Troy Downing

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Mr. Speaker, I thank Chairman Westerman for yielding me time. Mr. Speaker, I rise in strong support of the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Amendments Act, as this legislation will make crucial adjustments to the Crow Tribe of Montana's water settlement, ensuring the Tribe can provide clean drinking water for its members for generations to come. In Montana, water rights and infrastructure are the lifeblood of our Tribal communities. Indian water rights settlements protect those rights by codifying them in Federal law and providing resources to promote water infrastructure development. For the Crow Tribe in my home district, the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2010 was a significant milestone. It settled the Tribe's water rights and authorized $460 million to design and construct a centralized municipal, rural, and industrial, or MR&I, water system for its reservation. However, due to the project's complexity, rising costs, and extended estimated construction timelines, the initial MR&I pipeline system authorized by the settlement has proven unfeasible. Without the ability to use settlement funds for water infrastructure, the Crow Reservation continues to face a clean water crisis. According to one BIA-funded water study, over 50 percent of Crow Reservation households have contaminated water. That is 50 percent. Moreover, multiple further studies have linked the Tribe's higher cancer rates with this lack of clean water access. Senator Daines and I introduced the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Amendments Act to directly address these challenges. The bill expands the scope of authorized water projects under the Crow Tribe's water settlement beyond the initial single mandated pipeline project to include a flexible array of smaller-scale regional water projects. In doing so, this legislation will dramatically reduce the timeline for delivering clean water to the reservation's communities. S. 240 is a straightforward solution that does not alter any existing water rights and appropriates no new Federal spending. It simply provides necessary flexibility for the Tribe to meet the needs of its citizens. Mr. Speaker, I thank Senator Daines for leading this effort with me. I urge my colleagues to vote in favor of this important legislation for the Crow Tribe.