Bill aimed at killing off-reservation casino proposals dies in House vote

A House bill touted by opponents of the Anthony casino proposal as its “possible death blow” died on the House floor Wednesday.

The bill, sponsored by U.S. Rep. Richard Pombo, R-Calif., passed the House 247-171, but a two-thirds majority was required, so the measure died. Its aim was to put an end to most off-reservation casino proposals.

The Anthony proposal’s developers, the Jemez Pueblo and Santa Fe art dealer Gerald Peters, said in a news release that the bill’s death has little impact on their proposal. The bill contained a grandfather clause that applied to tribes with historical ties to the areas they wanted to develop.

Whether the Jemez have ties to Doña Ana County was the question. The developers contended that they do.

“With or without legislation, there will be no casino explosion,” the developers said in a news release. “With or without the legislation, there will be a Jemez/Anthony casino.”

Casino opponents have argued that allowing one casino to be built will “open the floodgates” to several casinos in Doña Ana County.

In a news release, Pombo blamed Democrats for the failure of his bill.

“Today, a strong majority of the House of Representatives voted to put local communities first by reining in an epidemic known as reservation shopping,” he said. “But, despite the wishes of an overwhelming majority of Americans, we did not secure enough votes to pass the bill.”

You can read the full text of Pombo’s bill by clicking here.

New Mexico’s Republican representatives, Steve Pearce and Heather Wilson, voted for the bill. Rep. Tom Udall, the state’s Democratic representative, voted against it. You can learn how all representatives voted by clicking here.

One interesting note: In his news release, Pombo includes a map of the United States that shows locations of existing Indian casinos and what he claims are the locations of proposed casinos. View it by clicking here. It’s titled “Explosion of off-reservation Indian casino proposals.”

The map indicates that there have been three such proposals in Doña Ana County. This is false and misleading. The Jemez are the only tribe to submit a formal proposal to build a casino here.

Two other groups have considered proposing building casinos here, but neither has made such a proposal. And one of the groups is the local Tortugas tribe, which would have to become federally recognized before it could have the ability to make a proposal.

There is only one casino proposal in this county.

This is the sort of crap that turns people off to politics. I hope our New Mexico representatives who voted for this bill educated themselves enough to know that was misleading information before they voted. Somehow, I doubt it.