[Congressional Bills 109th Congress]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office]
[H.R. 4893 Introduced in House (IH)]
109th CONGRESS
2d Session
H. R. 4893
To amend section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to restrict
off-reservation gaming.
_______________________________________________________________________
IN THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES
March 7, 2006
Mr. Pombo introduced the following bill; which was referred to the
Committee on Resources
_______________________________________________________________________
A BILL
To amend section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act to restrict
off-reservation gaming.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,
SECTION 1. RESTRICTION ON OFF-RESERVATION GAMING.
Section 20 of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act (25 U.S.C. 2719) is
amended--
(1) by amending subsection (b)(1) to read as follows:
``(b)(1) Subsection (a) will not apply when lands are taken in
trust for the benefit of an Indian tribe that is newly recognized,
restored, or landless after the date of the enactment of subsection
(f), including those newly recognized under the Federal Acknowledgment
Process at the Bureau of Indian Affairs, and the following criteria are
met:
``(A) The Secretary determines that such lands are within
the State of such tribe and are within the primary geographic,
social, historical, and temporal nexus of the Indian tribe.
``(B) The Secretary determines that the proposed gaming
activity would not be detrimental to the surrounding community
and nearby Indian tribes.
``(C) The Governor and State legislature of the State in
which the gaming activities will be conducted concur.
``(D) The Indian tribes within 75 miles of the proposed
tribal trust land acquisition concur.
``(E) The regional Bureau office shall not recommend a
tribal application for trust land acquisition for the purposes
of gaming, in accordance with this section, until after the
county or parish government with authority over the land that
is contiguous to the lands applied to be taken into trust has
held an advisory referendum, paid for by the tribal applicant,
to determine whether the residents of that county or parish
support or oppose the Indian tribe's application to conduct
gaming regulated by this Act. Regardless of the result of the
referendum, for the purposes of the Indian tribe mitigating the
direct impact on the county or parish infrastructure, and to
include a direct payment to mitigate county or parish
infrastructure costs, the Indian tribe shall negotiate and sign
a memorandum of understanding with the county or parish
government. Such mitigation payments shall be limited to the
direct effects of the tribal gaming activities on the affected
county or parish infrastructure and services. If a memorandum
of understanding is not signed within one year after the
advisory referendum, both parties shall submit to mandatory
binding arbitration to agree upon such a memorandum of
understanding.''; and
(2) by adding at the end the following new subsections:
``(e)(1) In order to consolidate class II gaming and class III
gaming development, an Indian tribe may host one or more other Indian
tribes to participate in or benefit from gaming conducted under this
Act and in conformance with a Tribal-State compact entered into by each
invited Indian tribe and the State under this Act upon any portion of
Indian land that was, as of October 17, 1988, located within the
boundaries of the reservation of the host Indian tribe, so long as each
invited Indian tribe has no ownership interest in any other gaming
facility on any other Indian lands and has its primary geographic,
social, historical, and temporal nexus to land in the State in which
the Indian land of the host Indian tribe is located.
``(2) An Indian tribe invited to conduct class II gaming or class
III gaming under paragraph (1) may do so under authority of a lease
with the host Indian tribe. Such a lease shall be lawful without the
review or approval of the Secretary and shall be deemed by the
Secretary to be sufficient evidence of the existence of Indian land of
the invited Indian tribe for purposes of Secretarial approval of a
Tribal-State compact under this Act.
``(3) Notwithstanding any other provision of law, the Indian tribes
identified in paragraph (1) may establish the terms and conditions of
their lease and other agreements between them in their sole discretion,
except that in no case may the total payments to the host Indian tribe
under the lease and other agreements exceed 40 percent of the net
revenues (defined for such purposes as the revenue available to the 2
Indian tribes after deduction of costs of operating and financing the
gaming facility developed on the leased land and of fees due to be paid
under the Tribal-State compact) of the gaming activity conducted by the
invited Indian tribe.
``(4) An invited Indian tribe under this subsection shall be deemed
by the Secretary and the Commission to have the sole proprietary
interest and responsibility for the conduct of any gaming on lands
leased from a host Indian tribe.
``(5) Conduct of gaming by an invited Indian tribe on lands leased
from a host Indian tribe under this subsection shall be deemed by the
Secretary and the Commission to be conducted under the Act upon Indian
lands--
``(A) of the invited Indian tribe;
``(B) within the jurisdiction of the invited Indian tribe;
and
``(C) over which the invited Indian tribe has and exercises
governmental power.
``(6) Any lease agreement authorized by this section shall not be
valid unless it is--
``(A) consistent with the Tribal-State compacting laws of
the State in which the gaming activities will be conducted;
``(B) approved by an Act of the State legislature; and
``(C) approved by the Governor of the State.
``(f) An Indian tribe shall not conduct gaming regulated by this
Act on Indian lands outside of a State in which the Indian tribe has a
reservation on the date of the enactment of this subsection, unless
such Indian lands are contiguous to such a reservation of that Indian
tribe in that State.''.
SEC. 2. STATUTORY CONSTRUCTION.
The amendment made by paragraph (1) of section 1 shall be applied
prospectively. Compacts or other agreements that govern gaming
regulated by the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1988 (25 U.S.C. 2701
et seq.) on Indian lands that were in effect on the date of the
enactment of this Act shall not be affected by the amendments made by
paragraph (1) of section 1 of this Act.
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