I can assure you, and I can assure the witness, it was never the intent of Senator Inouye and I, through weeks and months of hearings, to have air-dropped, no matter what rationale you are using for it, because of some settlement, to have…

this Indian Gaming Regulatory Act did not mention Tohono O'odham and it indeed included a specific provision that allows an exception to the prohibition on gaming

This is a really huge issue in my State, particularly in the Phoenix metropolitan area.

I interpret it as not ever intending to have a gaming operation in the middle of an incorporated area without the permission of the people.

One of the compact's terms was that this compact, the final agreement for the parties on these issues, and introducing new terms after everybody agreed that they have agreed on all the terms, is definitely a change in the promise.

So you won't tell us how impoverished you are. I got it.

Clearly, by any measurement, this tribe is not impoverished.

Well, they are certainly not impoverished, Mr. Washburn.

That is really, really good, Mr. Washburn. I don't have any more questions for this witness.

Actually what you have done is refuse to answer questions before this Committee. I am not sure why you came.

S. 2670, the Keep the Promises Act, is a narrowly tailored bill that preserves the agreement that was made with voters in 2002.

If enacted, this legislation will effect a profound injustice upon the Tohono O'odham Nation, one that will besmirch the United States' honor and set a terrible precedent for its relationship with Indian Country.

Well, Mayor Weiers, you find yourself in the minority here. Maybe you can tell us how that happened, going from the majority to the minority on this issue.

there was never ever any intention in their mind that this would ever be an issue.

I share that view, and the thing that is frustrating to me sometimes is all of this stuff that people accept--they have made a deal with ISIS, they cannot fight.

In my view, I conclude that it is an excuse that people use, frankly, to not have us involved.

We are asking them to fight. We are asking them to risk their lives, and yet we will not give them the protection from the air attacks.

You cannot ask people to go and fight and die unless you promise them that we will defeat their enemy and defeat them right away.