AUGUSTA, Maine (AP) A proposal to expand tribal sovereignty rights under an amended land claims settlement is advancing in the Maine Legislature.

The Judiciary Committee voted 8-6 in favor of the bill on Tuesday but it faces an uncertain future despite 1,500 individuals and organizations testifying in favor of the measure at a public hearing last month.

All Republicans on the committee voted against it, and it faces a possible veto by Democratic Gov. Janet Mills.

The bill’s sponsor, Rep. Rachel Talbot Ross, said she’s grateful that the full Legislature will weigh in on the bill, which would ensure the Wabanaki people have the same sovereignty rights as other tribes in the U.S.

“This bill represents an important step forward in repairing the relationship between state government and the Wabanaki people,” said Sen. Anne Carney, D-Cape Elizabeth, the committee’s co-chair.

Maine’s tribes and the state agreed to a 1980 land claims settlement but the settlement put Maine tribes out of sync with other tribes across the nation on sovereign rights. That led to tension and clashes over jurisdiction on tribal lands over the years.

The Mills administration has endorsed tribal reforms that would remove state sales taxes from goods made on tribal land and allow tribes to participate in online betting, among other things.

But Mills as pushed back on the bill to amend the 1980 settlement.

That bill includes sweeping changes would give three of Maine’s four tribes expanded authority over fishing, hunting and natural resources on their lands. It also would allow tribes to tax people on their lands.