Author: MIL-OSI Publisher

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Bruce Westerman (AR-04)

As we celebrate a holiday centered on our gratitude and thankfulness for all the blessings we have been given, we must also reflect on our nation’s history and the significance behind Thanksgiving Day.

Most often associated with the feast depicted in our history books from colonial days, we recall the first harvest shared by the pilgrims to thank God for their blessings and the abundant harvest they received during a time marked by great uncertainty. While this feast was celebrated at Plymouth colony in 1621, and loosely maintained by the generations to follow, it wouldn’t be for almost two more centuries that our nation would properly observe this day.

During the Revolutionary War, our Founding Fathers observed a day of thanksgiving that took on a whole new meaning. After the British army surrendered to the Americans at the Battle of Saratoga, General George Washington agreed to the Continental Congress’ suggestion of observing a national day of thanksgiving to commemorate this victory. The proclamation was signed, designating December 18, 1777, as our nation’s first Thanksgiving Day.

It wasn’t until the Civil War era, however, that Thanksgiving Day was regularly observed, when President Abraham Lincoln established the last Thursday in November as Thanksgiving Day in 1863. For 162 years, our nation has set aside this day as a day of thankfulness.

May we continue to be thankful for the blessings we have been given: our nation’s farmers who are responsible for providing food for our tables, our teachers who pour into and shape the minds of future leaders, and our troops who defend the freedoms we are so blessed to have.

When we take a moment to reflect on all that we have been given, my hope is that we will be reminded of how blessed our nation truly is. And that we will never forget the generations who have come before us to secure these gifts, urging us to press forward and do the same for future generations. I am certainly thankful for the opportunity to serve the Fourth District of Arkansas, and I wish you and your loved ones a happy and healthy Thanksgiving. 

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman John Garamendi – Representing California’s 3rd Congressional District

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA-08), a senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and Ranking Member of the Readiness Subcommittee, released the following statement in response to the Department of Defense Inspector General’s report on Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s leaking of classified information on Signal earlier this year:

“This report confirms what we’ve known all along: Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s incompetence and reckless behavior put our national security and the lives of our servicemembers at risk. On the very first page of the report, the IG makes clear that the information Hegseth sent in a Signal chat with a news reporter was classified. Despite what the Trump Administration claims, this report does not ‘exonerate’ Hegseth in the slightest- it’s damning.

“If any other member of the military had committed this same grave breach of protocol, they would have been immediately removed from their position. But because Pete Hegseth’s sole qualification is loyalty to Trump, he’ll continue serving in a role he is indisputably unqualified to hold. Hegseth and Trump may preach accountability, but their actions tell an entirely different story.

“I call on Secretary Hegseth to appear before a televised House Armed Services Committee hearing next week to answer for his reckless leaking of classified information and his allegedly criminal order to kill unarmed survivors off the coast of Venezuela. If he has nothing to hide, he should explain his actions in full view of the American people rather than hide behind closed doors.”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman John Garamendi – Representing California’s 3rd Congressional District

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congressman John Garamendi (CA-08), senior member of the House Armed Services Committee and Ranking Member of the Readiness Subcommittee, called for public hearings with Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth to address the Department of Defense’s actions in Venezuela and its ongoing military strikes off the country’s coast, including allegations that he violated domestic and international law by ordering forces to “kill them all.”

“I am demanding that Hegseth and all those responsible for these strikes come before Congress and testify in front of the American people. For months, I have raised serious concerns about the administration’s actions in the Caribbean, including the legality of these strikes and their potential to drag us into another war.

“Now, with recent reporting that Hegseth ordered our military to ‘kill’ survivors of an airstrike, it’s clear that the administration has a callous disregard for the rule of law. To be clear: If the reporting is accurate, Secretary Hegseth’s alleged orders directly violated U.S. law, international law, and the Department of Defense’s own Law of War Manual.

“I’ve had enough. We must have a full, open, and transparent hearing before the House Armed Services Committee. Anything less would be a disservice to the American people. If Hegseth believes his actions were lawful, he should not be afraid to explain himself to Congress in full view of the nation, instead of burying this potentially criminal activity in closed-door meetings.

