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SALT LAKE CITY Congress has passed a long-awaited bill that would address water availability issues for residents living on the Navajo Nation in Utah who lack access to running water a problem exacerbated by the pandemic.
The Utah Navajo Water Rights Settlement Act was passed on Monday as part of a massive $2.3 trillion spending bill that includes $900 billion in coronavirus relief and a $1.4 trillion omnibus spending package, The Salt Lake Tribune reported.
The legislation will next head to President Donald Trump for his signature.
“This is truly a historic milestone for the Navajo people and the state of Utah,” Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez said in a statement Monday.
Long-awaited bill to settle Navajo Nation water rights in San Juan County passed by Congress
The legislation formalizes tribal water rights in southeast Utah and provides $220 million to construct water projects on the Utah Navajo strip.
(Leah Hogsten | Tribune file photo) Two young boys fill the family water tank at the Oljato-Monument Valley water spigot adjacent to the post office on June 22, 2020. The water well is one of a few locations in San Juan County where members of the Navajo Nation can get clean water. More than one-third of Navajo Nation households lack running water, and the problem is even worse in San Juan County where over 40% of Navajo Nation residents have to haul water. Families fill jugs at communal wells or buy bottled water from stores both costly and time-consuming burdens that have become only more difficult during the pandemic and the tribe s daily and weekend curfews.
Utahns react to Bidenâs history-making choice of Interior secretary
New Mexico Rep. Deb Haaland would be the first Native American to serve in the role would have a big impact on the West.
FILE - In this Nov. 3, 2020, file photo, Democratic Congresswoman Deb Haaland, N.M.-1st Dist., does a PSA for her Twitter account in downtown Albuquerque, N.M. Internet access, health care and basic necessities like running water and electricity within Indigenous communities have long been at the center of congressional debates. But until recently, Congress didn t have many Indigenous members who were pushing for solutions and funding for those issues. Hope is growing after the Native delegation in the U.S. House expanded by two on Election Day joining four others that were reelected. (Jim Thompson/The Albuquerque Journal via AP, File)