Political Quotes

“Madam Speaker, I rise today in opposition, very strong opposition, to this amendment. The amendment continues the efforts in this House to halt enforcement of a Federal court action on this matter in order to build a massive 400,000-square-foot off-reservation gaming complex for the benefit of Genting, a foreign Malaysian gaming company. Since we considered this legislation last year, there have been a number of important events, including just last month when the U.S. Attorney's Office in Boston served a Federal grand jury subpoena to the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe last month for a hefty number of documents and financial records. Yet, here we are once again, misguidedly considering the establishment of two separate reservations for the Mashpee Tribe of Massachusetts. One reservation will be the town of Mashpee, the Tribe's historic reservation lands. No casino will be allowed within ``the geographic boundaries of the town of Mashpee.'' The other reservation will be 50 miles away from Mashpee in the city of Taunton. This site is not part of the Tribe's historic reservation and was selected by the Tribe and Genting for a billion-dollar casino project because of its proximity to the Providence, Rhode Island, casino market, a 20-mile distance. There is no reason for the second reservation other than to build an off-reservation casino 50 miles away from where the Mashpee Tribe currently resides.…”