Blog: Sen. McCain hypocritical about stimulus funds going to tribes

Opinion

Wednesday, August 4, 2010

"Today Politico reported that Sens. John McCain and Tom Coburn identified projects in which the Obama Administration had essentially misallocated or wasted taxpayer money, including, for example, a $54,000,000 program for a tribal Connecticut casino owner. However, over the years, tribal gaming interests connected to McCain have been the beneficiaries of federal government largesse, including stimulus money.

For example, in 1986, McCain and his mentor, Congressman Morris Udall, sponsored HR 4216, the Gila Bend Indian Reservation Lands Replacement Act, which required the Secretary of Interior to pay $30,000,000 plus interest to the authorized governing body of the Tohono O’odham Nation of Arizona, a tribe which was divided in half in 1853 between the United States and Mexico through the Gadsden Purchase or the Treaty of La Mesilla.

The O’odham has separated into four federally recognized tribes in McCain’s state of Arizona: the Tohono O’odham Nation, the Gila River Indian Community, the Ak-Chin Indian Community, and the Salt River (Pima Maricopa) Indian Community.

The Replacement Act required that the tribe invest the money in “interest-bearing deposits and securities” while allowing the governing body of the tribe to “spend the principal, interest, and dividends for … economic development.”

Apparently, McCain was not concerned with protecting the taxpayers’ interests as he wrote a provision into the bill, which stipulated that “the Secretary (of Interior) shall not be responsible for the review, approval, or audit of the use and expenditure” of the money."

Get the Story:
Susan Bradford: As Usual, McCain is Hypocritical in His Latest Critique of Obama Stimulus Money (Smart Girl Politics 8/3)