A trio of bills affecting water rights and infrastructure for Arizona’s tribes is one step closer to becoming law.
The Senate Indian Affairs Committee approved bills granting water rights to the Hualapai, letting the Colorado River Indian Tribes lease their water and adding funding and extending the deadline for review of a water system for the White Mountain Apache.
Cronkite News reports tribal leaders welcomed the votes, calling them the “culmination of hard-fought struggles by their tribes.”
The three bills were co-sponsored by Arizona Democratic Sens. Mark Kelly and Kyrsten Sinema.
However, there’s little chance the bills will move forward this year as there are just six weeks left in the current congress and it’s unlikely they will get approval from the full Senate and then the House in that time.
As a result, tribes will likely have to start all over again in 2023.