HR 308, the Keep the Promise Act, a bill in the House that would prevent the Tohono O’Odham tribe from opening its 0 million Desert Diamond West Valley Casino Resort in Glendale, Arizona has been delayed while a committee prepares to hear it.
Rep. Trent Franks, who represents the Phoenix area in Congress, had tried to fast track the bill by skipping the committee hearings and bringing the bill straight to the floor for a voice vote but was prevented from doing so when fellow Arizona Rep. Raul Grijalva objected. He noted that the procedure is normally reserved for bills that are not controversial and which do not have the potential to cost the federal government money. He called the bill “controversial and expensive.”
Another factor that may have played an even larger role in delaying the vote was the appearance of an ethical violation. Critics noted that the fast-track vote would have been held a day before the National Republican Congressional Committee held its Fall Native American Policy Summit fundraiser at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington, where tickets go as high as $33,400.
A lobbyist told Politico that the bill probably wouldn’t have been pulled other. “This is trench warfare,” the source said. “You only pull the bill off if you’re going to lose or get embarrassed.”
The House leadership pulled HR 308 pulled the bill from the House suspension calendar. This will ensure that the bill will be subject to public debate and representatives will have to go on record with their votes. Two years ago the House approved an identical bill.
The move may, at best, delay the vote on the bill for another week. The bill, obviously aimed at the Glendale casino, would restrict gaming on land in the Phoenix metropolitan that was acquired by the Secretary of the Interior after 2013 from being used for a casino before 2027.
According to a spokesman for Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy, “members are still working out issues within the delegation and across the aisle.”
The tribe purchased the land in Glendale with money received from a federal settlement Congress approved in 1986 after a federal dam project inundated about 10,000 acres of the tribe’s homeland near Gila Bend. The land would remain in the tribe’s hands but could be used for gaming for 12 years when the existing tribal state gaming compacts expire.
The Senate has a similar bill being pushed by Arizona Senators John McCain and Jeff Flake. It was approved by the Committee on Indian Affairs but has not been scheduled for vote.
President Obama would be expected to veto such a bill were it to make it to his desk.
The purpose of the bill is to override several federal court decisions that have favored the tribe’s right to build the casino. The state of Arizona and several gaming tribes whose casinos would be threatened by a rival casino near Phoenix brought the cases.
Supporters of the tribe accuse opponents of spending large amounts of money to lobby for the bill in an effort to hobble a poor tribe from competing against rich ones. If the casino opens the tribe is expected to rake in about $100 million annually.
They claim that this lobby has “broken lobbying contract records,” according to the Daily Beast.
Critics of the tribe, however, say that it employed deceit when voters in 2002 approved tribal state gaming compacts. The tribe, they say, knew that it was planning to build on land in Glendale and that it wanted to build a casino there, but did not say so at a time when voters were assured that no Phoenix area casinos would be allowed.
Franks declared October 13: “I believe the tribe deceived the state; there’s no question in anyone’s mind who looks at it reasonably. They pretended they were a company, coming in to buy this land. While they were promising to abide by the compact, they were in the process of trying to circumvent it.”
They note that the Gila River Indian Community, which opposes the Glendale casino, is not a wealthy tribe. Its median income is slightly above the state average.
That didn’t prevent the Community from paying nearly $1 million to Akin Gump to hire 22 lobbyists to argue in favor of HR 308. The Salt River Pima-Maricopa Indian Community, which also opposes the casino, spent $725,000 on lobbying and made $154,336 in contributions to the Republican party.
The Tohono tribe, for its part, has spent $1.29 million so far this year on lobbyists, which is approaching the $1.59 million it spent last year.
U.S. District Court Judge David Campbell has ruled that the ballot’s wording does not make such a claim, whether or not voters were told otherwise in other contexts.
According to Rep. Paul Gosar, a co-sponsor of HR 308, “The Tohono O’odham Nation dismissal of its promise to build no additional casinos in Phoenix is not something that Congress can ignore when the result will be so harmful for Indian gaming nationwide. He added, “Previous Court rulings demonstrate that Congress is the only institution that can hold T.O. accountable for its fraud, misrepresentation and broken promises.”
State gaming officials refuse to certify the tribe’s slots machines because, they say, the tribe acted fraudulently. The tribe says that whether or not it is allowed to use Class III machines that it has the right to operate Class II machines without a compact. The state has no authority to regulate Class II gaming.
HR 308 would prevent Class II machines as well.
The tribe says that nothing else will stop it from opening. “This is a nation with 33,000 members, and it simply doesn’t have the financial resources it needs to provide basic governmental services,” said an attorney for the tribe last week. “Without the legislation, we’re opening.”
If the bill is passed and is not vetoed it could cost taxpayers millions, according to the Congressional Budget Office, which analyzes each bill for its potential to cost the taxpayer or benefit the taxpayer. It reported that if the tribe successfully sues the government for lost revenue that it could conceivably win a judgment of $1 billion.
