Manuel Lujan: “I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock). Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentleman for yielding.…”

“I yield 3 minutes to the gentleman from California (Mr. McClintock). Mr. McCLINTOCK. I thank the gentleman for yielding. Mr. Speaker, the gentleman from Arizona (Mr. Grijalva) stated the facts very clearly. In the 1950s, the Federal Government condemned and seized land and water rights owned by the Tohono O'odham Indian Nation. In 1986, Congress settled the tribe's outstanding claims by agreeing, in part, to take into trust replacement land that the Tohono O'odham might acquire under specific conditions. The tribe has acquired a particular parcel meeting all of the conditions set forth in the law and asserted its rightful claim under that law. This bill retroactively and fundamentally alters that settlement, breaking the promises the Tohono O'odham have relied upon as they've spent many years and millions of dollars acquiring this parcel and planning the project. Now, why in the world would we want to do such a thing? Well, it's obvious. Like many tribes, the Tohono O'odham want to build a casino on this land. This casino would compete with another tribe's casino in the region, and that tribe doesn't want the competition. Competition is so annoying and inconvenient. It requires offering your customers a better service at a lower price. Tohono O'odham seeks to do that. The other tribe doesn't want to. So that other tribe, which has a monopoly on gaming in the Phoenix area, created a front made up of antigambling pressure groups and NIMBY activists to try and stop them.…”