Sponsors (2)
The bill helps tribes and local governments secure and protect burial grounds and preserves tribal cultural and repatriation rights, but it transfers federal land without payment, creates potential inequities and regional inconsistency, and imposes long-term use limits that could restrict future options.
Tribes, States, and local governments can receive federal cemetery parcels at no cost so they can preserve and operate historic burial grounds and protect cultural sites locally.
Recognizes and preserves Tribal authority to identify cemeteries, reinforcing tribal decision-making and cultural control over burial sites.
Explicitly preserves application of NAGPRA, protecting repatriation rights and legal protections for human remains and associated funerary objects.
Conveying federal land without financial consideration reduces federal land holdings and eliminates potential future uses or revenue that the public could otherwise realize from those lands.
The 40-acre size cap and definitions tied to New Mexico 'land grant-merced' structures may exclude other historic community claims outside New Mexico, leaving some communities unable to benefit.
Restricting conveyed parcels to cemetery use with discretionary reversion conditions can impose long-term constraints and administrative burdens for recipients who might later seek different uses.
Based on analysis of 4 sections of legislative text.
Allows transfer of small federal cemetery parcels (plus up to 1 adjacent acre) without payment to qualified state/local governments, tribes, or certain historic land grant entities, with use restrictions and possible reversion.
Allows the federal government to transfer small parcels used (or formerly used) as cemeteries — plus up to one adjacent acre — to qualified recipients without requiring payment, while restricting the land to cemetery use and allowing the United States to reclaim the land if it is used otherwise. The bill defines who qualifies to receive such parcels (state or local governments, federally recognized tribes, or certain historic Spanish/Mexican land grant entities with a bona fide interest), permits waiving some conveyance costs for applicants who demonstrate need, and preserves application of federal repatriation and graves protection law.
Introduced July 2, 2025 by Teresa Leger Fernandez · Last progress March 17, 2026