The Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act () is an act of Congress that reaffirmed the status of lands taken into trust by the

Department of the Interior The United States Department of the Interior (DOI) is one of the executive departments of the U.S. federal government headquartered at the Main Interior Building, located at 1849 C Street NW in Washington, D.C. It is responsible for the mana ...

(DOI) for the benefit of the

Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band The Match-e-be-nash-she-wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians of Michigan is a federally recognized tribe of Potawatomi people in Michigan named for a 19th-century Ojibwe chief. They were formerly known as the Gun Lake Band of Grand River Ottawa Indi ...

Pottawatomi The Potawatomi , also spelled Pottawatomi and Pottawatomie (among many variations), are a Native American people of the western Great Lakes region, upper Mississippi River and Great Plains. They traditionally speak the Potawatomi language, a m ...

Indians in the state of

Michigan Michigan () is a state in the Great Lakes region of the upper Midwestern United States. With a population of nearly 10.12 million and an area of nearly , Michigan is the 10th-largest state by population, the 11th-largest by area, and the ...

. The bill was introduced and passed during the

113th United States Congress The 113th United States Congress was a meeting of the legislative branch of the United States federal government, from January 3, 2013, to January 3, 2015, during the fifth and sixth years of Presidency of Barack Obama, Barack Obama's presiden ...

and became federal law on September 26, 2014 when signed by President

Barack Obama Barack Hussein Obama II ( ; born August 4, 1961) is an American politician who served as the 44th president of the United States from 2009 to 2017. A member of the Democratic Party, Obama was the first African-American president of the U ...

. In 2018, the

Supreme Court of the United States The Supreme Court of the United States (SCOTUS) is the highest court in the federal judiciary of the United States. It has ultimate appellate jurisdiction over all U.S. federal court cases, and over state court cases that involve a point o ...

affirmed the law's constitutionality in '' Patchak v. Zinke''.

Background

In 2009, the Supreme Court held in ''

Carcieri v. Salazar ''Carcieri v. Salazar'', 555 U.S. 379 (2009), was a case in which the Supreme Court of the United States held that the federal government could not take land into trust that was acquired by the Narragansett Tribe in the late 20th century, as it wa ...

'' that the term "now under Federal jurisdiction" referred only to tribes that were federally recognized when the

Indian Reorganization Act The Indian Reorganization Act (IRA) of June 18, 1934, or the Wheeler–Howard Act, was U.S. federal legislation that dealt with the status of American Indians in the United States. It was the centerpiece of what has been often called the "Indian ...

Wheeler-Howard Act of 1934, 48 Stat. 988 became law, and the federal government could not take land into trust from tribes that were recognized after 1934.''Donald L. Carcieri, et al. v. Ken L. Salazar, et al.'', This act clarified that the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band's land trust could not be challenged in court under the ''Carcieri'' decision.

Provisions of the bill

''This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the

Congressional Research Service The Congressional Research Service (CRS) is a public policy research institute of the United States Congress. Operating within the Library of Congress, it works primarily and directly for members of Congress and their committees and staff on a c ...

, a

public domain The public domain (PD) consists of all the creative work A creative work is a manifestation of creative effort including fine artwork (sculpture, paintings, drawing, sketching, performance art), dance, writing (literature), filmmaking, ...

source.'' The Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act ratifies and confirms the actions of the

Secretary of the Interior Secretary of the Interior may refer to: * Secretary of the Interior (Mexico) * Interior Secretary of Pakistan * Secretary of the Interior and Local Government (Philippines) * United States Secretary of the Interior See also

*Interior ministry ...

in taking specified land into trust for the benefit of the

Indians. The act reaffirms that land as

trust land Trust often refers to: * Trust (social science), confidence in or dependence on a person or quality It may also refer to: Business and law * Trust law, a body of law under which one person holds property for the benefit of another * Trust (bus ...

. The act prohibits an action relating to that land from being filed or maintained in a federal court.

Congressional Budget Office report

''This summary is based largely on the summary provided by the

Congressional Budget Office The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) is a federal agency within the legislative branch of the United States government that provides budget and economic information to Congress. Inspired by California's Legislative Analyst's Office that manages ...

