Feinstein bill to block San Pablo casino passes Senate committee

Erica Werner

Thursday, June 30, 2005 | 9:15 a.m.

WASHINGTON -- Legislation by Sen. Dianne Feinstein that would block an Indian tribe from building a Nevada-style casino across the bay from San Francisco passed a Senate committee on Wednesday.

The bill would require the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians to go through a potentially lengthy process of getting federal and state approval before it could operate slot machines and other Las Vegas-style games on the site of its San Pablo card room.

"I believe that the Lytton tribe should have to go through the same process under federal law that all other tribes must go through," Feinstein, D-Calif., said in a statement after the 10-3 committee vote.

"Today's vote will help ensure that the Lytton tribe isn't able to short-circuit the regulatory process and proceed with Las Vegas-style gaming in the heart of the Bay Area," she said.

The tribe, which has no land of its own, got the right to build the casino from language included in a 2000 omnibus bill by Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.

The Lytton Band's initial agreement with Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger called for a casino with 5,000 slot machines, which would have been the state's largest. Because of opposition, tribal officials scaled back the plan, finally announcing they were shelving Nevada-style gaming altogether, and would stick with electronic bingo and other games that don't require state approval.

But the tribe left open the option of reviving its slots plan in the future.

Tribal spokesman Doug Elmets noted that Feinstein's bill still needs to pass the full Senate and the House before becoming law.

"Ultimately we think Congress would be going down a slippery slope, as there are other tribes who have had the same federal process for gaming as the Lytton tribe," Elmets said.

Miller also opposes Feinstein's bill, though he says he never expected the tribe to pursue anything other than a modestly sized casino.

"Even though I do not support the enlarged casino plan now under consideration I also do not believe the senator's legislation to take the Lyttons' rights away is justified or appropriate," he said.

The legislative language Miller wrote on the tribe's behalf took the site of its San Pablo card room into trust, and established that the land should be treated as though the tribe had held it since before Oct. 17, 1988.

Land held before that date -- which is when Congress enacted a law regulating tribal gambling -- can be used for a Nevada-style casino with many fewer bureaucratic hurdles than land acquired after 1988. Feinstein's bill would revoke the pre-1988 status given to the Lytton tribe's land.