Mr. COSTA. Mr. Speaker, I rise in support of this bill. As you may know, some of you, earlier this year I introduced a bill, H.R. 5125, that would, in essence, require States to undertake planning for the siting of Indian gaming facilities, essentially developing a State master plan before a new class III gaming license could be granted.

We have 22 States in the Nation that allow for class III gaming. Currently, if you look at those 22 States, take a snapshot, there are 339 sovereign nations within those 22 States that could potentially have legalized gaming.

What happens in the experience that I have determined in California over the last 15 years is too often Indian tribes are at the mercy of shifting political winds in State government. Negotiating a tribal-State compact for the right to engage in class III gaming on their tribal lands is a process that is complicated by elections, changing attitudes towards the tribe, as well as an understanding that tribal gaming also can be a lucrative process and business, therefore, to the State.

This process I call, or dubbed, is frequently understood as ``let's make a deal'' time. We have had three Governors in California in the last 15 years that have engaged in that process.

My legislation would not prevent tribes from engaging in their application process or affect any of those that have already had approval of a compact. But what it would do is develop some common sense in terms how we look in the future for prospective gaming under class III licensing with the 22 States that have 339 sovereign nations that could, but yet do not have compacts, that would allow them to have class III gaming.

I think it is time that we learned from the lessons of the last 15 years and the 22 States across the country that do have class III gaming. Let us require the States to submit a master plan to the Secretary of the Interior so that we know how we will go forward prospectively as to the impact of that class III gaming.

Common sense tells us that this makes, I think, the best process for planning future gaming in this country. Although my legislation isn't a part of this bill, I continue to work with Members on both sides of the aisle to try to put forth an effort to develop a master plan for those States that, in fact, do have class III gaming.