, as ordered reported by the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on May 21, 2014. This is a

source.'' S. 1603 reaffirms the status of lands taken into trust by the

(DOI) for the benefit of the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians in the state of

. The legislation also prohibits any

lawsuits - A lawsuit is a proceeding by a party or parties against another in the civil court of law. The archaic term "suit in law" is found in only a small number of laws still in effect today. The term "lawsuit" is used in reference to a civil actio ...

related to the trust land. In 2012, the

Supreme Court A supreme court is the highest court within the hierarchy of courts in most legal jurisdictions. Other descriptions for such courts include court of last resort, apex court, and high (or final) court of appeal. Broadly speaking, the decisions of ...

ruled that DOI lacked the authority to take nearly 150

acre The acre is a unit of land area used in the imperial Imperial is that which relates to an empire, emperor, or imperialism. Imperial or The Imperial may also refer to: Places United States * Imperial, California * Imperial, Missouri * Imp ...

s into trust. Based on information provided by DOI, the

(CBO) estimated that implementing the legislation would have no significant effect on the federal budget. The legislation would not significantly increase the cost of managing tribal trust lands. The act would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore,

pay-as-you-go Pay as you go or PAYG may refer to: Finance * Pay-as-you-go tax, or pay-as-you-earn tax * Pay-as-you-go pension plan * PAYGO, the practice in the US of financing expenditures with current funds rather than borrowing * PAUG, a structured financia ...

procedures do not apply. The act contains an intergovernmental and private-sector mandate as defined in the

Unfunded Mandates Reform Act The Unfunded Mandates Reform Act of 1995 (UMRA''(pdf)https://www.govinfo.gov/content/pkg/USCODE-1995-title2/html/USCODE-1995-title2-chap25.htm (text)] restricts the federal government of the United States, federal imposition of unfunded mandates on ...

(UMRA) because it ends rights of action for public and private entities that are currently able to pursue legal actions related to the land held in trust for the Match-E-Be-Nash-She-Wish Band of Pottawatomi Indians. The act prohibits any action relating to the trust land from being brought or maintained in a federal court. The cost of the mandate would be any forgone compensation that would have been awarded through legal actions. The state of Michigan and several local governments have entered into an agreement with the tribe related to the use of the land, and CBO believes it is unlikely that, without the act, any other public entity would bring an action that would result in significant compensation. Therefore, CBO estimated the cost of the intergovernmental mandate would not exceed the annual threshold established in UMRA for such mandates ($76 million, in 2014, adjusted annually for inflation). Private entities, however, have no such agreement, and the bill would extinguish all rights to legal actions relating to the trust lands. Awards in such claims are in many cases limited to the value of the land. Because of the commercial properties located on the trust land, the value of awards related to those lands could be significant. However, because both the number of claims that could be barred or terminated and the value of forgone compensation stemming from those claims were uncertain, CBO had no basis for estimating the cost of the mandate. Therefore, CBO could not determine whether the cost of the private-sector mandate would exceed the annual threshold established in UMRA for such mandates ($152 million, in 2014, adjusted annually for inflation).

Procedural history

The Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act was introduced into the

United States Senate The United States Senate is the upper chamber of the United States Congress, with the House of Representatives being the lower chamber. Together they compose the national bicameral legislature of the United States. The composition and pow ...

on October 29, 2013 by Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D, MI). The bill was referred to the

United States Senate Committee on Indian Affairs The Senate Committee on Indian Affairs is a committee of the United States Senate charged with oversight in matters related to the American Indian, Native Hawaiian, and Alaska Native peoples. A Committee on Indian Affairs existed from 1820 to 19 ...

. The committee held a hearing about the bill on May 7, 2014. On June 19, 2014, the Senate voted to pass the bill with

unanimous consent In parliamentary procedure, unanimous consent, also known as general consent, or in the case of the parliaments under the Westminster system, leave of the house (or leave of the senate), is a situation in which no member present objects to a prop ...

. On September 16, 2014, the House of Representatives voted 359-64 to pass the bill. President

signed the bill into law on September 26, 2014.url=https://www.congress.gov/bill/113th-congress/senate-bill/1603

References

External links

Library of Congress - Thomas S. 1603beta.congress.gov S. 1603GovTrack.us S. 1603OpenCongress.org S. 1603Congressional Budget Office's report on S. 1603
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gun Lake Trust Land Reaffirmation Act (S. 1603 113th Congress) Acts of the 113th United States Congress Legal history of Michigan Potawatomi Allegan County, Michigan