Sponsors (2)
Introduced March 11, 2025 by Mark Edward Kelly · Last progress March 11, 2025
The bill delivers substantial federal money, defined water allocations, and infrastructure to resolve long‑standing tribal Colorado River claims and expand tribal water supplies — but it requires tribes to accept claim waivers, federal oversight, tight conditions, and use limits that reduce flexibility and create implementation and fiscal risks for both tribes and taxpayers.
Tribal communities (Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe, and allottees) receive large, dedicated federal funding and project financing (including multi‑billion dollar trust fund deposits and pipeline construction funding) to build potable water infrastructure and implement the settlement.
Tribes and allottees gain final legal certainty: the Settlement Agreement converts broad historic water claims into defined, enforceable water rights and substitutes settlement benefits, substantially reducing long‑running litigation risk for tribes, the State, and other water users.
Named tribes receive explicit, quantified Colorado River water entitlements and added project capacity (e.g., specified AFY allocations, pipeline delivery capacity increases), giving tribes concrete water supplies they can plan and build projects around.
Tribes and allottees must waive broad historic and aboriginal water claims and accept limits on post‑Enforceability litigation and damages, reducing legal avenues for compensation and future claims.
The federal cost is large and mandatory (multi‑billion dollar Treasury transfers and program funding), which increases taxpayer exposure and federal outlays to implement and sustain the settlement and pipeline.
Implementation is highly conditional and time‑sensitive (multiple procedural conditions and an enforceability deadline), creating substantial risk that the Act or funds could be voided or reclaimed if conditions or deadlines are not met.
Based on analysis of 42 sections of legislative text.
Creates and funds tribal water settlement trust funds, confirms tribal water rights, directs construction of a major pipeline, and implements waivers, accounting, and rules for leases and enforcement.
Provides a federal settlement of water rights for the Navajo Nation, Hopi Tribe, and San Juan Southern Paiute Tribe by authorizing and funding trust accounts, confirming and placing specific tribal water rights in federal trust, and creating rules for use, leasing, and accounting of Colorado River water. It also funds and directs construction of a major pipeline (iiná bá – paa tuwaqat’si) with a project implementation account, sets conditions for enforceability, requires environmental compliance, and establishes limited waivers and enforcement mechanisms tied to the Settlement Agreement. Implements mandatory Treasury transfers to capitalize tribal Water Settlement Trust Funds and a pipeline implementation account (totaling approximately $5.136 billion), creates multiple named trust accounts with investment and withdrawal rules, ratifies and confirms specific water entitlements and allocations (including AFY amounts), and requires the Secretary of the Interior and Reclamation to plan, design, and construct pipeline and related facilities subject to federal environmental law and detailed oversight conditions.