“A closed-door classified briefing is not good enough for me, not good enough for the three million servicemembers who could be subjected to unlawful orders, and certainly not good enough for the 700,000 people I represent in Contra Costa and Solano Counties.

“If Trump and Hegseth can commit such horrific acts in peacetime, just think what they’ll do if they plunge us into another unnecessary war.”

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Representing the 12th District of California

Washington D.C. – Today, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi joined Senator Alex Padilla (D-CA), Representative Jared Huffman (CA-02) and 25 members of the California Democratic Congressional delegation in condemning the Trump Administration’s official draft 2027-2032 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program that includes six lease proposals off the coast of Northern, Central, and Southern California. The plan proposes opening vast swaths of previously protected federal waters—including the California coast—to new oil and gas drilling for the first time in over 40 years, disregarding bipartisan opposition.

The Trump Administration’s overwhelmingly unpopular proposal directly targets areas former President Joe Biden withdrew from future leasing in January 2025, when he protected 625 million acres. In their letter to President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the lawmakers stressed that this plan would undermine state laws that prohibit new offshore drilling along its 1,110-mile coastline and ban new leases for oil and gas infrastructure in state waters.

“We stand united with the overwhelming majority of Californians who fundamentally oppose any proposal that would expand offshore drilling and risk our state’s invaluable, ecologically unique coast,” wrote the lawmakers. “This proposal, coupled with ongoing efforts to reduce federal staffing and funding for agencies that protect our environment, including for safety and oil spill response, is not only dangerous but outright reckless.”

“As we have repeatedly seen in California and other parts of the country, offshore drilling is a ticking time bomb,” continued the lawmakers. “Any expansion of offshore drilling in the waters off the coast of California and the spills that would inevitably accompany it would be devastating to the communities we represent.”

The lawmakers emphasized the devastating impacts new oil and gas leasing would have on California’s environment, military readiness, and diverse coastal economy, threatening the state’s tourism, recreation, fisheries, deepwater port commerce, and defense infrastructure industries. California’s marine economy accounted for $51.3 billion in GDP and $26.7 billion in wages, and pollution off its coast would significantly damage the state’s world-leading economy, hurting the entire country.

California began efforts to block offshore drilling in 1969 when an oil rig off the coast of Santa Barbara leaked 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean, blanketing beaches with a thick layer of oil and killing thousands of marine mammals and birds. It was the largest oil spill in U.S. history until the Exxon Valdez spill 20 years later. In the past decade, the 2015 Refugio State Beach oil spill and the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spillhave further demonstrated the immense risks of offshore drilling expansion.

Full text of the letter is available here.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Representing the 12th District of California

Washington, D.C. – Today, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi delivered remarks on the House Floor condemning President Trump’s decision to pardon Juan Orlando Hernández—the former President of Honduras who was convicted in U.S. federal court for trafficking cocaine into the United States.

In her speech, Pelosi recounted witnessing Hernández’s abuses firsthand during a bipartisan Congressional delegation to Honduras, where Members refused to meet with him due to his violent and criminal conduct. She underscored how Trump’s pardon disrespects American families devastated by narcotics, endangers law enforcement officers risking their lives to stop drug trafficking and undermines the rule of law.

Pelosi also condemned the hypocrisy of Trump pardoning a convicted drug trafficker while simultaneously justifying the bombing of small boats he claims are carrying drugs.

Watch Speaker Emerita Pelosi’s Floor remarks here.

Read the transcript of Speaker Emerita Pelosi’s Floor remarks below:

Speaker Emerita Pelosi. Mr. Speaker, I rise today with deep concern at the President’s outrageous and shameful pardon of Juan Orlando Hernández, a man an American jury convicted of trafficking tons of cocaine into the United States and of corrupting his own government in the process.

I saw this firsthand when I brought a bipartisan delegation to Honduras when he was president. We refused to meet with him because he was and is a thug.

This is not a minor case. This is not a close call. This was a decisive conviction for crimes that have devastated American families and fueled violence and instability abroad.

And yet President Trump chose to use one of the most powerful powers of the presidency to wipe it all out.

This is so hypocritical as he’s bombing small boats that he describes as full of drugs coming to the United States.

And perhaps they are. And that’s a different thing.

But if he’s doing that, why would he pardon a thug?

