A vote on a water compact for the Blackfeet tribe was delayed Wednesday, as Montana’s U.S. Senators requested more time to finalize the bill’s language.
Bill sponsor Senator Jon Tester, a Democrat, told the Associated Press that the vote scheduled Wednesday was put off to allow for continued negotiations between the tribe and Interior Department.
But Blackfeet council member Joe McKay says the delay is actually the result of non-tribal members wanting to benefit from a tribal water issue.
Language in the water compact bill involves a $14 million fund to mitigate the impacts of developing the water right on the Pondera County Canal and Reservoir Company that operates near tribal land.
“And why are we allowing them to hold up the Blackfeet water rights settlement to serve their purposes?”
In a video of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee Hearing Wednesday, Senator Tester cited the water company mitigation plan in his request to delay the vote.
A spokesman for that company says they urged Senator Tester and Republican Senator Steve Daines to delay the bill so some of that language about the mitigation could be worked on again before it went to vote.
That’s what tribal council member Joe Mckay has a problem with.
“So essentially these folks are trying to hijack the Indian water rights settlement process for their own benefit.”
The vote on the bill was postponed until early next year.
