That—
it is the sense of the Senate that—
access to reliable, clean drinking water is an essential human need, and such access on Federal Indian reservations, Alaska Native villages, and in Native Hawaiian communities is—
critical to the health, well-being, and economic development of the individuals living on those lands and in those communities; and
integral to maintaining the public health of the people of the United States;
settlement or adjudication of Tribal claims of reserved water rights is not and should not be a prerequisite to the provision of this basic human service to households located in Native communities, nor should the provision of basic human services be used to leverage the resolution of Tribal reserved water rights and claims;
the provision of reliable, clean drinking water to support the domestic requirements of Indian Tribes, Alaska Native Villages, and Native Hawaiian communities is an essential component of the Federal trust responsibility to Native Americans and critical to supporting permanent homelands;
while funding for safe drinking water systems for Native communities received a significant and groundbreaking boost from the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (Public Law 117–58; 135 Stat. 429) (referred to in this resolution as “IIJA”) and the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 (Public Law 117–169; 136 Stat. 1818) (referred to in this resolution as “IRA”), the funding made available for construction and repair of domestic water systems in Native communities is not a complete solution;
technical assistance is urgently needed to allow Native communities to plan and design the systems necessary to remedy the longstanding problem of lack of access to clean drinking water and bring those plans to the “shovel ready” stage where Native communities can take advantage of available construction funding;
Native communities need support to develop the managerial, financial, and regulatory capacity necessary for a fully functional and self-sustaining utility and to support the operation and maintenance of water systems; and
further measures are necessary to ensure that the benefits of the historic investments made by the IIJA and IRA in infrastructure are fully realized; and
the Senate—
calls upon the Federal executive branch to—
work in collaboration with the relevant Native governmental entities and State and local jurisdictions to expedite the planning, design, development, and operation of the infrastructure necessary to provide reliable, clean drinking water on Federal Indian reservations, in Alaska Native Villages, and in Native Hawaiian communities; and
inform Congress of further authorizations and expenditures that may be necessary to meet the objective described in clause (i);
calls upon the Federal executive branch to—
employ a “whole-of-government” approach to ensure the provision of reliable, clean drinking water to households on Federal Indian reservations, in Alaska Native villages, and in Native Hawaiian communities;
create an interagency task force consisting of high-level representatives from departments and agencies with authority to provide water infrastructure that will work to remove barriers, optimize funding, and make immediate and tangible progress on meeting the objective described in clause (i); and
report annually to Congress on the progress toward the objective described in clause (i); and
calls upon the Federal executive branch, State governments, and affected water agencies to—
affirmatively support de-coupling the planning, design, development, and operation of water infrastructure from the settlement or adjudication of Tribal reserved water rights; and
support the development of water infrastructure necessary to provide reliable, clean drinking water in Native communities independent of settlements or adjudications of Tribal reserved water rights.