Hernández once boasted at a meeting of narco-traffickers that ‘together they would shove the drugs right up the noses of the gringos.’

What message does pardoning this criminal send to parents who have lost children to narcotics, to law enforcement officers risking everything to stop the flow of deadly drugs?

This disgraceful pardon should be met with bipartisan condemnation as an affront to our values, our safety, our rule of law, our democracy.

Those who do not join in that condemnation are either pro-crime or do not care.

It’s another reminder: the American people must be vigilant. I yield back.

Source: United States House of Representatives – Congresswoman Nancy Pelosi Representing the 12th District of California

San Francisco – For World AIDS Day, Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi reflected with Vogue on her nearly four decades of advocacy in the fight against HIV/AIDS. Pelosi recalled her first moments as a new Member of Congress in 1987, when she declared on the House Floor that she came to fight against HIV/AIDS.

Pelosi highlighted key milestones in that work, including helping to pass the Ryan White Care Act and contributing to the NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt. She noted how dramatically treatment and prevention have advanced since those early years, strengthened by initiatives like PEPFAR and USAID. But she warned that recent funding cuts and rising misinformation threaten to reverse decades of progress.

“On World AIDS Day, we reflect on its devastating toll and honor the beautiful souls stolen by this virus,” Speaker Emerita Pelosi said. “As we continue the fight to banish AIDS to the dustbin of history, we refuse to be deterred by the Administration’s efforts to abandon this life-saving work. We are not going back to an era of stigma, fear and cruelty.”

Speaker Emerita Pelosi delivers remarks today during an event marking World AIDS Day hosted by the National AIDS Memorial Grove in San Francisco.

Read the full story below:

Vogue: Nancy Pelosi Reflects on World AIDS Day and Continuing the Fight

[By Margaux Anbouba, 12/1/25]

When Rep. Nancy Pelosi was sworn into Congress on June 2, 1987, she was told to keep her personal statement short.

“Some of the members that I knew said, ‘Nobody wants to hear from a freshman member,’” Pelosi says. She was the only person being sworn in that day, after winning a special election following the death of Rep. Sala Burton. “But after I was sworn in, the Speaker of the House at the time, Jim Wright, asked, ‘Does the gentlelady wish to address the house?’ I didn’t want to say no. I thanked my parents, my constituents who sent me there, and said, ‘Sala sent me and I came to fight against HIV and AIDS.’ Period.”

Pelosi, who announced last month that she will not seek reelection when her term in Congress ends in 2027, has represented San Francisco throughout her career—one of the cities hit hardest by the HIV/AIDS epidemic. It’s estimated that close to 20,000 people died from AIDS in San Francisco during the 1980s and early ’90s, as Pelosi entered elected office.

Her remarks to her peers in Congress lasted less than a minute, but they would set the tone for Pelosi’s work going forward. “AIDS affected everybody we knew at the time,” she tells Vogue during a phone interview. “Largely, it was in the gay community at first. But then it became more and more people. In those days, we were going to a few funerals a week, sometimes two a day. It was a death penalty to have a diagnosis of HIV and AIDS.” In 1990, Pelosi helped to pass the Ryan White Care Act, which remains the largest federal care program for people with HIV/AIDS. She also contributed to the historic NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt, made of hand-sewed panels of fabric commemorating more than 700,000 people who have died from the disease.

When LGBTQ+ rights activist Cleve Jones first came to Pelosi and proposed the quilt project, she thought the idea was crazy. “Nobody sews anymore,” she says. “I’m a mother of five and went to convent school, where they taught me how to knit, crochet, darn, everything. And I didn’t sew!”

But, she admits, she was wrong. The NAMES Project AIDS Memorial Quilt quickly grew into the largest piece of American folk art in the world—and got Pelosi to pick up a needle and thread herself. Pelosi designed and made a square for the flower girl from her wedding, Susie Piracci Roggio. “Susie was a champion for the cause,” Pelosi says. “She used her diagnosis to help prevent other people from dying, [while] actually dying from it at the time.” (Pelosi knows other people memorialized on the quilt, too, including her former aide Scott Douglass, who lost his battle with AIDS at age 34.)

