Senator
Pushes for Off-Reservation Casino Restrictions
Frustrated by a lack of restrictions
on tribes seeking to open off-reservation casinos,
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., on Wednesday pressed
the Department of Interior to complete regulations
to curtail the practice.
"It
is unacceptable 17 years (after passage of the
Indian Gaming Regulatory Act) not to have regulations
to implement a law which now applies to a 19
to 20 billion dollar-a-year business,"
McCain said.
McCain,
chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee,
and Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., expressed dismay
that the Interior Department has not prepared
rules to control tribes that seek to establish
casinos off their traditional property.
George
Skibine, acting deputy assistant secretary for
Indian affairs, attributed the delay partly
to the transition from the Clinton administration
to the Bush administration. President Clinton
left the White House in January 2001.
At
a July hearing, Skibine told the Senate committee
that the Interior Department has approved only
three applications by tribes for off-reservation
gambling since the federal law was enacted in
1988.
"Hopefully,
in the next couple of weeks, we will send a
working document (to regulate off-reservation
gambling) to tribes for their consultation,
and we will make it available to your committee,"
Skibine told McCain.
The
department hopes to have off-reservation gambling
regulations in place by the end of the year,
Skibine said Wednesday.
McCain
may be unwilling to wait that long. He said
he plans to seek committee approval "in
a month or so" of legislation he introduced
in November that would limit lands eligible
for gaming.
McCain's
bill also would strengthen the authority of
the National Indian Gaming Commission, the federal
body that oversees tribal gambling operations.
"I
am very aware there's a great deal of controversy
out there in Indian country about addressing
this issue," McCain said.
"It
needs to be addressed. Every law that's passed,
over time, needs to be updated," he said.
This
was the sixth hearing on the law since last
year, when McCain became the committee chairman
for a second time.
McCain
seemed irritated by a Nov. 25 decision by the
federal commission to allow the Cowlitz Indian
Tribe of Washington to open a casino away from
its lands and near Portland, Ore.
"We
are told that communities, local governments
and other tribes affected by the Cowlitz proposal
seem to have been caught completely off-guard
by your decision," McCain told Penny Coleman,
acting general counsel for the National Indian
Gaming Commission.
Coleman
described the Cowlitz case as "an anomaly,"
and said the commission was not thrilled about
the tribe's plan to open a casino.
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