I
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION H. R. 726
To amend the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2010 to make
improvements to that Act, and for other purposes.
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
JANUARY24, 2025
Mr. D
OWNING(for himself and Mr. ZINKE) introduced the following bill;
which was referred to the Committee on Natural Resources
A BILL
To amend the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act
of 2010 to make improvements to that Act, 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 ‘‘Crow Tribe Water 4
Rights Settlement Amendments Act of 2025’’. 5
SEC. 2. CROW TRIBE WATER RIGHTS SETTLEMENT. 6
(a) D
EFINITIONS.—Section 403 of the Crow Tribe 7
Water Rights Settlement Act of 2010 (Public Law 111– 8
291; 124 Stat. 3097) is amended— 9
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(1) by striking paragraph (11) and inserting 1
the following: 2
‘‘(11) MR&I
PROJECT.—The term ‘MR&I 3
Project’ means an activity described in clauses (i) 4
through (iii) of section 411(e)(3)(F).’’; and 5
(2) in paragraph (12)— 6
(A) in the paragraph heading, by striking 7
‘‘S
YSTEM’’ and inserting ‘‘PROJECTS’’; and 8
(B) in subparagraphs (A) through (C), by 9
striking ‘‘System’’ each place it appears and in-10
serting ‘‘Projects’’. 11
(b) R
EPEAL OFMR&I SYSTEM.— 12
(1) I
N GENERAL.—Section 406 of the Crow 13
Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2010 (Public 14
Law 111–291; 124 Stat. 3102) is repealed. 15
(2) C
LERICAL AMENDMENT .—The table of con-16
tents for the Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (Public 17
Law 111–291; 124 Stat. 3064) is amended by strik-18
ing the item relating to section 406. 19
(c) C
ROWSETTLEMENTFUND.—Section 411 of the 20
Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2010 (Public 21
Law 111–291; 124 Stat. 3113) is amended— 22
(1) in subsection (a), by striking ‘‘to be admin-23
istered by the Secretary’’ and inserting ‘‘to be man-24
aged, invested, and distributed by the Secretary and 25
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to remain available until expended, withdrawn, or re-1
verted to the general fund of the Treasury, con-2
sisting of amounts deposited in the Fund under sub-3
section (b), together with any investment earnings, 4
including interest, earned on those amounts,’’; 5
(2) in subsections (b) and (c), by striking ‘‘sec-6
tion 414’’ each place it appears and inserting ‘‘sec-7
tion 415’’; 8
(3) in subsection (c)— 9
(A) in paragraph (3), by striking ‘‘Sys-10
tem’’ and inserting ‘‘Projects’’; and 11
(B) by adding at the end the following: 12
‘‘(5) The MR&I Projects Account, to be estab-13
lished as soon as practicable after the date of enact-14
ment of the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement 15
Amendments Act of 2025, consisting of— 16
‘‘(A) amounts made available pursuant to 17
paragraphs (1) and (2) of section 415(b) that 18
are appropriated after the date of enactment of 19
the Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement 20
Amendments Act of 2025; and 21
‘‘(B) amounts to be deposited pursuant to 22
section 415(h)(2).’’; 23
(4) in subsection (e)— 24
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(A) in paragraph (2), by striking subpara-1
graph (C) and inserting the following: 2
‘‘(C) the American Indian Trust Fund 3
Management Reform Act of 1994 (25 U.S.C. 4
4001 et seq.).’’; and 5
(B) in paragraph (3)— 6
(i) in subparagraph (A), by striking 7
‘‘through (E)’’ and inserting ‘‘through 8
(F)’’; 9
(ii) in subparagraph (C)(i), by strik-10
ing ‘‘section 412’’ and inserting ‘‘section 11
413’’; 12
(iii) in subparagraph (E)— 13
(I) in the subparagraph heading, 14
by striking ‘‘S
YSTEM’’ and inserting 15
