Senators pushing administration on commute distance
The timing of a federal decision on a proposed tribal casino complex in the Columbia River Gorge could get snagged by high-stakes politics involving U.S. Senate heavyweights from the West.
In January 2008, President Bush’s Interior Secretary, Dirk Kempthorne, announced new, restrictive guidelines for approving tribes’ applications for off-reservation casinos on nontribal land taken into trust by the federal government.
Under the new guidelines, Interior officials said, the federal government would review those proposals and approve only those in which the casino site would be within “commuting distance” of the tribe’s reservation, to ensure that it would provide jobs for tribal members.
Interior officials also said they would weigh more heavily whether projects had the support of affected states and local communities, and would review whether the projects were compatible with existing zoning and land use requirements.
The Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs has applied to build a 500,000-square-foot casino, hotel and convention complex on 25 acres of industrial land owned by the Port of Cascade Locks in the heart of the Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area. It would be closer to most of the metro area than the Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde’s Spirit Mountain resort, which is Oregon’s largest tourist attraction with more than 3 million visitors per year. It also would compete with the Cowlitz Tribe’s planned casino complex near La Center.
The Oregon communities of Cascade Locks and Hood River support the Warm Springs project.
Opponents, led by the Grand Ronde and Friends of the Columbia Gorge, were buoyed by the Bush administration policy shift.
The proposed casino is a 220-mile round trip from the town of Warm Springs, the reservation’s population center. Foes of the project have argued that the distance is not a practical commute and could be difficult or impossible in winter, forcing many tribal members to move off the reservation if they hoped to work at the new casino.
Nevertheless, the Warm Springs proposal, unlike many others, survived the Bush administration review.
“We think we pass muster, because back last year 20 tribes were whacked and we were not,” said Portland consultant Len Bergstein, who is representing the Warm Springs tribes. “It was clear to us from that decision that we didn’t run afoul of even the most stringent interpretations of the commutability rule.”
Bergstein said he’s confident that the lengthy federal review of the project is on track and that a final environmental impact statement will be published soon in the Federal Register.
Federal policy shifts on off-reservation casinos do not directly affect the Cowlitz Tribe’s proposal because the tribe has no reservation. It hopes to be granted an initial reservation by the federal government at its proposed casino site.
Change signaled
Now the Obama administration has signaled that it may relax the “commutability” requirement. That has drawn the ire of six influential members of Congress, including California Senators Barbara Boxer and Dianne Feinstein and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada. All have controversial off-reservation casino proposals pending in their states.
In a Sept. 15 letter, the six asked Interior Secretary Ken Salazar to retain the Bush administration guidelines and offered to introduce legislation if necessary to address “this troubling trend of off-reservation gaming.”
No action has been taken by the Obama administration.
“It’s a controversial issue and they’re rethinking it,” George Skibine, an Interior Department official, told the Wall Street Journal in September.
Michael Lang, conservation director for Friends of the Gorge, said he doubts a decision on the Warm Springs casino is imminent, given the political volatility of the issue.
“The Obama administration, I don’t think is in any hurry to come out with policies that deviate from existing policies,” he said. He called the letter from the six senators “basically a shot across the bow of the administration,” a warning that “if you vary from these policies we will seek a congressional remedy.”
Lang noted that “even in the Democratic Party, people are not of one mind” on the issue of off-reservation casinos. For example, Sen. Charles Schumer of New York wants the Bush guidelines relaxed.
“We understand the Warm Springs proposal is at or near the top of the stack” of pending applications, Lang said. “But nothing is going to move until these policy issues are resolved.”
“The Titans are battling, the guys in California, Nevada and New York,” Bergstein said. “Our project is very small by comparison, and because we are trading a spot where we have a right to build for a spot where the community has invited us in, we think it will not be affected.”
Compact with Oregon
Under a 2005 compact negotiated with Oregon Gov. Ted Kulongoski, the Confederated Tribes of Warm Springs agreed that in exchange for winning Oregon’s support for the Cascade Locks site, it would grant the state a conservation easement protecting 175 acres of tribal land east of Hood River — land on which the tribe had threatened to build the casino.
In addition, tribal leaders agreed to dedicate a gradually increasing percentage of gaming revenue to a fund that would be used to provide college scholarships to deserving students statewide.
That compact is not binding on the federal government, however.
The Confederated Tribes of the Grand Ronde has bankrolled a campaign to kill the Cascade Locks casino.
Friends of the Columbia Gorge argues that siting a large casino-hotel complex at Cascade Locks would irreversibly change the character of the Gorge and conflict with the intent of Congress when it established the national scenic area to protect it from inappropriate development.
