Economic development: federally recognized Indian tribes.

Existing law encourages and authorizes all state agencies to cooperate with federally recognized California Indian tribes on matters of economic development and improvement for the Indian tribes. Existing law provides that cooperation by state agencies with federally recognized California Indian tribes on those matters may include certain activities, including, among others, providing information on programs to assist Indian tribes. Existing federal law requires the Secretary of the Interior to publish a list of all federally recognized Indian tribes in the federal register. This bill would add to the nonexclusive list of topics that state agencies may cooperate with federally recognized Indian tribes by consulting on a government-to-government basis, in a respectful and meaningful manner, with respect to a fee-to-trust land acquisition application, as specified. The bill would prohibit a state agency from opposing specified fee-to-trust land acquisition applications. The bill would define a federally recognized Indian tribe as a tribe appearing on the list published by the Secretary of the Interior.