II
119THCONGRESS
1
STSESSION S. 255
To amend the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to clarify the treatment of authentic
Alaska Native articles of handicraft containing nonedible migratory bird
parts, and for other purposes.
IN THE SENATE OF THE UNITED STATES
JANUARY24, 2025
Mr. S
ULLIVAN(for himself and Ms. MURKOWSKI) introduced the following
bill; which was read twice and referred to the Committee on Environment
and Public Works
A BILL
To amend the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to clarify the
treatment of authentic Alaska Native articles of handi-
craft containing nonedible migratory bird parts, 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 ‘‘Archie Cavanaugh Mi-4
gratory Bird Treaty Amendment Act’’. 5
SEC. 2. PURPOSE. 6
The purpose of this Act is to clarify the treatment 7
of authentic Alaska Native articles of handicraft (as de-8
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•S 255 IS
fined in subsection (c)(1) of section 2 of the Migratory 1
Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703)) under— 2
(1) the Convention between the United States 3
and Great Britain for the Protection of Migratory 4
Birds, signed at Washington August 16, 1916 (39 5
Stat. 1702; USTS 628); 6
(2) the Convention between the United States 7
and Mexico for the Protection of Migratory Birds 8
and Game Mammals, signed at Mexico City Feb-9
ruary 7, 1936 (50 Stat. 1311; USTS 912); 10
(3) the Convention between the United States 11
and Japan for the Protection of Migratory Birds 12
and Birds in Danger of Extinction and Their Envi-13
ronment, signed at Tokyo March 4, 1974 (TIAS 14
7990); and 15
(4) the Convention between the United States 16
and the Soviet Union Concerning the Conservation 17
of Migratory Birds and Their Environment, signed 18
at Moscow November 19, 1976 (TIAS 9073). 19
SEC. 3. CLARIFICATION FOR ALASKA NATIVE ARTICLES 20
CONTAINING MIGRATORY BIRD PARTS. 21
(a) I
NGENERAL.—Section 2 of the Migratory Bird 22
Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703) is amended by adding at the 23
end the following: 24
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‘‘(c) CLARIFICATION FOR AUTHENTICALASKANA-1
TIVEARTICLES OFHANDICRAFT.— 2
‘‘(1) D
EFINITIONS.—In this subsection: 3
‘‘(A) A
LASKA NATIVE.—The term ‘Alaska 4
Native’ means a member of any Indian Tribe 5
(as defined in section 4 of the Indian Self-De-6
termination and Education Assistance Act (25 7
U.S.C. 5304)) that is based in the State of 8
Alaska, as verified through issuance of— 9
‘‘(i) a Tribal enrollment card; 10
‘‘(ii) a Certificate of Degree of Indian 11
Blood (commonly known as a ‘CDIB’) by 12
the Bureau of Indian Affairs; or 13
‘‘(iii) a permit under the Silver Hand 14
program of the Alaska State Council on 15
the Arts. 16
‘‘(B) A
UTHENTIC ALASKA NATIVE ARTICLE 17
OF HANDICRAFT.— 18
‘‘(i) I
N GENERAL.—The term ‘authen-19
tic Alaska Native article of handicraft’ 20
means any item that is— 21
‘‘(I) composed, wholly or in a sig-22
nificant respect, of natural materials 23
that were found, foraged, or gifted; 24
and 25
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‘‘(II) produced, decorated, or 1
fashioned in significant part— 2
‘‘(aa) by an Alaska Native; 3
‘‘(bb) in the exercise of tra-4
ditional Alaska Native handi-5
crafts; and 6
‘‘(cc) without the use of any 7
mass copying device. 8
‘‘(ii) I
NCLUSIONS.—The term ‘authen-9
tic Alaska Native article of handicraft’ in-10
cludes— 11
‘‘(I) any weaving, carving, stitch-12
ing, sewing, lacing, beading, drawing, 13
or painting that meets the criteria de-14
scribed in clause (i); and 15
‘‘(II) any item, including cloth-16
ing, described in subclause (I) that 17
combines the techniques described in 18
that subclause. 19
‘‘(2) C
LARIFICATION FOR CERTAIN AUTHENTIC 20
ALASKA NATIVE ARTICLES OF HANDICRAFT .—Sub-21
ject to paragraph (3) and notwithstanding any other 22
provision of this Act, nothing in this Act prohibits 23
the possession, offering for sale, sale, offering to 24
barter, barter, offering to purchase, purchase, deliv-25
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ery for shipment, shipment, causing to be shipped or 1
delivered for transportation, transport, causing to be 2
transported, carrying, causing to be carried, or re-3
ceiving for shipment, transportation, or carriage of 4
any authentic Alaska Native article of handicraft on 5
the basis that the authentic Alaska Native article of 6
handicraft contains a nonedible migratory bird part. 7
‘‘(3) L
IMITATION.—This subsection does not 8
apply to an authentic Alaska Native article of handi-9
craft containing a part of a migratory bird that was 10
taken in a wasteful or illegal manner.’’. 11
(b) A
DMINISTRATION.—Not later than 180 days after 12
the date of enactment of this Act— 13
(1) the Secretary of State shall work with the 14
Secretary of the Interior to enter into appropriate 15
bilateral procedures, as necessary, with countries 16
that are parties to the treaties described in para-17
graphs (1) through (4) of section 2 to clarify the 18
treatment of authentic Alaska Native articles of 19
handicraft (as defined in subsection (c)(1) of section 20
2 of the Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 21
703)) containing nonedible migratory bird parts 22
from the species of migratory birds listed in those 23
treaties in accordance with the amendments made by 24
subsection (a); and 25
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(2) the Secretary of the Interior shall modify 1
any regulations implementing the Migratory Bird 2
Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703 et seq.), as appropriate, 3
to implement the amendments made by this Act. 4
(c) T
ECHNICALAMENDMENT.—Section 2(a) of the 5
Migratory Bird Treaty Act (16 U.S.C. 703) is amended 6
by inserting a comma after ‘‘March 4, 1972’’. 7
Æ
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