Pete Sessions: “I join with the Senator from Wyoming in his remarks. Last year, I served as attorney general for the State of Alabama…”

“I join with the Senator from Wyoming in his remarks. Last year, I served as attorney general for the State of Alabama and dealt with this precise issue. There is a considerable amount of litigation going on in the country resulting and culminating from the Seminole Indian case that was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court last year. The basic problem is that under Federal gambling law, there appears to be some confusion as to whether the Secretary of the Interior can intervene in the negotiating process between States and Indian tribes with regard to the kinds of gambling that would be allowed in the State. For example, in Alabama, we have one particular Indian tribe that has three distinct parcels of land, as I recall, in various parts of Alabama. If the Secretary of the Interior were to allow the tribe to have casino gambling at any one site, they would also be able to have a casino at the other two places within Alabama. That result has been resisted very steadfastly because three major gambling casinos would, in fact, let the wall down. Casino gambling would spread throughout the State, and it would not make any difference what the people of Alabama felt about gambling or casinos in general as the casinos would be built without ever having put the matter before the people of Alabama for consideration. This is a very important national issue.”