![](https://www.indianz.com/IndianGaming/2017/07/26/2016grossgamingrevenuesbyregionnigc.png)
But while the NIGC remains on track with its agenda, the same can't be said for the Bureau of Indian Affairs. The Trump administration stripped the agency, also housed at Interior, of its authority to make decisions on off-reservation land-into-trust acquisitions, instead handing power to a senior political appointee in Washington, D.C. That appointee -- Jim Cason, the Associate Deputy Secretary at Interior -- has already rejected an off-reservation request submitted by a tribe in Michigan. And the Trump team is contemplating a new rule that would make it harder for tribes to acquire land away from existing reservations. "There's great inconsistency and, to date, the process is unclear to me," Secretary Ryan Zinke, Interior's new leader, told the Senate Committee on Indian Affairs on March 8 when asked about land-into-trust. "I'll get to the bottom of it." Amid the scrutiny, Zinke has hinted of a new leader for the BIA. But Trump has yet to nominate someone to serve as the Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs, something both of his predecessors, a Democrat and a Republican, had done by this time in their first terms of office. The Indian gaming hearing takes place next Wednesday, October 4, in Room 216 of the Senate Hart Office Building. The room is larger than the committee's regular room and is used when the committee expects a larger crowd than normal. A witness list hasn't been posted online yet. Senate Committee on Indian Affairs Notice:
Oversight Hearing on “Doubling Down on Indian Gaming: Examining New Issues and Opportunities for Success in the Next 30 Years” (October 4, 2017)
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