In the 38 years that Pelosi has served this country, the narrative around HIV/AIDS—as well as its course of treatment—has changed dramatically. That has a lot to do with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) program, as well as the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the latter of which Pelosi worked with Republican President George W. Bush to create in 2003.

Some of that progress, though, has recently been imperilled. Among the first things President Donald Trump did upon taking office for the second time was to dismantle USAID, and an anti-condom movement has taken root among American 20-somethings.

Pelosi’s message on this is clear: “You don’t want this disease.” The funding cuts, she urges, don’t mean that HIV/AIDS is no longer an issue. UNAIDS anticipates that this discontinuation of AIDS-related education and programming will lead to an additional 6.6 million HIV infections and 4.2 million AIDS-related deaths between now and 2030.

“Young people need to understand that while we have been able to improve the quality of life of those with HIV/AIDS,” Pelosi says, “the fight isn’t over.”

Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose)

WASHINGTON, DC – Today, Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren joined U.S. Senator Alex Padilla (D-Calif.), Congressman Jared Huffman (D-Calif.-02), and 25 members of the California Democratic Congressional delegation in condemning the Trump Administration’s official draft 2027-2032 Outer Continental Shelf Oil and Gas Leasing Program that includes six lease proposals off the coast of Northern, Central, and Southern California. The plan proposes opening vast swaths of previously protected federal waters — including the California coast — to new oil and gas drilling for the first time in over 40 years, disregarding bipartisan opposition.

The Trump Administration’s overwhelmingly unpopular proposal directly targets areas former President Joe Biden withdrew from future leasing in January 2025, when he protected 625 million acres. In their letter to President Trump and Secretary of the Interior Doug Burgum, the lawmakers stressed that this plan would undermine state laws that prohibit new offshore drilling along its 1,110-mile coastline and ban new leases for oil and gas infrastructure in state waters.

“We stand united with the overwhelming majority of Californians who fundamentally oppose any proposal that would expand offshore drilling and risk our state’s invaluable, ecologically unique coast,” wrote the lawmakers. “This proposal, coupled with ongoing efforts to reduce federal staffing and funding for agencies that protect our environment, including for safety and oil spill response, is not only dangerous but outright reckless.” 

“As we have repeatedly seen in California and other parts of the country, offshore drilling is a ticking time bomb,” continued the lawmakers. “Any expansion of offshore drilling in the waters off the coast of California and the spills that would inevitably accompany it would be devastating to the communities we represent.”

The lawmakers emphasized the devastating impacts new oil and gas leasing would have on California’s environment, military readiness, and diverse coastal economy, threatening the state’s tourism, recreation, fisheries, deepwater port commerce, and defense infrastructure industries. California’s marine economy accounted for $51.3 billion in GDP and $26.7 billion in wages, and pollution off its coast would significantly damage the state’s world-leading economy, hurting the entire country.

California began efforts to block offshore drilling in 1969 when an oil rig off the coast of Santa Barbara leaked 3 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean, blanketing beaches with a thick layer of oil and killing thousands of marine mammals and birds. It was the largest oil spill in U.S. history until the Exxon Valdez spill 20 years later. In the past decade, the 2015 Refugio State Beach oil spill and the 2021 Huntington Beach oil spill have further demonstrated the immense risks of offshore drilling expansion.

In addition to Representative Lofgre, Senator Padilla and Representative Huffman, the letter was also signed by Senator Adam Schiff (D-Calif.), Speaker Emerita Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.-11), and Representatives Nanette Barragán (D-Calif.-44), Julia Brownley (D-Calif.-26), Salud Carbajal (D-Calif.-24), Gil Cisneros (D-Calif.-31), Lou Correa (D-Calif.-46), Mark DeSaulnier (D-Calif.-10), Laura Friedman (D-Calif.-30), John Garamendi (D-Calif.-08), Sydney Kamlager-Dove (D-Calif.-37), Mike Levin (D-Calif.-49), Ted Lieu (D-Calif.-36), Doris Matsui (D-Calif.-07), Dave Min (D-Calif.-47), Kevin Mullin (D-Calif.-15), Jimmy Panetta (D-Calif.-19), Scott Peters (D-Calif.-50), Luz Rivas (D-Calif.-29), Brad Sherman (D-Calif.-32), Lateefah Simon (D-Calif.-12), Eric Swalwell (D-Calif.-14), Mark Takano (D-Calif.-39), Derek Tran (D-Calif.-45), and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.-52).

