As reported by: Tri-Valley Herald
U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein is trying to halt an Indian tribe's conversion of the Casino San Pablo card room into a Nevada-style casino, at least until it completes the administrative review and public hearings such a project usually requires.

The Interior Department now stands ready to place the Moorish-styled card room 15 minutes north of Oakland along Interstate 80 into trust for the Lytton Band of Pomo Indians, as ordered by a 2000 legislative amendment authored by U.S. Rep. George Miller, D-Martinez.

Federal appeals judges on Thursday refused to grant an injunction blocking the transfer while they review local card rooms' legal challenge.

The Miller amendment that ordered the transfer ended with the sentence, ''Such land shall be deemed to have been held in trust and part of the reservation of the (Lytton) Rancheria prior to October 17, 1988." This ''backdating" of the transfer was necessary because the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act generally bans gaming on land taken into trust after that date without extensive review.

So Feinstein, D-Calif., has introduced Senate Bill 1648, which would repeal that sentence, thus canceling the ''backdating" and delaying the Lyttons' gaming plans by years.

As she introduced the bill on the Senate floor Wednesday, Feinstein said the Miller sentence she now seeks to repeal ''circumvents the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act's common-sense protections and regulatory safeguards against the inappropriate siting of Nevada-style casinos.

''I have serious reservations about the expansion of Nevada-style gaming - with its slot machines and in-house banking - into urban areas, and I am particularly concerned about off-reservation gambling and 'reservation shopping'," she said, adding that off-reservation casinos often cause counties added costs in public and local services, disrupt residential areas, and bring more traffic and crime.

Casinos can help tribes secure better health care, education, jobs and quality of life for their members, she acknowledged. ''However, the question is not whether gaming should be permitted, but rather how and where.

Letting the Lyttons turn Casino San Pablo into a Nevada-style casino without proper review ''would set a dangerous precedent not only for California, but every state where tribal gaming is permitted," the Senator said.

Feinstein's bill was referred to the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs.

''We don't support her bill," said Daniel Weiss, Miller's chief of staff, adding his office and Feinstein's will speak on the matter soon. ''I don't know why the bill was introduced now, or why it was introduced at all."

Howard Gantman, Feinstein's communications director, offered no explanation of the bill's timing Friday other than that the senator ''continues to be concerned about off-reservation gaming and believes the tribe should go through the normal process."

Gantman noted Feinstein had supported legislation that U.S. Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., introduced in 2001 to repeal the Miller amendment and halt the Casino San Pablo transfer.

But Reid dropped his opposition after striking a compromise with Miller that let the Lytton plan go forward while clarifying that the tribe's circumstances are unique; all other future tribal casinos must comply with IGRA; and the Lyttons would still need to negotiate a gaming compact with California's governor before conducting Nevada-style gaming.