AUGUSTA, Maine — A group of Republicans in the Maine House of Representatives flipped on Thursday, leading the chamber to uphold Gov. Janet Mills’ veto of a key tribal-rights bill.
The 84-57 vote in the House of Representatives meant lawmakers failed to get the two-thirds support needed in both chambers to override the governor’s veto. It was a reversal from last month, when 21 House Republicans joined Democrats to pass the bill with 100 votes. On Thursday, a dozen of them changed their votes to uphold Mills’ veto.
The move will increase tensions between Mills and the tribes, who have tried to overhaul a landmark 1980 settlement between Maine, tribes and the federal government that relinquished a claim for over two-thirds of the state’s land and effectively regulated tribes like cities and towns.
This bill would have changed state law in a way that is aimed at allowing tribes to benefit from federal laws they are currently shut out from. House Republicans echoed some of the governor’s concerns Thursday, arguing the bill was rushed and will not achieve desired results.
“Whenever somebody says this bill is the be-all, end-all to a problem, I think about H.L. Mencken, who said there’s a simple solution to every problem: simple, quick and wrong,” Mills said in an interview last week. “The bill does not do what it intends to accomplish.”
Talbot Ross’ bill comes out of a state task force on tribal sovereignty that began its work in 2019. It became the biggest priority for tribes and progressives after legislative leaders set aside a more sweeping tribal-rights bill in favor of this one, which amounts to one of the 22 recommendations out of the task force.
Mills has been the most vocal opponent of both measures, resisting changes to the land-claims settlement. She instead has favored more limited changes in state law, including a 2022 measure that gave tribes control of a new mobile sports betting market.
This year’s bill was a state version of a federal proposal led by U.S. Rep. Jared Golden, a Democrat for the 2nd District, that failed in Congress last year, with Mills and Sen. Angus King, an independent and former governor who caucuses with Democrats, opposing it.
In a statement on Thursday’s vote, Talbot Ross called it a “deeply shameful moment that didn’t have to happen and originated with a veto action from an administration that seems determined to hold back progress” for Maine tribes.
The Legislature’s sole tribal member, Rep. Aaron Dana, a non-voting representative from the Passamaquoddy Tribe, said Maine’s tribes have simply sought what is spelled out in the Declaration of Independence: equality, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
“Nothing more, nothing less,” Dana said, adding the governor’s veto message was “full of disingenuous rhetoric.”
Last week, Mills wrote in her veto letter the Talbot Ross bill was not “clear, thoroughly vetted, and well understood by all parties,” adding that it was likely unconstitutional and could lead to years of litigation that could further divide the state and tribes. Chiefs countered that the governor was doing little more than stonewalling, since they had offered changes.
Mills said in a statement after Thursday’s vote she continues to “stand ready to work” with the tribes and Maine’s congressional delegation to develop federal legislation to make more laws apply to the Wabanaki Nations.
Tribes have sharply criticized Mills in the past week, though they may try again to pass the bill next year. One tribal official noted that Mills is term-limited ahead of a 2026 election in which a new governor will be chosen.
“Waiting a few more years for a new governor is what we will do if we must,” Ambassador Maulian Bryant of the Penobscot Nation said in a statement. “We were here long before Gov. Mills, and we will be here long after she leaves office.”
The amended proposal, led by Rep. John Andrews, R-Paris, would have continued to bar Maine tribes from prosecuting certain serious crimes and says Maine law continues to trump federal gaming laws. Environmental laws are also left out of the bill, and the whole package would have been able to be repealed in full if a court finds it ineffective.
The Wabanaki Alliance, which represents the four tribes, said Native Americans in Maine have since economically lagged behind tribes in other parts of the country, pointing to a Harvard University report released last year on the effects of the 1980 settlement. The tribes have also noted the bill is based on one of 22 recommendations from a 2019 task force that studied changes to the settlement.
Both the House and Senate passed the bill in June with two-thirds majorities, reflecting the broad, bipartisan support for the effort. In addition to the 12 Republicans who flipped between votes, 10 lawmakers were absent for Thursday’s vote.
Mills said last week that Maine’s tribes in recent years have received more $400 million in federal benefits, including money for education, thanks to the existing settlement, and she pointed out her support for another Talbot Ross bill this year that codifies a separate deal for the Mi’kmaq. She signed that bill into law on Thursday, along with two other tribal bills.