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| Guadalupe Hidalgo Study Included In Justice Funding |
October 20, 1999 |
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| WASHINGTON -- New Mexico may be one step closer to resolving a more than 150-year-old dispute surrounding the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo. Congresswoman Heather Wilson today announced that a report to accompany the appropriation bill funding the Departments of Commerce, Justice, and State calls for the General Accounting Office to study this matter.
"Since I first came to Washington, D.C., I've been working on the outstanding land claims that resulted from the ratification of the Treaty," Wilson said. "Since Congressman Bill Redmond's legislation passed the House and was not acted upon by the Senate before adjournment, I've been working with Senator Domenici and the rest of the New Mexico delegation to find a resolution to this matter. I am happy that I was able to help to get this study included in the bill."
On October 4, 1999, Wilson sent a letter to the Chairman of the Appropriations Subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, State and Judiciary asking him to include the provision calling for the federal government to conduct a study and report to Congress recommendations about how to finally resolve these disputes. In her letter to the Chairman, Wilson asked for assistance "in taking the first step to determine whether the federal government inadequately implemented the Treaty of Guadalupe-Hidalgo in New Mexico."
The Committee Report accompanying the appropriations act includes the study. If President Clinton signs the bill into law, the report to Congress will describe whether citizens were illegally deprived of their property rights and, if so, remedies available in the law to compensate those individuals.
"Based on the results of this study, Congress will be able to take a serious look at the land grant claims in New Mexico, and to compensate people if they were wronged," Wilson added.
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