Text taken from the blog:
Early on, the Department of the Interior balked at the agreement, in part because it didn't like the federal share of the costs.
A U.S. Bureau of Reclamation report also found the costs of the proposed regional water system would be higher than estimated.
More than once, Domenici and Bingaman tried to get the legislation through.
Finally, in January, the U.S. House passed the version submitted by U.S. Rep. Ben Ray Lujan.
Then the Department of the Interior and federal Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Michael Connor, a former Bingaman staffer, gave the settlement the thumbs up.
Bingaman said the key to congressional approval was piggybacking the Aamodt settlement and two other bills involving Indian water rights in New Mexico onto the Cobell appropriations legislation. The Cobell bill settles long-standing claims by Indian tribes of mismanaged Bureau of Indian Affairs trust funds.
Bingaman was presiding over the Senate floor in late October when his colleagues approved the massive bill, including the Aamodt settlement and $169 million for the water system.
When Namba's Mirabal learned the president was ready to sign the bill and make the Aamodt settlement law, he had tears in his eyes. "We wondered if we'd live to see it passed," he said recently.
"Now the really hard work starts," he added. "Everyone is going to want to have a hand in what this looks like."
Next dilemmas:
Challenges to the settlement are not over. Not long ago, one of the non-pueblo defendants filed a motion to dismiss the pueblos as plaintiffs in the case.
The Aamodt parties now have to hammer out final details and then see how many of the thousands of defendants named in the case will agree to the settlement.
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