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Senate panel votes for Lumbee recognition
Full Senate will vote on issue later this year
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Published: April 25, 2008
WASHINGTON
A U.S. Senate committee voted yesterday to give North Carolina's Lumbee Tribe full recognition by the federal government, a designation that the group has tried to get for 50 years.
"Truly, this is another historic day for the tribal members of the Lumbee Tribe," the tribe's chairman ,Jimmy Goins said in a statement,. But, he cautioned, "we will still have other hurdles to overcome in the next few months."
The House voted last year to fully recognize the Lumbees. Yesterday's endorsement by the Senate Indian Affairs Committee sets the stage for a vote by the full Senate later this year.
If approved, the status would bring the tribe about $80 million per year from the federal government to pay for health care and education programs. It prohibits the tribe from building casinos.
The federal government has officially recognized the Lumbees for 52 years, at least in part. Even though Congress decided to award the tribe that designation in 1956, it also voted to block Lumbee access to taxpayer-financed programs used by other tribes.
The bill's sponsors -- Rep. Mike McIntyre, D-7th, and North Carolina's two Republican senators, Elizabeth Dole and Richard Burr -- said that it was unfair to deny the Lumbees the same rights as other tribes.
In a statement, Burr called the vote, "an important step to achieve the fairness and justice the Lumbees deserve."
Added Dole: "The Lumbee Tribe deserves better than a partial nod to their legitimacy. They deserve the full recognition, and the time is now."
The Lumbee Tribe lives in several Eastern North Carolina counties along Interstate 95. In Robeson County, where most of the tribe lives, Lumbees outnumber blacks and whites. Nearly a third of the people in Robeson County live below the federal poverty level, making it the state's poorest county.
"Just think about the difference $80 million a year will make," McIntyre said.
The legislation denies the Lumbees one freedom that has allowed other tribes to financially flourish in recent years: the ability to build casinos.
The on-going expansion of American Indian casinos has become a touchy political issue in Washington. Some conservative members of Congress who oppose gambling on moral grounds have tried to prevent an expansion of those facilities.
Also, legislation concerning indian casinos played a central role in the downfall of convicted lobbyist Jack Abramoff. That has left many members wary of political fallout from the issue.
The original versions of the Lumbee bill in both the House and Senate did not include a ban on casinos. Before it passed the House, anti-gambling interests made clear that they would stall the legislation unless it included a gambling ban.
Tribal leaders decided not to protest, tribal spokesman Alex Baker said. The tribe did not have any interest in building casinos, he said, so the concession was minor.
"We want the same rights as every other tribe in the United States. But in the interest of advancing the bill, we said we would take casinos off the table," Baker said.
On Thursday, the Senate Indian Affairs Committee chose to advance the House versionm which included the gambling ban, instead of the original Senate version, which did not.
The prospects for passage this year are murky. It's unclear when -- or if -- the Senate will bring the legislation up for a vote. Similar bills have stalled in the Senate each of the last few years, in part because of gambling concerns and fears raised by other tribes that Lumbee recognition would thin the pool of federal funds available to other recognized American Indian tribes.
And with presidential and congressional campaigns expected to slow work on Capitol Hill, the window for passage is smaller than in non-
election years.
The fact that the Senate chose to use the House version gives the bill a shorter, simpler road to passage because it means that the two versions will not have to be reconciled later.
"That's why today was such a major step," McIntyre said.
■ Sean Mussenden can be reached at 202-662-7668 or smussenden@mediageneral.com.
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