39–010 

Calendar No. 359 

113TH CONGRESS REPORT " ! SENATE 2d Session 113–148 

PASCUA YAQUI TRIBE TRUST LAND ACT 

APRIL 10, 2014.—Ordered to be printed 

Ms. LANDRIEU, from the Committee on Energy and Natural 

Resources, submitted the following 

R E P O R T 

[To accompany H.R. 507] 

The Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, to which was 

referred the bill (H.R. 507) to provide for the conveyance of certain 

land inholdings owned by the United States to the Pascua Yaqui 

Tribe of Arizona, and for other purposes, having considered the 

same, reports favorably thereon without amendment and recommends that the bill do pass. 

PURPOSE

The purpose of H.R. 507 is to provide for two parcels of land totaling approximately 20 acres in southern Arizona to be held in 

trust by the United States for the benefit of the Pascua Yaqui 

Tribe. 

BACKGROUND AND NEED

The Pascua Yaqui Indian Reservation is located near Tucson, Arizona. H.R. 507 would provide for two small parcels, together totaling approximately 20 acres, to be held in trust by the United States 

for the benefit of the Tribe, and added to the approximately 1,200- 

acre reservation. 

One of the parcels to be conveyed to the Tribe is a 10-acre parcel 

that was conveyed to the Tucson Unified School District by the Bureau of Land Management in 1981 under the Recreation and Public 

Purposes Act (43 U.S.C. 869 et seq.), to be used for a school site. 

However, the property was never developed and remains unused. 

The school district supports relinquishing its patent so that the 

lands can be conveyed to the Tribe. 


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The second parcel to be conveyed is a 10-acre parcel of undeveloped Federal land administered by the Bureau of Land Management that is surrounded by reservation lands. The Department of 

the Interior supports both parcels being held in trust for the benefit of the Tribe. 

LEGISLATIVE HISTORY

H.R. 507, sponsored by Representative Grijalva, was ordered reported by the Committee on Natural Resources on March 20, 2013 

(H. Rept. 113–27), and passed the House of Representatives by a 

vote of 401–2 on May 6, 2013. 

The Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining held a 

hearing on H.R. 507 on July 30, 2013. The bill was ordered reported at its business meeting on November 21, 2013. 

Representative Grijalva sponsored similar legislation, H.R. 4222, 

during the 112th Congress, which passed the House of Representatives by a voice vote on June 5, 2012. 

COMMITTEE RECOMMENDATION

The Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources, in 

open business session on November 21, 2013 by a voice vote of a 

quorum present, recommends that the Senate pass H.R. 507. 

SECTION-BY-SECTION ANALYSIS

Section 1 provides the short title, the ‘‘Pascua Yaqui Tribe Trust 

Land Act.’’ 

Section 2 defines key terms used in the bill. 

Section 3(a) directs the Secretary of the Interior (Secretary) to 

take a 10-acre parcel of land depicted on the referenced map as 

Parcel (A) into trust for the benefit of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe of 

Arizona (Tribe), subject to valid existing rights. 

Subsection (b) provides identical authority for the Secretary to 

take a separate 10-acre parcel into trust for the benefit of the 

Tribe. 

Subsection (c) provides that the provisions in subsections (a) and 

(b) shall take effect on the day after the date the Tucson Unified 

School District relinquishes all right, title, and interest in the parcel described in subsection (b), and upon the approval by the Secretary of the Interior of the lease agreement between the Tribe and 

the Tucson Unified School District for the construction and operation of a regional transportation facility located on restricted Indian Land of the Tribe. 

Section 4 prohibits the Tribe from conducting gaming activities 

on the lands held in trust under this Act. 

Section 5(a) provides that there shall not be Federal reserved 

rights to surface water or groundwater for land taken into trust 

under this Act. 

Subsection (b) provides that the Tribe retain any right or claim 

to water under State law for land taken into trust by this Act. 

Subsection (c) states that any water rights that are appurtenant 

to land taken into trust under this Act for the benefit of the Tribe 

may not be forfeited or abandoned. 

Subsection (d) provides that nothing in this Act affects or modifies any right of the Tribe or obligation of the United States under 


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Public Law 95–375 (25 U.S.C. 1300f et seq.; ‘‘An Act to provide for 

the extension of certain Federal benefits, services, and assistance 

to the Pascua Yaqui Indians of Arizona, and for other purposes.’’) 

COST AND BUDGETARY CONSIDERATIONS

The following estimate of costs of this measure has been provided 

by the Congressional Budget Office: 

H.R. 507—Pascua Yaqui Tribe Trust Land Act 

H.R. 507 would require the Secretary of the Interior to place 20 

acres of land into trust for the benefit of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe 

of Arizona. Based on information provided by the Department of 

the Interior (DOI), CBO estimates that implementing the act would 

have no significant impact on the federal budget. Enacting H.R. 

507 would not affect direct spending or revenues; therefore, pay-asyou-go procedures do not apply. 

Under the act, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) would be 

required to place 10 acres of land that is currently administered by 

the agency into trust for the benefit of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe. In 

addition, if the Tucson Unified School District elects to relinquish 

its interest in 10 acres of land that it acquired from the federal 

government under the Recreation and Public Purposes Act, management of those lands would revert back to BLM, and the Secretary would be required to place them into trust for the tribe. 

Based on information provided by DOI, CBO estimates that any 

administrative costs to carry out the legislation, which would be 

subject to the availability of appropriated funds, would be minimal. 

