WASHINGTON, D.C. — U.S. Senator John Barrasso (R-WY), chairman of the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs (SCIA), praised Senate’s passage of H. Con. Res. 122, the Protection of the Right of Tribes to stop the Export of Cultural and Traditional (PROTECT) Patrimony Resolution. The resolution was sponsored by Rep. Steve Pearce (R-MN-2) with several bipartisan cosponsors. It passed the House of Representatives on Sept. 21, 2016.

The Senate amended the resolution to include the language of S. Con. Res. 49, which was introduced by Sen. Tom Udall (D-NM) and cosponsored by Sens. John McCain (R-AZ), Martin Heinrich (D-NM), and Lisa Murkowski (R-AK). S. Con. Res. 49 passed the SCIA on Sept. 7, 2016.

“The Senate has taken bipartisan action to help tribes protect Native cultural and traditional items from being exported and sold overseas,” said Chairman Barrasso. “Tribes have the sovereign right to safeguard these items from foreign export and to keep them where they belong, in their respective tribal communities.”

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