Sponsors (2)
Introduced January 13, 2026 by Mark Edward Kelly · Last progress January 13, 2026
The bill secures large federal funding and a ratified settlement that delivers legally protected water rights, infrastructure, and monitoring for the Yavapai‑Apache Nation—providing major benefits and certainty for tribal communities—while imposing substantial taxpayer costs, imposing waivers that limit future claims, creating implementation deadlines and administrative controls that reduce flexibility and public oversight, and redistributing water and tax implications that affect local non‑trib
Indigenous Yavapai‑Apache Nation members and the Nation receive a final, ratified settlement and trust‑held water rights that resolve historic claims and dramatically reduce future litigation risk, providing long‑term legal certainty for tribal water use and development.
The bill provides large, dedicated federal funding and establishes project trust funds (including major deposit authority for the Túńlįįníchoh/Cragin‑Verde Pipeline and multiple settlement transfers) to design, build, and operate drinking water, wastewater, and pipeline infrastructure for the Nation and nearby communities.
The Nation is guaranteed substantial delivered water volumes (at least ~6,837 AFY plus possible additional allocations) and a funded treated drinking‑water system, improving municipal/domestic supply reliability and public health for tribal and nearby residents.
Federal taxpayers will fund large up‑front transfers and may face substantial future appropriations—hundreds of millions of dollars—to implement the settlement and construct projects.
Most Yavapai‑Apache Nation Members (non‑Allottees) must waive extensive past, present, and future claims against the United States and other parties, constraining their ability to seek additional compensation or remedies in the future.
The settlement, funding, and contracts are conditioned on multiple approvals and deadlines (including a June 30, 2035 condition and other contractual deadlines); failure to meet those conditions can void the Act and cause promised funds and projects to lapse, creating major implementation risk.
Based on analysis of 32 sections of legislative text.
Settles the Yavapai‑Apache Nation’s water rights, places specific lands in trust, funds a pipeline and drinking water system, and creates a multi‑account settlement trust to implement the agreement.
Settles and ratifies the Yavapai‑Apache Nation’s water rights in Arizona, transfers specific parcels into federal trust for the Nation, and funds construction of the Túńlį́į́níchoh Water Infrastructure Project (a Cragin‑Verde pipeline and a Nation drinking water system). It creates project and trust funds with specified deposits from the Treasury, sets conditions the Secretary of the Interior must certify before the settlement becomes enforceable, requires environmental and legal compliance, and limits future claims by the Nation while preserving narrow reserved rights and exceptions for certain individual allotments. The law directs the Bureau of Reclamation and Interior to plan and build the pipeline and drinking water system, assigns long‑term operation and O&M responsibilities to project beneficiaries and SRP after substantial completion, establishes rules for Central Arizona Project (CAP) water delivery, leasing and storage, and creates a multi‑account tribal trust fund to be managed and used under approved tribal plans or Secretary‑approved expenditure plans. If required conditions are not met by a specified deadline, most provisions and appropriated amounts revert to the Treasury and the Act is repealed.