Even without Abramoff, Choctaws still have clout

By Jonathan Allen

The Mississippi Band of Choctaw Indians, best known for operating a pair of lucrative casinos and spending freely on Washington superlobbyists, would be eligible for millions in cultural-development grants from the Education Department under legislation rejected by the House last week.

A Senate provision tacked onto the back end of the education title of the fiscal 2006 spending bill for the Departments of Labor, Health and Human Services (HHS), and Education would make the tribe eligible for no less than $2 million from a $10 million pot of Education through Cultural and Historical Organizations (ECHO) grants previously reserved for native Alaskans, native Hawaiians and a pair of museums in Massachusetts.

According to the Education Department?s website, the ECHO grant program ?supports culturally based educational activities, internships, apprenticeship programs, and exchanges for Alaska Natives, Native Hawaiians, and children and families of Massachusetts.? The money supports such programs as an annual storytelling festival sponsored by the Alaska Native Heritage Center.

The Mississippi Choctaws, one of the nation?s most influential tribes, would receive ECHO-program money for the first time if the new provision makes it into law.

The Senate approved its version of the labor-HHS-education bill, 94-3 ? with the Choctaw provision intact ? on Oct. 27. The language did not appear to be a significant factor in last week?s House defeat, 209-224, of the conference report.

The earmark survived the conference report even though Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) said he had stripped members? pet projects from the bill to finance more spending on home-heating subsidies for low-income people, the federal Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and community health centers.

?If it looks like an earmark and it wastes like an earmark, then it must be an earmark,? Rep. Jeff Flake (R-Ariz.) said of the tribe-specific provision and a handful of other items in the labor-HHS conference report.

But eliminating the language regarding the Mississippi Band of Choctaws would not by itself have resulted in any savings. The same amount of money ? $10 million ? would be available to the groups. The provision simply allows the Choctaws a slice of that sum.

The ECHO grant provision is not the only item for the tribe in a spending bill this year. Still, critics say it is an example of how well-heeled interests end up with special carve-outs in the federal budget.

The Choctaw Resort Development Enterprise pulled in $251 million in revenue from its Golden Moon and Silver Star casinos in a nine-month period ending June 30, 2004, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. The tribe has about 10,000 members and fewer than 2,000 students in its school system.

?For many years, the tribe had so many unmet needs for housing, schools, healthcare and jobs that there were no resources to develop the kinds of educational programs that would protect and preserve Choctaw tribal culture but that could also respond to the many requests the tribe receives from public schools, museums, and other community organizations in not only Mississippi but other southeastern states,? Chassidy Wilson, a spokeswoman for the Mississippi Choctaws, wrote in an e-mailed response to questions about the earmark.

?The tribe is just now beginning to catch up and is working to develop educational services and cultural materials,? she wrote. Wilson would not discuss more recent figures on the tribe?s income from gambling.

The Mississippi Band of Choctaws gained national attention this year during the Senate Indian Affairs Committee?s investigation into whether lobbyists defrauded American Indian clients. Michael Scanlon, a key figure in a Justice Department probe, pleaded guilty to a charge of conspiring to defraud Indian tribes and bribe public officials. Rep. Bob Ney (R-Ohio), who was referred to but not named in the Scanlon charge, has denied any wrongdoing.

In a filing that covers a broad range of activities, prosecutors allege that Scanlon conspired with ?Lobbyist A? ? widely presumed to be former lobbyist Jack Abramoff ? to bilk the Choctaws: ?From in or about June 2001 until in or about April 2004, Scanlon, through [Scanlon public-relations firm Capital Campaign Strategies], sought and received from the Mississippi Tribe approximately $14,765,000, all the while concealing from the Mississippi Tribe that 50 percent of the profit, approximately $6,365,000, was kicked back to Lobbyist A pursuant to their secret arrangement.?

Abramoff, the subject of multiple investigations, has been indicted in a case involving his purchase of a gambling cruise line, a relatively obscure private sale that nonetheless was the subject of two statements inserted into the Congressional Record by Ney. But, as the Labor-HHS provision indicates, Abramoff?s former clients still have top connections in Washington.

In fact, the Choctaws have retained several lobbyists who worked with Abramoff and Scanlon on tribal issues even though they moved on to other firms after the Indian gaming scandal erupted.

Earlier this year, Indiana-based Barnes and Thornburg hired three lobbyists to beef up its Washington practice: Edward Ayoob, former legislative counsel for Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nev.); Kevin Ring, former aide to Rep. John T. Doolittle (R-Calif.); and Neil Volz, Ney?s former chief of staff. All are registered lobbyists for the Mississippi Band of Choctaws, according to forms filed in the Senate. The firm made $200,000 from its work on behalf of the tribe in the first half of this year, according to one filing. Volz did not return a call seeking comment before press time.

Even though the tribe has hired several members of its lobbying team, the ascension of Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran (R) as chairman of the powerful appropriations panel may give the tribe more influence in spending matters.

?They lost their power base in Abramoff, but now it?s replaced in probably the only place you can go up and that?s the Senate Appropriations chairman,? said Keith Ashdown, vice president of Taxpayers for Common Sense, a budget watchdog group.

Cochran became chairman of the spending committee at the start of the 109th Congress. Jenny Manley, a spokeswoman for Cochran, said her boss did not write the provision but acknowledged that he supports it. A day before the House rejected the measure, Cochran claimed no knowledge of the language.

?Sounds fair to me, at first blush,? he said.

?It doesn?t bother me,? added former Appropriations Committee Chairman Ted Stevens (R-Alaska), even though the provision would force native Alaskans who receive funding for the ECHO program to share the same pot of money with the Mississippi tribe.

?There is an interest on the part of the federal government to see cultural heritage preservation for Choctaw Indians,? Manley said.

The House version of the labor-HHS-education spending bill did not add Mississippi Choctaws to the list of entities eligible for the money. Several House members, led by Education and the Workforce Chairman John Boehner (R-Ohio), have sought to repeal the original provision as part of a larger campaign to cut spending.

Flake and Rep. Jack Kingston (R-Ga.), members of the conservative Republican Study Committee, noted the provision as one of several Senate-backed earmarks that rubbed House members the wrong way. It was not clear, however, that any of the 22 Republican votes against the bill were based solely on those provisions.

House GOP leaders could try to bring a revised version of the labor-HHS conference report back to the House floor for consideration. They could also try to couple the measure with a must-pass conference report on defense spending, which GOP leaders are eyeing as a vehicle for other controversial legislative priorities.

But House Republican leaders have also suggested that they could support funding the Labor, Health and Human Services, and Education departments under a full-year continuing resolution, which would rob lawmakers of their pet projects and likely fund agencies below the levels supported by Democrats and centrist Republicans.