CBO.GOV
Summary
H.R 308 is a bill introduced into the 114th Congress on March 01, 2015 by Congressman Trent Franks. The aim of the bill is to prohibit gambling on property near Glendale, Arizona owned by the Tohono O’odham Nation and held in trust by the United States. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that should the Bill be passed into law, the Tohono O’odham Nation would pursue litigation. Should the federal government have to pay compensation, it might have to pay in excess of $1billion. The CBO has based its estimate of the likely compensation on the fact that the Tohono O’odham Nation is in the process of building a casino and a resort on the property that would be operational in 2016 and earn upwards of $100 million annually.
The CBO has traced the root of the situation to the historical settlement of indigenous tribes with the federal government, wherein they received land that they could use for non-agricultural economic development activities. The Tohono O’odham Nation has interpreted the leeway to commence non-agricultural economic development activities as a sanction for starting a casino on the land. The Bill seeks to prohibit the setting up of the casino in accordance with the tenets of the Unfunded Mandates Reform Act (UMRA), which mandated that tribes could earn a maximum of $77 million from their lands held in trust – a figure as adjusted for inflation in 2015.
The CBO expects the Tohono O’odham Nation to litigate against the law. It expects the tribe to cite a 2013 judgment by district court in its favor. The district court had ruled that the Glendale Area land acquired by the Nation with LRA funds qualified for gaming. The land also qualified for gaming under article 3(j) (1) of the Compact.
While the decision of the district court is currently under appeal, it would be difficult for the tribe to resist a law prohibiting gambling on its properties, should it come into effect. The tribe would argue that the law ran contrary to the settlement agreement that had specified that the land could be used for non-agricultural purposes. In any case, the federal government would need to compensate the tribe. The CBO has observed that past instances of compensation have not been significant, and the past is not a sound basis to extrapolate the decision in the current instance. As the restriction clause prohibiting gambling is unclear, the CBO concluded that the monetary compensation for the tribe could thus range from nothing to $1 billion, and as such could not be estimated reasonably.
Comment
The CBO has tried to estimate the federal compensation to the Tohono O’odham Nation in case it wins its litigation against the proposed law restricting gambling on its property. The lack of clarity regarding the exact definition of non-agricultural economic activities as envisaged in the original Compact between the tribe and the United States Government lies at the heart of the problem. Past instances of litigations are also not a sound means to draw parallels with the current case. This renders an estimation of the damages to be paid in case the tribe wins its litigation as unclear.
Work Cited
Congressional Budget Office (CBO). H.R. 308, Keep the Promise Act of 2015. [Report Ordered by the House Committee on Natural Resources on March 25, 2015]. April 24, 2015. Web. April 25, 2015.
