Last night, I voted on three suspension bills -- which, as you may remember, are bills viewed as non-controversial and are accordingly considered under special procedure. Instead of a majority vote in the House, a suspension bill has to pass by a two-thirds supermajority.
The first bill was the Keep the Promise Act (H.R. 308), which was sponsored by Congressman Trent Franks (AZ-8). The bill was needed because a Native American tribe had broken its word to the people of Arizona, and the question before us was really about whether or not federal law should trump state law in holding the tribe to its original agreement. I voted yes, and this was in accordance with the principal of federalism and not having the federal government trump a state decision yet again. In this case, the Keep the Promise Act would put the force of federal law behind the state compact that the tribe (Tohono O'odham) signed in 2002. The bill didn't clear the 2/3 threshold, failing 263-146.
As to the specifics, in 2002, all seventeen Arizona tribes, including the Tohono O'odham, came together and formed an agreement on legalizing gambling, which was then ratified by the people of Arizona in a referendum. As part of that referendum, the Tohono O'odham signed a contract where they committed not to build a casino in the area around Glendale, a suburb of Phoenix, Arizona. In 2014, the tribe broke that promise by using a complex federal land law and started building a casino. Because the federal law trumped the state agreement, Arizona couldn't stop the tribe.
The second vote, the Dignified Interment of Our Veterans Act (HR 1338), sponsored by Rep. Jeff Miller (FL-1) would begin to study a serious problem: the fact that there are the unclaimed and unburied remains of 47,000 former veterans at various national cemeteries across this country. The bill would reduce costs by about $1 million over ten years by limiting the total bonuses senior VA employees can receive to $2 million during the next fiscal year. The bill passed unanimously.
Finally, the Honor America's Guard-Reserve Retirees Act, sponsored by Rep. Tim Walz (MN-1), would allow long-serving reservists to be designated as veterans. It would not afford them any additional benefits and so from a cost standpoint added no additional burden. I voted yes.