OFFICE OF THE SECRETARY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: January 16, 1997

Stephanie Hanna (O) 202/208-6416

(BIA) Thomas Sweeney (O) 202/208-2535

The Department of the Interior has proposed new regulations to deal with Indian gaming compact negotiations between States and Tribes when Tribes have exhausted federal judicial remedies.

The proposed rule, which is expected to be published in the Federal Register next week, will only apply 1) where Tribes assert that States have not acted in good faith in negotiating Class III gaming compacts 2) in States where Class III gaming otherwise occurs, and 3) when States assert immunity from lawsuits to resolve the dispute.

The Department sent proposed draft regulations to the Office of Management and Budget for review by the Administration in December, 1997. The publication of the proposed rule will trigger a 90-day public comment period, with formal public access to and review of the proposed rule.

This action follows an Advanced Notice of Proposed Rulemaking (ANPR), published in the Federal Register in May, 1996. The Department carefully reviewed over 350 comments submitted by States, Tribes and others. The proposed rule announced today addresses issues raised both in the ANPR and the public comments.

“The Department favors voluntary good faith negotiations of Tribal-State compacts, and the vast majority of the compacts done in the past nine years have followed that course,” Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs Kevin Gover said. “However, we do not believe that Congress intended States to have a veto power over Class III Indian gaming when other Class III gaming activities are occurring within their borders. It is this narrow issue that the proposed rule seeks to resolve.”

The Indian Gaming Regulatory Act of 1998 mandates a process of judicially supervised mediation when States and Tribes are unable to negotiate a compact. However, since the Seminole Tribe of Florida v. Florida decision in the U.S. Supreme Court in May, 1996, Indian Tribes have been unable to use judicial mediation if States asserted sovereign immunity. The proposed rule sets forth a process for mediation under those narrow circumstances, seeking State involvement in developing any gaming procedures that might ensue. The proposed rule does not affect applications for land acquisition for off-reservation Indian gaming.

In addition, State law would continue to govern the ‘scope of gaming’ permitted in any procedures proposed by the Department to resolve Indian gaming compact disputes. This policy is consistent with the Department’s position that it does not authorize classes or forms of Indian gaming in any State where they are affirmatively prohibited.

More than 100 compacts between States and Tribes for Class III gaming have been successfully negotiated in good faith and implemented since the passage of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act in 1988.

-DOI-