Washington -- Sen. John McCain, the powerful chairman of the Senate Indian Affairs Committee, told the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians Tuesday that their controversial bid to build California's first major urban casino in San Pablo was "not the way to do business."
At a Senate hearing on the casino plan, the Arizona Republican said the tribe should never have been allowed to insert special language in a bill backdating its purchase of a card club so they could build a slot-machine casino just off Interstate 80.
"That's just not the proper way to legislate," McCain said after the hearing. "It just isn't."
In another blow to the tribe, a top Interior Department official said the Bush administration was inclined to support a bill by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D- Calif., that would scuttle a deal between the tribe and California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger to build a 2,500-slot machine casino.
"We do not believe it is proper to waive the requirements ... for any particular tribe," said George Skibine, the Interior Department's acting deputy assistant secretary who oversees Indian affairs.
With the casino plan already facing near-universal opposition in the state Legislature, the strong resistance to the proposal from the White House and federal lawmakers could doom any chance of a casino's being built in the near future.
The hearing Tuesday before the Senate Indian Affairs Committee was called by McCain at the request of Feinstein, who has been the most formidable opponent of the tribe's plans for a Las Vegas-style casino in the East Bay.
Feinstein said her bill was needed even though the Lytton band's leaders recently dropped their proposal for slot machines and instead plan to install 1,000 video bingo machines in the cardroom. Under federal law, tribes typically can operate the bingo devices without permission from a state. However, bingo machines generate much less revenue than slot machines.
Feinstein's bill would force the tribe to go through the regular state and federal approval processes under the 1988 Indian Gaming Regulatory Act even to install video bingo machines. She warned that the tribe was likely to seek slot machines again in the future.
The Lyttons "could reverse these plans at any time and proceed with both Class II and Class III gaming without first going through the regular process, " Feinstein said. "Allowing this to happen would set a dangerous precedent not only for California, but for every state where tribal gaming is happening."
Also testifying at the hearing was Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez, who has been criticized for inserting language in a 2000 appropriations bill to put the San Pablo card club into federal trust for the tribe. He said Tuesday he still believed it was the right decision to help the tribe, which was wrongfully terminated and restored to tribal status by a court order in 1991.
But Miller acknowledged the tribe's original deal with Gov. Schwarzenegger to build a 5,000-slot machine casino -- bigger than the Las Vegas MGM Grand -- and its scaled-down 2,500-slot machine proposal were far bigger than the "modest" 1,000 slot machine casino the tribe had first discussed with him.
Still, Miller urged the Senate not to approve Feinstein's bill, which would effectively wipe out the language he drafted.
"Doing so would be a significant breach of trust between Congress and the Indians, a trust that has been broken so often in our nation's history," Miller said.
McCain appeared skeptical of Miller's statement that the Lyttons only planned to build a modest casino in a densely populated area just off a busy interstate.
"One thousand slot machines is a modest Indian casino?" McCain asked sarcastically.
Miller said it was modest given the size of other tribal casinos being approved in California at the time. "It's a big state," Miller said.
"One thousand slot machines is a lot of slot machines," McCain replied.
The Lyttons' chairwoman, Margie Mejia, made an emotional plea to the committee not to back Feinstein's bill, saying a casino was the only way to boost the fortunes of a 275-member tribe that suffers from inadequate health care, alcoholism and substance abuse and whose members can't afford homes in the Bay Area.
But McCain took a tough line of questioning, asking whether any tribal members worked at the current card club, which is owned by the tribe. Mejia acknowledged that no members did, although she said there would be a training program once a casino deal was clinched.
Mejia, a onetime aide to former Modesto Rep. Gary Condit, also played hardball with lawmakers, warning that if Feinstein's bill was approved, the tribe could sue the federal government alleging an illegal taking under the Fifth Amendment.
"We believe it would be legally wrong to do that," she said.
But the Interior Department's Skibine said his agency had done a legal review and concluded that requiring the tribe to go through the normal state and federal approval process was fully constitutional.
San Pablo Councilmember Sharon Brown urged senators to consider the economic benefits from the proposed casino for a city with an 18 percent unemployment rate. McCain appeared impressed with a tribe-commissioned study suggesting that economic benefits for the region could exceed $600 million.
But Assemblywoman Loni Hancock, D-Berkeley, a critic of the casino plan, testified that the original proposal would have been the size of six Wal-Mart stores and even the scaled-down versions could lead to traffic congestion, crime and gambling addiction.
"Without legislation, the Lytton tribe will continue to seek a massive casino," Hancock said.
The tribe may find some support on the committee. Sen. Daniel Inouye, D- Hawaii, a strong backer of tribal sovereignty, gave an opening statement that appeared supportive of the tribe's efforts at self-sufficiency. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., the panel's ranking Democrat, gave no hint of whether he favored or opposed Feinstein's bill.
McCain said he would consult with his fellow senators and schedule a committee vote if there was enough support. He also plans to hold more expansive hearings this summer on the general topic of off-reservation Indian casinos, he said.
"We've got to look at this whole issue," McCain said
Send your feedback
Read your letters
Report a typo or inaccuracy
Printable version
E-mail this story