After losing its right to build a casino in Taunton, Massachusetts when a federal judge ruled the Department of the Interior overstepped the rules in putting land into trust, the Mashpee Wampanoag tribe now rests its hopes on a bill in Congress. That bill, Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe Reservation Reaffirmation Act, is the subject of a furious battle of the Washington lobbyists.
The 321-acre reservation, consisting of two tracts, one in Taunton and the other in Martha’s Vineyard, would be restored if Rep. William Keating’s bill is passed. Most tribes support the bill. The Genting group of Malaysia, the backer of the tribe’s proposed $1 billion casino, supports the bill. Rush Street Gaming, which wants to build a casino near Taunton, but is prevented from doing so because the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has so far deferred to the tribe—opposes the bill. Rhode Island, which wants to limit competition to its two slots casinos, opposes the bill.
But that’s just the beginning of the myriad interests involved in this struggle. Although there is a bipartisan flavor to the bill, it is being pushed primarily by liberal Democrats in Massachusetts, including possible Democratic presidential hopeful Elizabeth Warren, so it’s hard for Republicans to jump on board.
More than a year after the judge’s ruling that the Bureau of Indian Affairs had erred when it put that land into trust for the tribe and remanded that decision back to the BIA to see if it could come up with an alternative justification, the Interior Department sent a letter to the tribe saying that it could not. The Department had tried to deal with the Supreme Court’s Carcieri v. Salazar ruling, which says that tribes not under the jurisdiction of the federal government in 1934, the year the Indian Reorganization Act was passed, cannot put land into trust.
Keating’s bill would reverse that finding. It would allow the tribe to move forward on its project First Light Casino. Tribal Chairman Cedric Cromwell calls on lawmakers to pass the bill and reverse what he calls an injustice and acknowledge the historical role the tribe has played in the nation’s history, including greeting the Pilgrim’s when they landed in Plymouth in 1620.
After the Department of the Interior rocked the tribe with its September 7 decision, Cromwell declared, “I’m asking people of goodwill and those concerned with justice for the indigenous people of this — the first Americans — to stand with us in calling on Congress to protect our reservation and ensure we don’t become the first tribe since the dark days of the Termination Era to lose its land.”
Genting Malaysia, which has backed the tribe’s play for several years, and is about $426 million by the tribe, is spending a tiny fraction of that, more than $1 million, on lobbyists, so far this year. And it may just be beginning. Genting is the third largest spender on tourism and lobbying in the U.S. Genting has hired the law of Denton U.S. to advance its interests.
The tribe has been the subject of intense lobbying for decades and was involved in a scandal that netted former Rep. Richard Pombo when the tribe was seeking federal recognition in the early years of the century. Its former chairman, Glenn Marshall, was sentenced to 3 ½ in federal prison for embezzling tribal funds and making illegal campaign contributions. Pombo was defeated for reelection in 2006 when his ties to disgraced lobbyist Jack Abramoff surfaced.
A competing gaming interest that contributed money to the legal effort that ultimately sank the Mashpees in court is billionaire Neil Bluhm, of Rush Street Gaming, and the main backer, through a subsidiary Mass Gaming & Entertainment, of a casino in Brockton. This casino was denied a license two years ago by the Massachusetts Gaming Commission.
Mass Gaming has asked for a reconsideration of its application and MGC has taken the request under advisement. Bluhm has also spent large sums on lobbying at both the state and federal levels. Much of that is aimed at thwarting Keating’s bill. Or so it would appear. Mass Gaming, through a spokesman, said it has many gaming related issues that are the subject of lobbying, and the company does have casinos in New York and Pennsylvania.
Mass Gaming has undoubtedly spent $210,000 on lobbying in Massachusetts, “outreach” aimed at several communities in the vicinity of Brockton.
The towns of Brockton and Taunton are, unsurprisingly, on opposite sides of this controversy. Taunton Mayor Thomas Hoye Jr. has continued to back the tribe and Brockton Mayor Bill Carpenter wrote to Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke to pressure the department to quickly issue a ruling on the tribe’s land application.
No matter how many lobbyists are arrayed against the tribe, they look like midgets in comparison to the money Genting commands. This has caused some criticism of the influence that foreign money has on Congressional deliberations.
A representative of the tribe, Heather Sibbison, says that while most attention is focused on the gaming aspect of the Mashpees’ quest, that the tribe regards the issue as much more than just casinos.
She told the Cape Cod Times: “But for almost everyone else on the other side who is working to disestablish the tribe’s reservation, this is just a big, huge fight over casino market share,” she said. “If it loses its reservation, it loses its school, its ability to provide basic social services ; it loses its fundamental right to have land on which it can engage in true self government.”
The lobbying firms representing Twin River Management Group, which owns Rhode Island’s casinos are Locke Lord Public Policy Group LLC and Freemyer & Associates P.C. Twin River has spent $60,000 with Locke Lord and $40,000 with Freemyer, opposing the Keating bill. Locke Lord also donated $7,500 to Rep. Robert Bishop, chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee, which oversees Indian matters. But it has also donated smaller sums to Keating.
Lobbying insiders say that it’s always wise for such firms, that do a lot of business in Washington, to donate to all sides, and certainly to both parties.
