Description:
H.R. 3371 would direct the Department of the Interior (DOI) to place approximately 40 acres of land owned by the Oglala Sioux and Cheyenne River Sioux Tribes in restricted fee status. The two Tribes would retain ownership of the land, and the land could not be transferred without the consent of the Congress and the tribes. H.R. 3371 would limit the use of the land to a memorial and sacred site and prohibit commercial development and gaming activity as outlined in a covenant signed in October 2022. The bill also would require DOI to make any necessary corrections to the survey and legal description of the land. Using information from the department, CBO estimates that the administrative costs to implement H.R. 3371 would not be significant. H.R. 3371 would impose an intergovernmental mandate as defined in the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA). The bill would prohibit state and local governments from taxing land placed into restricted fee status for the Oglala Sioux Tribe and the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe. Reported information on the market value of the land indicates that those forgone revenues would be well below the annual intergovernmental threshold established in UMRA ($99 million in 2023, adjusted annually for inflation). The bill contains no private-sector mandates.