Full text of the letter is available here and below:

Dear Mr. President and Secretary Burgum:

We write in strong opposition to the Draft Proposed Program (DPP) for the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program. We specifically want to express our strongest opposition to the inclusion of the Northern California OCS Planning Area, the Central California OCS Planning Area, and the Southern California OCS Planning Area in the DPP for oil and gas leasing disposition.

We stand united with the overwhelming majority of Californians who fundamentally oppose any proposal that would expand offshore drilling and risk our state’s invaluable, ecologically unique coast. This proposal, coupled with ongoing efforts to reduce federal staffing and funding for agencies that protect our environment, including for safety and oil spill response, is not only dangerous but outright reckless. As we have repeatedly seen in California and other parts of the country, offshore drilling is a ticking time bomb.  Any expansion of offshore drilling in the waters off the coast of California and the spills that would inevitably accompany it would be devastating to the communities we represent.

In April 2025, California officially became the fourth-largest economy in the world, behind only the United States, China, and Germany in global rankings. Our economy is diverse and robust, including sectors such as tourism, recreation, fisheries, deepwater port commerce, and Department of Defense infrastructure. According to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), California’s marine economy alone accounted for $51.3 billion in GDP and $26.7 billion in wages in 2021. The economic well-being of these sectors is dependent upon a healthy and clean coastline. Further industrialization off our coast will inevitably pollute our beaches, spelling disaster for California’s economy and detrimentally impacting the rest of the country, which relies on California as an economic engine.

California is all too familiar with the devastating impacts of oil spills. The 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill remains the largest in our state’s history—and one of the landmark spills in U.S. history. Immediate damage to birds, intertidal organisms, beaches, and the economy was severe. That experience galvanized Californians and secured an unshakable commitment to protecting our coastline. The more recent 2015 Refugio oil spill and 2021 Huntington Beach oil spill reinforced our strong opposition to any offshore drilling expansion.

Our Congressional delegation, state leaders, and dozens of California municipalities and Tribes have expressed their opposition through resolutions or comment letters, along with state groups and citizens. The bipartisan consensus against expanded offshore drilling has been clear and consistent over five decades. This has resulted in current state laws that include a permanent ban on new offshore oil and gas drilling along California’s 1,110-mile coastline and a prohibition on new leases for oil and gas infrastructure in state waters that enable increased oil and gas production from federal waters. As stated in the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management (BOEM)’s Request for Information and reinforced by the comments BOEM received from our state, “As a result of Congressional moratoria, subsequent Presidential actions, and consistent opposition by the States of Washington, Oregon, and California to any activity off their coasts, the Pacific OCS has not been included in any National OCS Program since the 1987–1992 Program.”

In addition to the economic and environmental reasons for not expanding drilling off California’s coasts, our national defense would be better served by keeping additional oil rigs away from our shores. California’s waters and coastline are strategically vital, hosting a significant number of military installations, key logistics routes, and special-use airspace. Allowing oil and gas development, or the risk of spills, in areas where our servicemembers routinely operate would undermine military readiness and pose risks to national security.

For these reasons and more, we write in strong opposition to the Proposed Program (DPP) for the 11th National Outer Continental Shelf (OCS) Oil and Gas Leasing Program. We specifically want to express our strongest opposition to the inclusion of the Northern California OCS Planning Area, the Central California OCS Planning Area, and the Southern California OCS Planning Area in the DPP for oil and gas leasing disposition. We appreciate your attention to this matter. 

Sincerely,

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose)

SAN JOSE, CA – Today, U.S. Congresswoman Zoe Lofgren (CA-18) announced that Edwin Sevilla will join her office as the incoming District Director for California’s 18th Congressional District.

“I am very excited to welcome Edwin Sevilla to our district office,” said Rep. Lofgren. “With his impressive career experience and upbringing in Santa Clara County, I am confident that Edwin is going to be a great addition to the team. Our district office provides so many constituent services for the people of CA-18, and Edwin will play a key part in continuing and improving those services.”

