I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 1451
To authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to make payments to the Quapaw
Nation and certain members of the Quapaw Nation in accordance with
the recommendation of the United States Court of Federal Claims,
and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
FEBRUARY21, 2025
Mr. B
RECHEENintroduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To authorize the Secretary of the Treasury to make pay-
ments to the Quapaw Nation and certain members of
the Quapaw Nation in accordance with the recommenda-
tion of the United States Court of Federal Claims, and
for other purposes.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representa-1
tives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, 2
SECTION 1. SHORT TITLE. 3
This Act may be cited as the ‘‘Quapaw Tribal Settle-4
ment Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. QUAPAW TRIBAL SETTLEMENT. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—In this section: 7
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(1) CLAIMANT.—The term ‘‘Claimant’’ means 1
each of— 2
(A) the Quapaw Nation and the parties 3
identified in paragraphs 1 through 10 of the 4
complaint in Bear, et al. v. United States, No. 5
13–51X (Fed. Cl. Mar. 25, 2013); and 6
(B) the individual members of the Quapaw 7
Nation identified in Exhibit A to the amended 8
complaint in Bear, et al. v. United States, No. 9
13–51X (Fed. Cl. Mar. 25, 2013) filed on Feb-10
ruary 14, 2014. 11
(2) R
EPORT.—The term ‘‘Report’’ means the 12
report of the Review Panel of the United States 13
Court of Federal Claims in Congressional Reference 14
Case No. 13–51X, Bear, et al. v. United States 15
(Jan. 9, 2020), submitted to the House of Rep-16
resentatives on January 31, 2020. 17
(3) S
ECRETARY.—The term ‘‘Secretary’’ means 18
the Secretary of the Interior (or a designee). 19
(b) E
STABLISHMENT.—There is established a Special 20
Deposit Account in the Department of the Interior Bureau 21
of Trust Funds Administration, to be known as the 22
‘‘Quapaw Bear Settlement Trust Account’’. 23
(c) A
DMINISTRATION.—The Secretary of the Interior 24
by and through the Bureau of Trust Funds Administra-25
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tion shall administer all funds appropriated to the Quapaw 1
Bear Settlement Trust Account. 2
(d) A
UTHORIZATION OF PAYMENT.—In accordance 3
with the Report, the Secretary of the Interior is authorized 4
and directed to pay to the Claimants $137,500,000 out 5
of any funds in the Treasury of the United States not 6
otherwise appropriated. The Secretary of the Treasury 7
shall transfer the single payment to the Quapaw Bear Set-8
tlement Trust Account established in subsection (b). 9
(e) P
AYMENT INACCORDANCEWITHREPORT.—The 10
payment under subsection (d) shall be made in accordance 11
with the Report. 12
(f) D
ISTRIBUTION.—After the settlement proceeds 13
are transferred to the Quapaw Bear Settlement Trust Ac-14
count specified under subsection (b), the settlement pro-15
ceeds shall be available for use, allocation, and distribution 16
in accordance with the Claimants’ distribution plan. The 17
Claimants shall establish a distribution plan in accordance 18
with subsection (d) and the procedures set forth in sub-19
section (g). 20
(g) D
ISTRIBUTION OFFUNDS IN THEQUAPAWBEAR 21
S
ETTLEMENTTRUSTACCOUNT.— 22
(1) M
EDIATION.— 23
(A) No more than forty-five (45) days fol-24
lowing enactment of the Act, the Claimants 25
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shall submit the issues of the allocation and dis-1
tribution of the settlement proceeds to a mutu-2
ally agreed upon third-party mediator. 3
(B) In the event the Claimants do not sub-4
mit to a mutually agreed upon third-party me-5
diation within forty-five (45) days pursuant to 6
the preceding subparagraph, then any Claimant 7
may initiate Secretarial Allocation procedures 8
under paragraph (2) below. 9
(C) Any mediation shall be confidential 10
and non-binding on the Claimants without the 11
written consent of the Claimants, provided that 12
nothing in this paragraph shall be interpreted 13
to bar the Quapaw Nation Business Committee 14
from consulting with the Quapaw Nation Indian 15
Council during mediation. 16
(D) No statements made or information 17
exchanged during mediation shall be admissible 18
in any future legal or dispute resolution pro-19
ceedings without the written consent of the 20
Claimants. 21
(E) The Claimants shall mutually agree to 22
conduct mediation at a specified location. Each 23
Claimant shall pay its own costs, plus an equal 24
