Daniel Inouye: “first, may I say I am most grateful to my colleague from Connecticut for his gracious remarks. He knows very well it is…”

“first, may I say I am most grateful to my colleague from Connecticut for his gracious remarks. He knows very well it is a very difficult chore to be speaking against his amendment. When one thinks of the friendship that started since the time of his father, this is not easy, but I believe most respectfully that the amendment my colleague from Connecticut presents is not proper. He says he is for reform. We are all for reform. As my colleague from Connecticut pointed out, there are tribes that have been waiting not a year, not 5 years, but decades to even be recognized for consideration by the administration. This will further prolong it. Those of us who serve on the Indian Affairs Committee have had reason to pay special attention to the State of Connecticut for quite a few years now--in no small part because of the tensions that we read about in the media reports that appear to be arising out of the fact that the two Federally-recognized tribes in southeastern Connecticut--the Mashantucket Pequot Tribe and the Mohegan Tribe--are conducting gaming activities on their lands under the authority of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act--as is their right to do under that Federal law.”