Political Quotes

“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.…”