TERRA Act

Empowerment of Tribal Communities: The Act allows Tribes to integrate funding into comprehensive Plans to meet specific community needs regarding environmental impacts or natural disasters (Section 2).

Support for Community Relocation: The bill provides a way to use funds for "community-driven relocation," which includes moving communities from hazardous areas to safer locations through the construction of new housing and infrastructure (Section 3, Section 102).

Reduced Administrative Burdens: Tribes can move to a single annual report instead of dealing with multiple different reporting, recordkeeping, and auditing requirements for each individual Federal program (Section 101, Section 201).

Streamlined Land Acquisition: The Act includes an expedited process for taking land into trust for the benefit of a Tribe, which can be mandatory if the Tribe acquires land using Plan funds or faces imminent environmental risk (Section 203).

Financial Flexibility: The bill allows Tribes to reallocate, reprogram, or consolidate funds among various services and activities within their Plan without needing additional Federal approval (Section 101, Section 206).

Protection of Knowledge: Traditional Ecological Knowledge submitted within a Plan is kept confidential and is exempt from various public disclosure requirements (Section 104).

Concentrated Decision-Making Authority: The Secretary of the Interior is granted "sole and exclusive decisionmaking authority" for all Federal actions under this Act, including determining if a program is eligible for integration (Section 4, Section 108).

Potential for Unresolved Disputes: While a dispute resolution process exists for waiver requests, the head of the affected agency still maintains the final authority to resolve disputes (Section 107).

Environmental Review Timelines: Although the bill seeks to streamline reviews, it requires a coordinated project schedule and environmental review timetable that must be established in consultation with various parties (Section 202).