Sen. Heinrich's Albuquerque Indian School Act passes Senate

Sen. Heinrich's Albuquerque Indian School Act passes Senate

By Dylan R.N. Crabb

WASHINGTON DC – US Senator Martin Heinrich's Albuquerque Indian School Act of 2026 passed the Senate yesterday with unanimous consent. Unanimous consent is a parliamentary procedure that allows the legislative body to speed up business by passing non-controversial or routine matters without a formal vote.

The Albuquerque Indian School Act of 2026 transfers jurisdiction of three tracts of land totaling approximately 9.89 acres from the General Services Administration (GSA) to the Department of the Interior (DOI) for the benefit of New Mexico's nineteen indigenous Pueblos. The transfer is scheduled for ninety days after the passage of the bill, which still must go through the US House of Representatives and be signed by the President.

The bill also contains a lease that the federal government will enter into with the Indian Pueblo Cultural Center for the continued use of one of the tracts of land. The initial term of the lease will “not exceed twenty-four months,” according to the text of the bill.

Indian Pueblo Cultural Center is a non-profit organization wholly owned and operated by the nineteen Pueblos (or any successor corporate or administrative entity designated by the nineteen Pueblos), dedicated to both preserving and perpetuating Pueblo history, culture, and art, while facilitating their future economic growth and long-term economic sustainability.

“The Albuquerque Indian School Act is about putting a small but important piece of land where it belongs, with New Mexico's nineteen Pueblos,” said Sen. Heinrich in a Senate Indian Affairs Committee meeting. "GSA has already identified these tracts as excess properties so this bill helps reduce the federal real estate footprint while putting under-used land to higher use and it does so in a way that respects the history of the location and the leadership of the nineteen Pueblos."

Senator Ben Ray Lujan was a co-sponsor of the Albuquerque Indian School Act.