U.S. Senate committee hears 2 bills on tribal water rights in Arizona

Two tribal leaders from Arizona testified to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on Wednesday, defending a pair of bills brought by Sen. Mark Kelly and co-sponsored by Sen. Kyrsten Sinema that center on tribal water rights. The first was a bill concerning the White Mountain Apache Tribe that asks for additional funding and an extended Congressional deadline to complete the tribe’s Rural Water System and Miner Flat Dam Project for drinking water, a project approved as part of a water rights settlement enacted by Congress in 2010.