State lawmakers continue to work on a long-awaited bill to allow the Wabanaki tribes in Maine to benefit from more federal laws, but the first day of debate failed to produce a compromise between tribal advocates and the Mills administration.
The Mills administration opposes the bill because it could essentially “erase” certain state laws without spelling out which ones were at risk. That would create constitutional uncertainty, leaving the average Mainer uncertain of where state law applies and where it doesn’t.
“I just don’t think there’s any way that ordinary Maine citizens could read this legislation and have any idea what laws are being repealed,” said Mills’ chief legal counsel, Gerald Reid. “That is a fundamental element of constitutional due process.”
Reid said he didn’t think the problems with the bill are solvable through state legislation. But he said Gov. Janet Mills remains committed to working with the Wabanaki nations on a statute-by-statute basis on any of the individual issues they had hoped to rectify with this bill.
“We are urging the committee and the Legislature to proceed with caution,” Reid warned.
The Wabanaki tribes of Maine say it is unfair they are excluded from federal laws that benefit the nation’s 570 other federally recognized tribes. The bill would grant them access to these federal laws, and their benefits, unless the state objects and lobbies Congress...
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