New Mexico land-grant heirs get clearer rights to use federal land.
S. 1363 — New Mexico Land Grant-Mercedes Historical or Traditional Use Cooperation and Coordination Act · Filed by Ben Luján (D-NM) · Introduced Apr 9, 2025 · Passed chamber
Your members of Congress
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What it does
The bill tells the USDA and Interior Department to work with New Mexico's Land Grant Council. They will write an agreement about how heirs can use federal land. Heirs can gather wood, herbs, and water. They can graze animals, hunt, and care for cemeteries and shrines. Federal agencies can lower or drop permit fees. Fees depend on how much money the community has.
Who it affects
Land-grant heirs gain clearer legal paths to use federal land. They may pay lower fees. Tribal rights stay protected.
One thing to notice
Fee waivers are not automatic. Agencies will decide case by case based on community finances.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
- Apr 9, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 9, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Energy and Natural Resources · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Energy and Natural Resources”
- Dec 2, 2025 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources Subcommittee on Public Lands, Forests, and Mining. Hearings held”
- Dec 17, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Energy and Natural Resources. Ordered to be reported with an amendment favorably”
- Sep 23, 2026 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate with an amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S4898-4901; text: CR S4898-4901)”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
3 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 3 reports from Dec 2025 to Dec 2025.
Those reports show $40,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 1 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 61% of bills with any report.
Ben Luján, who sponsored the bill, received $1,850,794 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Santo Domingo Pueblo — $20,000 in 1 report
- Santo Domingo Pueblo — $20,000 in 1 report
- Pueblo of Laguna — $0 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- land grant — Land given by Spain or Mexico long ago to families or communities.
- permit — Official permission from the government to do something.
- federal land — Land owned by the U.S. government, not by states or private people.
- lobbying — Trying to influence lawmakers about a bill. Companies and groups pay people to do this.
- PACs — Groups that collect money and give it to candidates for office.
- sponsored — To sponsor a bill is to introduce it in Congress and put your name on it.
How this was measured
Analysis — Quorum's AI read the bill text published by Congress.gov (13,437 characters) on Aug 20, 2026. Section numbers in the findings refer to that text, linked below; transparency and hidden-provision scores are compared against the median of 14,985 analysed bills.
Status and sponsors — Congress.gov's bill record — actions, committee referrals and cosponsors — loaded nightly. The timeline shows status changes, not every procedural action.
Money — Senate Lobbying Disclosure Act filings whose specific-issue field names this bill for quarters ending Dec 2025 to Dec 2025. A filing's amount is reported whole beside the median number of bills a filing names; it is never divided across them. PAC receipts are FEC-reported contributions to the sponsor's candidate committee in the 2026 cycle.
As of — lobbying records through Jan 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-25.
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