The first bite
Mel Watt (NC-12) offered an amendment to H.R. 3002 that restricts the Cherokee Nation (of Oklahoma) from access to funds authorized by H.R. 3002 until such time that the Secretary of Interior certifies to Congress that the Cherokee Nation (of Oklahoma) is in full compliance with the Treaty of 1866 and recognizes without reservation all Cherokee Freedmen and their descendants as citizens of the Cherokee Nation (of Oklahoma).
House Committee on Financial Service's (voice vote of the full committee) voted in favor of the Watt amendment. The full text of H.R. 3002, "Native American Economic Development and Infrastructure for Housing Act of 2007", is available at thomas.loc.gov.
Congressional Black Caucus 1, Chad Smith and his coterie 0, and the co-sponsor count on Diane Watson's bill has gone up from 11 to 17, with endorsements by the NAACP and the National Congress of Black Women.
