Political Quotes

“I have good news that an amendment that I had proposed to offer I will not have to offer on this bill. On behalf of the people of Seneca, MO, and really people all across southwest Missouri, I, along with my colleagues Senator Ashcroft and Congressman Roy Blunt, have been fighting against an effort by an Oklahoma Indian tribe, the Eastern Shawnee, to move into southwest Missouri and establish a gambling casino in Seneca. In truth, it is a New Jersey gaming operation that is behind this operation. They have claimed that they provided $25 million to the tribe because they felt that a gambling casino in the heart of the family entertainment vacation area of southwest Missouri would be extremely profitable for the corporation and its shareholders. Over the last several months, I have presented to the Secretary of the Interior what I thought were good legal arguments that the tribe is not entitled to use an exception in the statute that would permit them automatically to move across the border from Oklahoma into Missouri. The people of southwest Missouri finally have some good news. Last night Secretary Babbitt called me to say that the tribe cannot automatically move across the border and build a casino in Missouri.”