Why Did Leader McCarthy Cave on Warren’s Casino Bill?

Committee member Sen. Elizabeth Warren, D-Ma., questions witnesses during a Senate Specials Committee on Aging hearing on drastic price hikes by Valeant and a handful of other drugmakers that have stoked outrage from patients, physicians and politicians nationwide, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 27, 2016,. (AP Photo/Manuel Balce Ceneta)

I warned about this earlier, back when Republicans still controlled the House.

House Republican leadership appears to have thrown in the towel on the House version of Sen. and president wannabe Elizabeth Warren’s Indian casino bill. The bill allows the Mashpee Wampanoag to establish a casino on newly obtained land. The House will vote on Wednesday and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA 23rd District) is along for the ride.

House Republicans showed moxie last month when they fought to remove the measure from the suspension calendar thereby requiring Democrats to hold a hearing on the bill and entertain amendments.

Some GOP House Members spoke forcefully against the measure during that hearing. Republican Congressman Paul Gosar of Arizona pushed for an amendment that would allow the Wampanoag to obtain land for a reservation, but prohibit them from building a casino. Gosar’s concern is that the casino project will only enrich Malaysian consortium Genting, to which the tribe is nearly a half-billion dollars in debt. But because enriching Genting appears to be the principal goal of the tribe’s lobbyists, Gosar’s amendment failed.

Michael Graham wants to know why Republicans are helping Warren, who has used the tribal casino as a wedge issue against President Donald Trump:

When the Department of the Interior overturned an Obama-era decision and ruled against a casino project for the Massachusetts-based Mashpee Wampanoags last year, Sen. Elizabeth Warren called the president out by name.

“Today’s action by the Trump Administration is yet another deal the federal government is reneging on with Native Americans,” the Massachusetts senator said in a statement. “And it underscores why Congress must pass our legislation: so that the Mashpee Wampanoag do not lose their home at the hands of the federal government.”

So imagine how surprised some GOP observers were last week when the “Warren Casino” bill passed out of a key House committee and appeared to be headed to passage by the full House—with Republican help.

Kevin McCarthy and his Republican colleagues need to understand that if this bill passes, Warren will take a victory lap and lord it over president Trump.