‘‘P
ROJECTS’’; and 16
(II) by striking ‘‘System’’ each 17
place it appears and inserting 18
‘‘Projects’’; and 19
(iv) by adding at the end the fol-20
lowing: 21
‘‘(F) MR&I
PROJECTS ACCOUNT .—Funds 22
from the MR&I Projects Account shall be used 23
for expenditures by the Tribe in accordance 24
with the following: 25
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‘‘(i) PRIORITY USE OF FUNDS .—The 1
Tribe shall use funds from the MR&I 2
Projects Account— 3
‘‘(I) to plan, permit, design, engi-4
neer, construct, reconstruct, replace, 5
rehabilitate, operate, or repair water 6
production, treatment, or delivery in-7
frastructure, including for domestic 8
and municipal use or wastewater in-9
frastructure; and 10
‘‘(II) to comply with applicable 11
environmental laws for the activities 12
described in subclause (I). 13
‘‘(ii) O
THER USE OF FUNDS .—After 14
providing written notice to the Secretary 15
that on-Reservation MR&I projects de-16
scribed in clause (i) are complete, the 17
Tribe may use funds remaining in the 18
MR&I Projects Account to purchase on- 19
Reservation land with water rights.’’; 20
(5) in subsection (f)(2), by striking ‘‘section 21
414’’ and inserting ‘‘section 415’’; and 22
(6) by adding at the end the following: 23
‘‘(i) T
ITLE TOINFRASTRUCTURE.—Title to, control 24
over, and operation of any project constructed using funds 25
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from the MR&I Projects Account shall remain in the 1
Tribe. 2
‘‘(j) O
PERATION, MAINTENANCE, ANDREPLACE-3
MENT.—The Federal Government shall have no obligation 4
to pay for the operation, maintenance, or replacement of 5
any MR&I Project.’’. 6
(d) C
ROWCIP IMPLEMENTATION ACCOUNT.—The 7
Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Act of 2010 (31 8
U.S.C. 1101 note; Public Law 111–291) is amended— 9
(1) by redesignating sections 412 through 416 10
as sections 413 through 417, respectively; and 11
(2) by inserting after section 411 the following: 12
‘‘SEC. 412. CROW CIP IMPLEMENTATION ACCOUNT. 13
‘‘(a) E
STABLISHMENT.—The Secretary shall estab-14
lish a nontrust, interest-bearing account, to be known as 15
the ‘Crow CIP Implementation Account’, to be managed 16
and distributed by the Secretary. 17
‘‘(b) D
EPOSITS.—The Secretary shall deposit in the 18
Crow CIP Implementation Account— 19
‘‘(1) amounts made available pursuant to para-20
graphs (1) and (2) of section 415(a) that are appro-21
priated after the date of enactment of the Crow 22
Tribe Water Rights Settlement Amendments Act of 23
2025; and 24
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‘‘(2) amounts to be deposited pursuant to sec-1
tion 415(h)(1). 2
‘‘(c) U
SES.—Amounts in the Crow CIP Implementa-3
tion Account shall be used to carry out section 405. 4
‘‘(d) I
NTEREST.—In addition to the deposits made 5
into the Crow CIP Implementation Account pursuant to 6
subsection (b), any investment earnings, including interest 7
credited to amounts unexpended in the Crow CIP Imple-8
mentation Account, shall be available for use in accord-9
ance with subsection (c).’’. 10
(e) Y
ELLOWTAIL DAM, MONTANA.—Subsection 11
(b)(1) of section 413 of the Crow Tribe Water Rights Set-12
tlement Act of 2010 (Public Law 111–291; 124 Stat. 13
3116) (as redesignated by subsection (d)(1)) is amended 14
by striking ‘‘15 years’’ and inserting ‘‘20 years’’. 15
(f) F
UNDING.—Section 415 of the Crow Tribe Water 16
Rights Settlement Act of 2010 (Public Law 111–291; 124 17
Stat. 3120) (as redesignated by subsection (d)(1)) is 18
amended— 19
(1) in subsection (e)— 20
(A) in the subsection heading, by striking 21
‘‘S
YSTEM’’ and inserting ‘‘PROJECTS’’; and 22
(B) by striking ‘‘System’’ and inserting 23
‘‘Projects’’; 24
