WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, North Carolina Senators Thom Tillis and Richard Burr spoke on the Senate floor and urged their colleagues to pass the Lumbee Recognition Act, legislation they introduced that would officially give the Lumbee Tribe of North Carolina federal recognition. The bill was blocked from passing by Senate Democrats.

Watch a video of the speech here. 

Senator Tillis: “I want to thank the Lumbee people for their patience, but quite honestly, we are talking about the ninth-largest tribe in the nation and the largest east of the Mississippi river…We are so close, there is a compelling case, and it is a century in the making. The fact that we couldn’t pass this bill today when it passed unanimously out of the House of Representatives just a month ago is a shame. They have been fighting for it for over a century, and I’m going to fight for it as long as I’m in the U.S. Senate.”

Senator Burr: “Either before or after we swear in the new Congress, I promise my colleagues this place will come to a grinding halt, and we will take it up through regular order, the Lumbee Recognition Act. We will debate it as long as people want to, and we will make the case why this discrimination is despicable.”

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