Bill > S236

This bill amends the Long-Term Leasing Act of 1955—a federal law that governs how long Native American tribes can lease out their reservation or trust lands—to give two specific tribes, the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe and the Wampanoag Tribe of Gay Head (Aquinnah), the authority to enter into long-term leases of up to 99 years. Under federal law, leasing tribal lands typically requires government approval and is subject to strict time limits unless Congress explicitly grants an exception; this legislation adds these two tribes to a growing list of exceptions (such as the Confederated Tribes of the Chehalis Reservation) that are permitted to make leases lasting nearly a century. By extending the maximum lease duration to 99 years, the bill aims to provide these Massachusetts-based tribes with the same economic development opportunities as other tribes by making it easier to attract commercial, residential, and agricultural investment on their reservation land and land held in trust (meaning land owned by the federal government for the benefit of the tribe).