Navajo officials said on Friday a bill that seeks a $65 million loan of the tribe to start the Escalade resort may have a hearing later this month.

Fort Defiance Councilman Ben Bennett has yet to schedule a hearing for Bill number 0293-16, officials said. The legislation would appear for its first hearing before the Navajo Nation council’s Law and Order Committee.

When the bill has its first hearing before any committee is Bennett’s responsibility, officials said.

The bill also asks the Navajo Nation Council to approve a 420-acre land withdrawal and a master contract with the nation. The agreement would begin construction of the Escalade resort at Grand Canyon Eastern Rim.

If Bennett wants the full council to discuss the bill at its October fall session, other sub committees such as Resources and Development, Budget and Finance and Naa’bik’yati’ must give it a look.

The tribe’s council staff also said after consulting with attorneys, they are counting thousands of missing comments. About 26,000 comments submitted during the five-day comment through Save the Confluence overwhelmed the tribe’s e-mail system. Another 58,000 online petition/comments from a national group known as American Rivers also overwhelmed the system. A spokesman for American Rivers said that the group also had resubmitted all comments from an extract from its database of submissions.

A new comment/online petition signature count will be ready Wednesday, Sept. 13, tribal officials said. As of this post, more than 28,000 confirmed online petitions from Save the Confluence have gone to the tribe. A total of 34,000 verified and unverified signatures have come in since that time via this website. If you sign the online petition, please use a real e-mail address, and look for a confirmation e-mail and respond to it in order to ensure your petition signature is counted. Navajos with a census number: Include your census number: Tribal officials are making note of those, then scrubbing their data for privacy reasons afterwards. Be sure to prove you are an enrolled member of the tribe when signing the petition. It matters.