In addition, the affected lands do not generate any offsetting receipts for the federal government and are not expected to generate 

such receipts over the next 10 years. 

H.R. 507 contains no intergovernmental or private-sector mandates as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act. Enacting 

the bill would benefit the Pascua Yaqui tribe. 

On April 3, 2013, CBO transmitted a cost estimate for H.R. 507 

as ordered reported by the House Committee on Natural Resources 

on March 20, 2013. The two versions of the legislation are similar, 

and the CBO cost estimates are the same. 

The CBO staff contact for this estimate is Martin von Gnechten. 

The estimate was approved by Theresa Gullo, Deputy Assistant Director for Budget Analysis. 

REGULATORY IMPACT EVALUATION

In compliance with paragraph 11(b) of rule XXVI of the Standing 

Rules of the Senate, the Committee makes the following evaluation 

of the regulatory impact which would be incurred in carrying out 

H.R. 507. 

The bill is not a regulatory measure in the sense of imposing 

Government-established standards or significant economic responsibilities on private individuals and businesses. 

No personal information would be collected in administering the 

program. Therefore, there would be no impact on personal privacy. 

Little, if any, additional paperwork would result from the enactment of H.R. 507, as ordered reported. 


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CONGRESSIONALLY DIRECTED SPENDING

H.R. 507, as reported, does not contain any congressionally directed spending items, limited tax benefits, or limited tariff benefits as defined in rule XLIV of the Standing Rules of the Senate. 

EXECUTIVE COMMUNICATIONS

The testimony provided by the Bureau of Land Management at 

the July 30, 2013, Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and 

Mining hearing on H.R. 507 follows: 

STATEMENT OF NED FARQUHAR, DEPUTY ASSISTANT SECRETARY, LAND AND MINERALS MANAGEMENT, DEPARTMENT OF THE INTERIOR

Thank you for the opportunity to testify on H.R. 507, 

which provides that certain public lands in the Tucson, Arizona, area are declared to be held in trust by the United 

States for the benefit of the Pascua Yaqui Tribe (Tribe), 

subject to valid existing rights and to additional restrictions in the legislation. The Department of the Interior 

(Department) supports holding the lands in trust for the 

Tribe, but has concerns that the legislation makes the 

trust declaration subject to an additional, unrelated restriction. 

BACKGROUND

The Tribe’s lands are located in Pima County, near Tucson, Arizona, and are a combination of lands held in trust 

by the United States and lands purchased and held in fee 

by the Tribe. Some of these fee lands are the subject of 

pending ‘‘fee-land-to-trust-land’’ applications with the Department. The Tucson Unified School District (District) operates the Hohokam School on private lands adjacent to 

the tribal lands. 

The Tribe is interested in acquiring two parcels of public 

land totaling approximately 20 acres. One parcel is an undeveloped, isolated 10-acre tract of land administered by 

the Bureau of Land Management (BLM). The second is a 

tract of approximately 10 acres that was patented under 

the Recreation and Public Purposes Act (R&PP) to the District, but never developed. 

H.R. 507

H.R. 507 declares that approximately 20 acres of public 

land are to be held in trust by the United States for the 

benefit of the Tribe, subject to valid existing rights, following the approval of a private lease agreement by the 

Secretary of the Interior (Secretary). The lands include one 

10-acre parcel of BLM-managed land (designated in the 

legislation as ‘‘Parcel A’’) and one 10-acre parcel patented 

to the District under the R&PP (designated ‘‘Parcel B’’). 

Parcel B’s trust status is deferred under the bill (Sec. 3(b)) 

subject to the District relinquishing its R&PP patent. In 

addition, under the bill (Sec. 3(c)), neither Parcel A nor 


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Parcel B can be declared held in trust until the Secretary 

or a delegate approves and records a private lease agreement between the Tribe and the District for the operation 

of a regional transportation facility serving the Hohokam 

School located on restricted Indian land of the Tribe. The 

lease agreement pertains to lands unrelated to Parcel A or 

Parcel B. 

H.R. 507 references a map titled: PYT Land Department 

and dated Jan. 15, 2013. The BLM would welcome the opportunity to work with the bill sponsor and committee on 

a new land status map to accompany the legislation. 

The Department supports holding these two tracts of 

public land in trust for the Tribe. The Department has 

concerns that the additional requirement in Sec. 3(c), that 

the Secretary approve a private lease, on Tribal lands, for 

the District and the Tribe, as a precondition to holding in 

trust Parcel A and Parcel B—unrelated lands—may have 

implications for the Secretary’s exercise of trust responsibility to the Tribe. 

Finally, the Department notes that section 5 of H.R. 507 

addresses the treatment of water rights that may be associated with the land to be taken into trust for the benefit 

of the Tribe. The Department has concerns regarding Section 5’s restriction on its ability to assert reserved water 

rights that the Tribe may have or claim on the two tracts 

of public land because it could restrict the ability of the 

Tribe and of the United States as trustee on behalf of the 

Tribe from fully asserting and protecting the water rights 

of the Tribe. 

CONCLUSION

HR. 507 represents an opportunity to improve land use 

for both the Tribe and the District on two isolated tracts 

of public land. Thank you for the opportunity to testify. I 

will be glad to answer any questions. 

CHANGES IN EXISTING LAW

In compliance with paragraph 12 of rule XXVI of the Standing 

Rules of the Senate, the Committee notes that no changes in existing law are made by H.R. 507, as ordered reported. 

Æ 


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