Sponsor
Kevin Kiley
Representative · I-CA
Representative · I-CA
Confers federal recognition on the Tribe, makes it eligible for federal services and benefits, requires a membership roll, and authorizes land-into-trust actions in its ancestral area.
Official title: To extend Federal recognition to the Mono Lake Kootzaduka'a Tribe, and for other purposes.
Introduced October 24, 2025 by Kevin Kiley · Last progress October 24, 2025
The bill provides the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribe with federal recognition, clearer eligibility for services, and tools for self-governance and land-based development, while imposing federal membership/administrative requirements and creating fiscal and land‑use impacts that may constrain tribal autonomy and affect local governments and public land users.
Members of the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribe gain federal recognition and thereby become eligible for federal health, housing, education, and social services that they previously could not reliably access.
The Tribe becomes eligible to use Indian Reorganization Act authorities and is deemed under Federal jurisdiction (1934), easing tribal self-governance, future land-into-trust acquisitions, and tools for economic development.
The Act clarifies administrative details (identifying the 'Secretary,' defining a service area, and requiring a maintained membership roll), reducing enrollment disputes and making federal/tribal program administration more efficient.
Tribal members and tribal government may face new federal regulatory obligations and compliance requirements, creating administrative burdens and costs to implement federal statutes and membership processes.
Conditioning recognition and benefits on submission of a membership roll and mandating membership qualifications (the 2003 provision) constrains tribal control over membership rules and can be viewed as federal intrusion into tribal sovereignty.
Designating a service area and expanding eligibility will increase demand on federal programs and require additional administrative resources, raising federal costs and potentially shifting local fiscal impacts (including reduced property tax revenue when lands go into trust).
Based on analysis of 7 sections of legislative text.
Grants federal recognition to the Mono Lake Kootzaduka’a Tribe, makes the Tribe and its members eligible for all federal services and benefits available to federally recognized tribes, and requires the Tribe to submit an official membership roll within 18 months. The Secretary of the Interior must identify BLM lands in Mono County within the Tribe’s ancestral area that are sufficient to support tribal government and accept such lands into trust at the Tribe’s request; the Act also confirms hunting and fishing rights on Federal lands within the Tribe’s aboriginal territory and preserves existing legal claims and rights.