Crow Tribe gets direct control of water infrastructure money
S. 240 — Crow Tribe Water Rights Settlement Amendments Act of 2025 · Filed by Steve Daines (R-MT) · 1 cosponsor · Introduced Jan 24, 2025 · Passed both chambers
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What it does
This bill changes how the Crow Tribe manages water money from a 2010 settlement. The Tribe now controls a new account for water projects. The federal government no longer manages it. The deadline to run Yellowtail Dam moves from 15 years to 20 years. The federal government will not pay to maintain water systems the Tribe builds.
Who it affects
The Crow Tribe gains power to spend water settlement funds. The Tribe must run and fix water infrastructure it builds.
One thing to notice
The Tribe controls settlement funds and must maintain water systems it builds. The bill lets the Tribe buy land after finishing on-reservation projects.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
1 cosponsor: 1 Republicans.
- Jan 24, 2025 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Jan 24, 2025 — Referred to Senate Committee on Indian Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs”
- Mar 5, 2025 — Reported out of committee · Congress.gov: “Committee on Indian Affairs. Ordered to be reported without amendment favorably”
- Dec 11, 2025 — Passed the Senate · Congress.gov: “Passed Senate without amendment by Unanimous Consent. (consideration: CR S8691-8692; text: CR S8691-8692)”
- Sep 14, 2026 — Passed both chambers · Congress.gov: “On motion to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended Agreed to by voice vote”
- Sep 14, 2026 — Floor vote scheduled · Congress.gov: “Mr. Westerman moved to suspend the rules and pass the bill, as amended”
Dates and quoted wording are Congress.gov's action record; the timeline shows status changes, not every procedural step.
Money around this bill
1 groups reported lobbying about this bill. They filed 2 reports from Dec 2025 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $60,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 6 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 0% of bills with any report.
Steve Daines, who sponsored the bill, received $916,144 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Crow Tribe of Indians — $60,000 in 2 reports
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- settlement — An agreement that ends a disagreement, often involving money
- infrastructure — Systems and buildings needed for water to reach homes
- 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 (5,132 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 14,206 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 Jun 2026. 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 Jul 16, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-17.
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