Edwin Sevilla joins Team Lofgren after serving as Northern California Regional Director for Senator Adam Schiff (D-CA). Before that, Edwin had the privilege to serve as Director of Constituent Services for U.S. Senators Dianne Feinstein and Laphonza Butler and as a Legislative Assistant for Congresswoman Linda Sánchez (CA-38) in her Washington, DC office. Edwin grew up in Milpitas, California, and he is a proud graduate of San Jose State University.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Representative Zoe Lofgren (D-San Jose)

WASHINGTON, DC – On November 21, 2025, Ranking Member Zoe Lofgren (D-CA) and Science Committee Democratic Members sent a letter to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) Office of Inspector General (OIG) requesting a formal audit of the agency’s recent actions regarding widespread closures and relocations at the Goddard Space Flight Center including its main campus in Greenbelt, Maryland. Today, Ranking Member Lofgren sent a follow up letter to the NASA OIG providing additional information pertaining to the schedule for NASA’s planned “consolidation” activities through May 2026 at the main Goddard campus.

“While the schedule remains subject to change on an ongoing basis by Goddard and agency management, the information contained within describes the plan for relocation activities at the Greenbelt campus as it stood on November 14th, 2025,” said Ranking Member Lofgren. “In addition to assisting with your review, I believe the document will emphasize the need for urgency in your efforts.”

 The Goddard Space Flight Center consolidation schedule can be found here.

Democratic Committee staff redacted information related to security arrangements at the Greenbelt campus as well as the identities of individual NASA personnel.

 The letter can be found here.

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Source: United States House of Representatives – Congressman Ken Calvert (CA-42)

Congressman Ken Calvert has introduced H.R. 5935, the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Water Rights Settlement Act. The legislation facilitates the execution of the water settlement agreement reached by the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians (Tribe), Coachella Valley Water District (CVWD), and Desert Water Agency (DWA).

“One of the many ways we recognize and protect the tribal sovereignty of tribes, like the Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians, is to protect and honor their water rights. I want to thank the Tribe as well as the Coachella Valley Water District and Desert Water Agency for reaching this water settlement. I look forward to working with them and the Department of Interior to pass this bill and fully execute the settlement,” said Rep. Calvert.

“The historic Agua Caliente water rights settlement affirms the Tribe’s right to manage, regulate, and govern the use of the Tribal Water Rights and at the same time improves the sustainability of water supplies for the entire Coachella Valley. The Tribe is grateful for Congressman Calvert’s leadership in authoring this bill and for his longstanding dedication to both tribal sovereignty and smart water management. We urge Congress to move this legislation forward quickly,” said Chairman Reid Milanovich, Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians.

“The introduction of this legislation is an important step in implementing the settlement agreement. It provides a clear framework for honoring Tribal water rights and builds upon our long-term water management strategies that have served the Coachella Valley for over a century. By moving this agreement forward through Congress, we are reinforcing a collaborative approach that benefits the entire region,” said John Powell Jr., CVWD Board President.

“Desert Water Agency supports the legislation needed to move this settlement agreement forward and appreciates Congressman Calvert’s role in introducing the bill. This agreement reflects the shared commitment of all three parties to protect our aquifer and ensure a sustainable water future for the Coachella Valley. DWA customers can continue to count on the same high-quality water and dedicated service they have always received,” said Paul Ortega, Desert Water Agency Board President.

The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Water Rights Settlement Act ratifies that the Tribe has a federally reserved water right up to 20,000 acre-feet per year of groundwater from the Indio Subbasin that is held in trust by the U.S. for the Tribe and individual allottees. The Tribe would also have surface water rights in Tahquitz Creek, Andreas Creek, and Whitewater Ranch, held in trust by the U.S. Under the terms of the agreement, domestic water service would not stop or switch to a tribal utility. Instead, CVWD and DWA would continue to supply households and businesses on the Reservation.

The bill would establish a $500 million “Agua Caliente Settlement Trust Fund” in the U.S. Treasury to be administered by the Department of Interior. The fund would include accounts for Development Projects, Groundwater Augmentation, Water Management, and Operation, Maintenance and Replacement Costs. The bill would transfer 2,742 acres of Bureau of Land Management land to the Tribe, with gaming prohibited on the transferred land.

 

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