs (e.g., health, housing, education) in those counties.
The Secretary can take land into trust for the Tribe, enabling land consolidation and potential expansion of tribal services, housing, and economic development on tribal land.
Lumbee tribal lands in North Carolina remain subject to State criminal and civil jurisdiction unless authority is expressly transferred, which can limit tribal self-government over law enforcement and courts.
Federal recognition and new eligibility for services will increase costs to federal and state budgets to provide benefits and programs to the Tribe.
Treating members in specific counties as 'on or near' a reservation for benefits could create disparities between Lumbee members in those counties and tribal members who live elsewhere, producing unequal access to programs.
Based on analysis of 2 sections of legislative text.
Introduced January 16, 2025 by Thomas Roland Tillis · Last progress January 16, 2025
Grants federal recognition to the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina, making the Tribe and its members eligible for federal Indian laws, programs, and services and authorizing the Secretary of the Interior to take land into trust for the Tribe. Sets a specific, documentary-based process and timeline for verification of a tribal roll, allows certain local groups to seek federal acknowledgment, directs federal agencies to assess Tribal needs after roll verification, and preserves State criminal and civil jurisdiction over Tribal lands unless a delayed transfer agreement is reached.