Tom Coburn: “I would rise to support the Istook amendment but begrudgingly. I come from the second largest tribal district in the…”

“I would rise to support the Istook amendment but begrudgingly. I come from the second largest tribal district in the United States, and I want to describe for the Members of this body what is occurring. In fact, extortion is occurring today as members of tribes go out and tell people who are independent private businessmen, many of which are members of that same tribe, that if they do not sell their fast food stores to them, if they do not sell their gas stations to them, that they will open one across the way and eliminate their business. So not only is there an unfair competitive advantage, not only is there an unethical approach, but in fact there is extortion, which is under investigation by the FBI at the present time. This is well-placed common sense. It does not limit all tribal lands coming under trust. What it says, simply, is that there must be an agreement between the tribes.”