Reaffirming Authority of Secretary of Interior to Take Land Into Trust for Indian Tribes
Floor Speech
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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Bishop for yielding.
Mr. Speaker, I rise today in strong opposition to the current form of H.R. 375.
In 1988, Congress enacted the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, or IGRA, with the intent to restrict casinos to Tribes' original reservations. H.R. 375 reverses a major 2009 Supreme Court decision, and the bill would lead to future abuses of IGRA.
The bill gives unelected bureaucrats a blank check to take any land in trust without respect for impacted communities, including other Tribes. More importantly, H.R. 375 allows reservation shopping and for lands to be taken into trust for off-reservation casinos in places where States, local governments, and other Tribes oppose such action.
H.R. 375 will result in a flood of new off-reservation casinos that cause harm to States and local communities. Many of these casino locations that are nowhere near Tribes' historic reservations will be handpicked by gambling investors and Washington bureaucrats.
If H.R. 375 passes, all Tribes would have to do in order to get land taken into trust and open off-reservation casinos is to show that they are federally recognized by the Department of the Interior.
In the Natural Resources Committee markup of this bill, the gentleman from the Second District of California, Mr. Huffman, and I engaged in a productive debate on this bill. We both agreed to try to find common ground on which to respond to my concerns about off-reservation casino abuse and the valid concerns brought to the committee by State and county governments. Bringing H.R. 375 up via suspension this week and not allowing any amendments prohibits us from making good on that agreement.
H.R. 375 should have been amended prior to being brought to the floor to address these bipartisan concerns.
Taking land into trust divests the affected State and local governments of jurisdiction. When land is taken into trust, for example, the Tribe will not pay any applicable taxes on the land, but the county or city in which the land is located might nonetheless be required to supply the Tribe with county and city services, and non- Tribal residents will pay for it. At least consultation should be a minimum.
The bill as currently drafted therefore increases the power of an unelected bureaucracy to divest nonconsenting State and local governments of jurisdiction over their land. This, by itself, is a great cause of concern.
Let's be clear about H.R. 375 and how a bill of this scope and magnitude deserves more careful consideration than is being given here today.
Currently, there are almost 600 recognized Tribes in the United States, about 240 of which have gaming operations. H.R. 375 removes the dam that provided some restraint on the number of Tribal casinos and would be a dramatic departure from existing Federal law that has been in place for almost a century.
Before voting on this bill, I hope Members all understand that H.R. 375 will open the floodgates to off-reservation Tribal casinos all over the United States. If H.R. 375 passes, all federally recognized Tribes will be eligible to receive land in trust and potentially open off- reservation casinos. This includes any Tribe recognized by the Department of the Interior that was ineligible to receive land in trust and/or was denied land in trust prior to H.R. 375.
According to the National Indian Gaming Commission fact sheet, as of 2016, approximately 329, or 58 percent, of the recognized Tribes had no gaming operations.
President Trump opposes H.R. 312 and with good reason. That bill gives land in trust and a casino to a single Tribe that is otherwise ineligible to receive those benefits, as well as reverses Federal court and Interior decisions. But H.R. 375 does all that and more.
Instead of giving land in trust to only one Tribe, it lets an unelected bureaucracy give whatever land it wants to all recognized Tribes. Thus, the same concerns that exist with respect to H.R. 312, which we will be talking later about, exist at an even greater level with respect to H.R. 375.
The purpose of considering bills under suspension is to dispose of noncontroversial measures expeditiously, but H.R. 375 has controversy written all over it.
H.R. 375 has ridden alongside H.R. 312 largely unnoticed, and no one has pointed out two crucial facts: one, that it exists as a contingency plan in case its sister bill, H.R. 312, fails; and two, that its effect would be national rather than local.
H.R. 375 and H.R. 312 are two heads of the same snake, one large, one small. Senator Warren, regardless, will get her casino if either bill passes.
Further, passage of H.R. 375 will allow for new off-reservation casinos to be opened in your States and communities and for land to be ripped away from local jurisdictions without recourse.
Mr. Speaker, I thank Ranking Member Bishop for the opportunity to speak on this important issue. I urge all Members to vote ``no'' on H.R. 375. Send it back to get consultation, at least, put in.
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Mr. GOSAR. Mr. Speaker, on that I demand the yeas and nays.
The yeas and nays were ordered.
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