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share of the costs of the mediator and the medi-1
ation facilities. 2
(F) Following successful completion of any 3
mediation under this section, the Claimants 4
may submit a mutually agreed upon distribu-5
tion plan to the Secretary. 6
(G) Upon submission of a mutually agreed 7
upon distribution plan to the Secretary, the 8
Secretary shall distribute the funds in the 9
Quapaw Bear Settlement Trust Account to the 10
Claimants in accordance with their mutually 11
agreed upon distribution plan. 12
(H) In the event the Claimants do not 13
reach a mutually agreed upon distribution plan 14
following mediation, then any Claimant, 15
through written notification, may submit the 16
matter to the Secretary who shall determine a 17
final distribution plan allocating the funds in 18
the Quapaw Bear Settlement Trust Account in 19
accordance with the Report based on the proce-20
dures in paragraph (2). 21
(2) S
ECRETARIAL ALLOCATION .— 22
(A) Following an unsuccessful mediation 23
pursuant to the procedures in paragraph (1), 24
any Claimant may petition the Secretary to de-25
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termine final allocations of settlement proceeds 1
in accordance with subsection (d). 2
(B) The Secretary shall commence the Sec-3
retarial Allocation process in accordance with 4
this paragraph (2) if the Claimants do not 5
reach a mutually agreed upon allocation plan 6
within 18 months following enactment of the 7
Act. 8
(C) Upon the receipt of such a petition by 9
a Claimant, the Secretary or the Secretary’s 10
designee shall order an allocation of the settle-11
ment proceeds pursuant to the following steps: 12
(i) Within thirty (30) days following 13
the Secretary’s receipt of a petition to allo-14
cation settlement proceeds after failed me-15
diation, the Secretary or the Secretary’s 16
designee shall issue a scheduling order to 17
establish a schedule for a hearing and the 18
issuance of a final decision by the Sec-19
retary of a final distribution plan. 20
(ii) The Secretary’s decision deter-21
mining a final distribution plan in accord-22
ance with subsection (d) shall be made fol-23
lowing a hearing to be presided over by the 24
Secretary or the Secretary’s designee. The 25
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hearing shall occur no less than sixty (60) 1
days following the issuance of the sched-2
uling order. 3
(iii) At least fifteen (15) days prior to 4
the hearing, each Claimant shall submit to 5
the other Claimants and to the Secretary 6
a copy of all exhibits on which such Claim-7
ant intends to rely at the hearing, a pre- 8
hearing brief, and a proposed final decision 9
by the Secretary. The proposed final deci-10
sion shall include a proposed distribution 11
plan to be submitted to the Secretary and 12
shall be limited to proposed rulings and 13
distributions for each Claimant. 14
(iv) Within fourteen (14) days after 15
the close of the hearing, each Claimant 16
may submit a post-hearing brief to the 17
Secretary. 18
(v) Following the hearing and post- 19
hearing brief, the Secretary shall issue a 20
final decision determining a final distribu-21
tion plan in accordance with subsection (d) 22
within sixty (60) calendar days. The 23
Claimants may mutually agree upon a 24
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binding distribution plan at any time be-1
fore the Secretary’s decision is issued. 2
(vi) Within twenty (20) calendar days 3
after transmittal of the Secretary’s final 4
decision to the Claimants, the Claimants 5
may submit to the Secretary any informa-6
tion necessary for the implementation of 7
the final distribution plan. 8
(vii) Within sixty (60) days of the 9
Secretary’s final decision determining a 10
final distribution plan, the Secretary shall 11
distribute the funds in the Quapaw Bear 12
Settlement Trust Account to the Claimants 13
pursuant to the terms of the final distribu-14
tion plan. 15
(viii) Any deadlines established in this 16
section may be extended by unanimous 17
mutual agreement of the Claimants. 18
(3) F
EDERAL MEDIATION & CONCILIATION 19
SERVICE.—In discharging any duties under this Act, 20
the Secretary is authorized to utilize the Federal 21
Mediation Conciliation Service to provide technical 22
support and dispute resolution resources, provided, 23
however, that the Secretary or the Secretary’s des-24
ignee is responsible for approving and implementing 25
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any mutually agreed-upon or binding distribution 1
plan reached pursuant to this Act. 2
Æ
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