Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Amendments Act of 2025
Summary
What This Bill Does
The bill amends definitions in the Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act to add Mitigation Well System (wells, pipelines, treatment infrastructure for offsetting surface water depletion) and Pueblo Trust Funds, creates renames section heading to Pueblo Trust Funds, and creates supplemental nonreimbursable grant program for Mutual-Benefit Projects via Commissioner of Reclamation. It relies on appropriations, grants, definition changes, and compliance mandates. The main policy areas are Water Resources, Energy, and Housing.
Who Benefits and How
Taos Pueblo could gain revenue opportunities, Eligible Non-Pueblo Entities could gain revenue opportunities, and Water infrastructure contractors could gain revenue opportunities.
Who Bears the Burden and How
Bureau of Reclamation would be affected, U.S. Treasury / Federal taxpayers could face higher costs, and U.S. Treasury could face higher costs.
Key Provisions
- Amends definitions in the Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act to add Mitigation Well System (wells, pipelines, treatment infrastructure for offsetting surface water depletion) and Pueblo Trust Funds...
- Creates renames section heading to Pueblo Trust Funds.
- Creates supplemental nonreimbursable grant program for Mutual-Benefit Projects via Commissioner of Reclamation.
- Provides three mandatory appropriations from Treasury: (1) $161M for Taos Settlement Mutual-Benefit Projects Supplemental Fund (noninterest-bearing, for section 507(c) grants); (2) $190M for Taos Pueblo Groundwater...
- Exempts savings and disclaimer provisions: (1) Preserves the 2016 Federal Register finding that settlement conditions precedent were satisfied.
Evidence Chain:
This summary is generated from the full bill text using AI analysis. Expand "Detailed Analysis" below for identified beneficiaries/burden bearers with clause-level evidence links.
At a Glance
What This Bill Does
The bill amends definitions in the Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act to add Mitigation Well System (wells, pipelines, treatment infrastructure for offsetting surface water depletion) and Pueblo Trust Funds, creates renames section heading to Pueblo Trust Funds, and creates supplemental nonreimbursable grant program for Mutual-Benefit Projects via Commissioner of Reclamation.
Key Policy Areas
Water Resources, Energy, Housing
Primary Purpose
The bill amends definitions in the Taos Pueblo Indian Water Rights Settlement Act to add Mitigation Well System (wells, pipelines, treatment infrastructure for offsetting surface water depletion) and Pueblo Trust Funds, creates renames section heading to Pueblo Trust Funds, and creates supplemental nonreimbursable grant program for Mutual-Benefit Projects via Commissioner of Reclamation.
Policy Domains
Whole bill
Identified Gains
- Taos Pueblo
- Eligible Non-Pueblo Entities
- Water infrastructure contractors
- State of New Mexico
- Secretary of the Interior
Identified Costs
- Bureau of Reclamation
- U.S. Treasury / Federal taxpayers
- U.S. Treasury
- Eligible Non-Pueblo Entities (noncompliant)
Sponsors
Legislative Progress
In CommitteeMr. Luján (for himself and Mr. Heinrich) introduced the following …
Read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs.
Introduced in Senate
Stakeholder Effects
cui bono?How this legislation distributes effects. Mention counts reflect frequency, not effect magnitude.
Bureau of Reclamation, Secretary of the Interior, Taos Pueblo
Positive-direction: Secretary of the Interior, Taos Pueblo
Negative-direction: Bureau of Reclamation, U.S. Treasury
Bill Structure & Actor Mappings
Who is "The Secretary" in each section?
We use a combination of our own taxonomy and classification in addition to large language models to assess meaning and potential beneficiaries. High confidence means strong textual evidence. Always verify with the original bill text.
Learn more about our methodology