119th (2025–2027)
S. 4417
This bill makes technical corrections to the 2016 Pechanga Band of Luiseno Mission Indians Water Rights Settlement Act, which resolved a long-standing water rights dispute involving the Pechanga Band in Southern California. The legislation clarifies the definition of the Pechanga reservation to explicitly list all the lands that were added to it through various Executive orders and federal actions dating back to 1882, including recently added lands within the Santa Margarita River Watershed. It also broadens the permitted uses of the Pechanga Water Quality Account to address general water quality issues in the Wolf Valley Basin, rather than limiting spending to only groundwater desalination activities. The bill directs the Secretary of the Interior to execute amendments to the underlying settlement agreement to match these technical changes and specifies that these amendments do not affect the 2020 finding that all conditions for the settlement's enforcement were satisfied or alter any existing water rights.