PORTLAND PRESS HERALD • July 14, 2022
In a surprise move, a bill introduced and championed by Rep. Jared Golden, D-2nd District, was added as an amendment to the National Defense Authorization Act, which passed the chamber in a bipartisan vote, 329-101. If passed by the Senate, the measure would amend the federal law that governs the historic 1980 land claims settlement between Maine and the Penobscot, Passamaquoddy and Maliseet tribes to remove one of several restrictions on their sovereignty. In the 1980 negotiations to settle the tribes’ claim to two thirds of the state, Maine demanded that no federal Indian law – past or future – that undermined Maine’s authority would apply to the Maine tribes unless Congress specifically included them.