Jim Kolbe: “I think the bipartisan nature of this debate has been shown just by the speakers from my State of Arizona with three of…”

“I think the bipartisan nature of this debate has been shown just by the speakers from my State of Arizona with three of us in the same party on opposite sides of this issue. There is clearly a lot of debate about this and fair debate, I think. I think we have heard some good discussion here tonight. I think the gentleman from Michigan (Mr. Kildee) laid out the very technical and kind of legalistic arguments about this. I want to answer a couple of the things that were said here tonight, but I also want to say very clearly that the effect of this legislation is to say to the Indian tribes, ``There will be no gaming until this issue is settled, no gaming whatever, you won't proceed anywhere in the country.'' I am going to come back to that in a second. I think it is important to understand that while many of us may have concerns about the way some of the Indian gaming has proceeded, we need to also understand that it has brought about some wonderful economic development and wonderful improvements in the lives of people on Indian reservations. I have one small tribe in my community that has used the money that they have had from Indian gaming to improve the lives of their citizens, to improve the health care of children, the education of children.”