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(2) by striking subsection (h) and inserting the 1
following: 2
‘‘(h) J
OINTSIGNATUREACCOUNTS.—The Secretary 3
shall take all actions necessary to authorize the withdrawal 4
of funds, including principal and interest, held and main-5
tained in joint signature accounts in accordance with the 6
following: 7
‘‘(1) C
ROW CIP IMPLEMENTATION ACCOUNT .— 8
In the special joint signature account named ‘CIP 9
Account’ established pursuant to the agreement with 10
the Tribe dated October 19, 2011, for the purpose 11
of transferring and depositing those funds in the 12
Crow CIP Implementation Account established 13
under section 412(a). 14
‘‘(2) MR&I
PROJECTS ACCOUNT .—In the spe-15
cial joint signature account named ‘MR&I Account’ 16
established pursuant to the agreement with the 17
Tribe dated September 13, 2012, for the purpose of 18
transferring and depositing those funds in the MR&I 19
Projects Account established pursuant to section 20
411(c)(5).’’; and 21
(3) by adding at the end the following: 22
‘‘(j) MR&I P
ROJECTSACCOUNTFLUCTUATIONS IN 23
C
OSTS.— 24
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‘‘(1) INDEXING ADJUSTMENT .—Amounts depos-1
ited in the MR&I Projects Account pursuant to sec-2
tion 411(c)(5)(A) shall be increased or decreased, as 3
appropriate, by such amounts as may be justified by 4
reason of ordinary fluctuations in costs occurring 5
after May 1, 2008, as indicated by the Bureau of 6
Reclamation Construction Cost Index–Composite 7
Trend. 8
‘‘(2) P
ERIOD OF INDEXING.—The period of in-9
dexing adjustment under paragraph (1), for any in-10
crement of funding, shall end on the date on which 11
the amounts are deposited in the MR&I Projects Ac-12
count.’’. 13
(g) T
ECHNICAL ANDCONFORMINGAMENDMENTS.— 14
(1) Section 403(9) of the Crow Tribe Water 15
Rights Settlement Act of 2010 (Public Law 111– 16
291; 124 Stat. 3098) is amended by striking ‘‘(25 17
U.S.C. 450b)’’ and inserting ‘‘(25 U.S.C. 5304)’’. 18
(2) Section 409(b) of the Crow Tribe Water 19
Rights Settlement Act of 2010 (Public Law 111– 20
291; 124 Stat. 3108) is amended, in each of para-21
graphs (1) and (2), by striking ‘‘section 414’’ and 22
inserting ‘‘section 415’’. 23
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(3) Section 410(e)(1) of the Crow Tribe Water 1
Rights Settlement Act of 2010 (Public Law 111– 2
291; 124 Stat. 3112) is amended— 3
(A) in subparagraph (B), by striking ‘‘sec-4
tion 414’’ and inserting ‘‘section 415’’; and 5
(B) in subparagraph (C), by striking 6
‘‘agreements with the Tribe required by sections 7
405(a) and 406(a)’’ and inserting ‘‘agreement 8
with the Tribe required by section 405(a)’’. 9
(4) Section 416 of the Crow Tribe Water 10
Rights Settlement Act of 2010 (31 U.S.C. 1105 11
note; Public Law 111–291) (as redesignated by sub-12
section (d)(1)) is amended, in each of paragraphs 13
(3) and (4), by striking ‘‘section 414’’ and inserting 14
‘‘section 415’’. 15
(h) C
LERICALAMENDMENT.—The table of contents 16
for the Claims Resolution Act of 2010 (Public Law 111– 17
291; 124 Stat. 3064) is amended by striking the items 18
relating to sections 407 through 416 and inserting the fol-19
lowing: 20
‘‘Sec. 407. Tribal water rights.
‘‘Sec. 408. Storage allocation from Bighorn Lake.
‘‘Sec. 409. Satisfaction of claims.
‘‘Sec. 410. Waivers and releases of claims.
‘‘Sec. 411. Crow Settlement Fund.
‘‘Sec. 412. Crow CIP Implementation Account.
‘‘Sec. 413. Yellowtail Dam, Montana.
‘‘Sec. 414. Miscellaneous provisions.
‘‘Sec. 415. Funding.
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‘‘Sec. 416. Repeal on failure to meet enforceability date.
‘‘Sec. 417. Antideficiency.’’.
Æ
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