Istook Amendment Alert

Karen J. Gould (kjg@rust.net)
Tue, 15 Apr 1997 19:20:26 -0700

I"d been warned to watch for this but it was Joe Paczkowski who was on
the ball enough to bring this to my attention. I know several of you are
interested in this, so I wanted to let you know that the "Istook
Amendment" has been re-introduced in the House as H.R. 1168. It's short,
but no less detrimental for its brevity. Here's the bill in its
entirety:

A BILL

To encourage competition and tax fairness and to protect the tax base of
State and local governments.

Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the
United States of America in Congress assembled,

SECTION 1. AGREEMENT REQUIRED BEFORE LANDS MAY BE TAKEN INTO TRUST.

The Secretary of the Interior may not take land into trust for the
benefit of an Indian or an Indian tribe until that Indian or Indian
tribe and the State and local officials of the jurisdiction in which the
land to be taken into trust is located have entered into a written
agreement which provides for--

(1)(A) payment of State and local sales and excise taxes
(including any special tax on motor fuel, tobacco, or alcohol) on any
retail item sold, while the land is held in trust, by a retail
establishment located on the land to be taken into trust, to a person
who is not either a member of the Indian tribe for which the land is to
be taken into trust or a member of the same Indian tribe as the
individual for whom the land is to be taken into trust; or

(B) payment in lieu of the taxes described in subparagraph
(A); and

(2) collection of the payment described in paragraph (1).

SEC. 2. EXCEPTIONS.

Section 1 shall not apply--

(1) to land taken into trust for the benefit of an Indian
tribe pursuant to an Act which extends Federal recognition to that
Indian tribe; or

(2) to land taken into trust for the benefit of an Indian or
an Indian tribe pursuant to a judgment or order of a court of the United
States.

SEC. 3. EFFECT ON LAND PREVIOUSLY TAKEN INTO TRUST.

Nothing in this Act shall effect the trust or tax status of land
taken into trust for the benefit of an Indian or an Indian tribe before
the date of the enactment of this Act.

Thank you, Joe, for your attentiveness!

Karen

P.S. The "McCain" amendments to the ICWA has also been re-introduced in
the House as H.R. 1082. Nothing is planned on it yet... just letting you
know it's there.

--
Karen J. Gould
http://www.askwitteachik.org/


"If people are genuinely interested in honoring Indians, try getting
 your government to live up to the more than 400 treaties it signed
 with our nations." ...Glenn T. Morris - Colorado AIM