Melanie Sloan: An expensive battle over a new tribal casino

The House suspension calendar is intended for uncontroversial matters, not requiring lengthy consideration or more money from taxpayers. So why has a hotly debated bill to stop an Arizona Indian tribe from building – legislation that could cost $1 billion or more – again being scheduled for a suspension vote? One word: money.

The battle between the Gila River Indian Community and Salt River Tribe on one side, versus the Tohono O’odham on the other, has been one of the Capitol’s most expensive fights in recent years. The issue is a casino the Tohono has been planning to build in Glendale, Arizona, which would cut into the market share of the half-dozen Phoenix casinos operated by the Gila and Salt River tribes. Over the past two years, the Gila and Salt tribes have plowed more than $7 million into lobbying the battle; the Tohono, in a defensive crouch, has itself spent about $3.5 million more.

The spectacular outlays of cash generated by tribal lobbying were spotlighted in 2006 during the Jack Abramoff scandal. Congressional leaders promised reforms – at least until the issue fell off the public radar. But nearly ten years later, little has changed: tribes are showering Washington politicians with campaign cash in an effort to beat down rival nations. Indeed, over the last two years alone, the Gila and Salt River tribes have sent more than $75,000 each to the National Republican Campaign Committee. The Gila tribe, for good measure, gave the maximum to House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.), who has no dog in the fight, but happens to be steward of the suspension calendar.

This has proven an effective – and persistent -- strategy: Initially, McCarthy scheduled the bill to kill the Tohono’s casino, HR 308, for a suspension vote on October 26. Notably, House Republicans were holding a high-dollar fundraiser with the legislation’s supporters the very next day – with tickets running as high as $33,400.