Bill settles Agua Caliente tribe's water rights dispute with $500 million fund
S. 4368 — Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians Water Rights Settlement Act · Filed by Alex Padilla (D-CA) · 2 cosponsors · Introduced Apr 22, 2026 · Hearing held
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What it does
This bill approves a deal about water rights between the tribe and water districts. The Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians gets the right to use 20,000 acre-feet of water each year. The tribe will get $500 million to build water systems. The tribe will also get about 3,600 acres of land.
Who it affects
The Agua Caliente tribe and its members get water rights, money, and land. Water districts in California get shield from old lawsuits. Tribal members must follow tribal rules before asking for help.
One thing to notice
The tribe gives up the right to sue for past water harm. Some harm may still affect tribal land after this bill passes.
From the analysis of the bill text, linked under Primary records below.
Where it stands
2 cosponsors: 1 Democrats, 1 Republicans.
- Apr 22, 2026 — Introduced · Congress.gov: “Introduced in Senate”
- Apr 22, 2026 — Referred to Senate Committee on Indian Affairs · Congress.gov: “Read twice and referred to the Committee on Indian Affairs”
- Jul 29, 2026 — Hearing held · Congress.gov: “Committee on Indian Affairs. Hearings held”
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 Jun 2026 to Jun 2026.
Those reports show $160,000 in lobbying spending. Each report lists about 3 bills. So that money was not all for this bill.
More groups named this bill than 61% of bills with any report.
Alex Padilla, who sponsored the bill, received $175,500 from PACs for the 2026 election.
- Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians — $110,000 in 1 report
- Agua Caliente Band of Cahuilla Indians — $30,000 in 1 report
- Coachella Valley Water District — $20,000 in 1 report
Lobbying is legal. These reports show who lobbied about this bill, not what changed.
Words to know
- acre-feet — A measure of water equal to one acre covered one foot deep.
- tribal members — People who belong to a Native American tribe.
- shield — Legal protection from being sued or having to pay damages.
- 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 (50,012 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 14,342 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 Jun 2026 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 20, 2026 · page rendered 2026-09-18.
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