“Republicans shouldn’t vote for H.R. 312, a special interest casino Bill, backed by Elizabeth (Pocahontas) Warren,” President Donald Trump tweeted. “It is unfair and doesn’t treat Native Americans equally!” | Pete Marovich/Getty Images congress House Dems delay votes on tribal bills after Trump lashes out

Democratic leaders pulled a pair of tribal bills from the House floor Wednesday to avoid their failure after President Donald Trump — echoing complaints from the conservative media — urged Republicans to oppose the legislation.

The bills were supposed to be considered under a fast-track process requiring a two-thirds majority to pass, making the support of GOP lawmakers necessary. A Democratic leadership aide said lawmakers have already rescheduled the measures for next week and will bring at least one of them to the floor under normal procedures where only a simple majority is needed.


The move to scrap the votes follows 24 hours of drama in the upper ranks of the GOP conference. During a Republican leadership meeting Tuesday night, Rep. Gary Palmer (R-Ala.) sparred with Rep. Tom Cole (R-Okla.), one of the bill’s co-sponsors, over the legislation, according to multiple sources.

The issue also came up at a GOP-wide caucus meeting, with some members complaining that the bills were being rushed to the floor — a sentiment expressed in a recent blog post by the conservative website Red State.

Democrats are furious with Trump’s last-minute effort to tank the bill and accused Matthew Schlapp, husband of Trump’s director of strategic communications, of being involved in the episode.

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Schlapp lobbies for a company representing Twin River Management Group, which owns two casinos in Rhode Island and is opposed to one of the bills because it would grant land rights to a tribe seeking to build a competing casino in Massachusetts.

“This is absolute corruption at the highest level,” said Rep. Ruben Gallego (D-Ariz.). “It’s typical Trump that he used racism to cover up for his corruption,” he added, referring to Trump tying the bill to Sen. Elizabeth Warren (D-Mass.), whom the president called “Pocahontas.”

The measure, H.R. 312, would reaffirm the Mashpee Wampanoag Tribe reservation as trust land in Massachusetts. Another bill, H.R. 375, would reaffirm the authority of the Interior secretary to take land into trust for Indian Tribes.

Despite the internal dispute in the GOP, a bipartisan “Dear Colleague” letter went out Wednesday morning from a House Natural Resources subcommittee urging members to back the legislation.

But hours later, Trump slammed one of the measures for being a priority for Warren, one of his Democratic rivals in 2020.

“Republicans shouldn’t vote for H.R. 312, a special interest casino Bill, backed by Elizabeth (Pocahontas) Warren,” he tweeted. “It is unfair and doesn’t treat Native Americans equally!”

The House will take up H.R. 312 next Wednesday under rules requiring a simple majority to pass; H.R. 375 will come up with a two-thirds vote required.

While opposition to the legislation had been building in the GOP conference all week, Cole, a member of the Chickasaw Nation, said Trump’s tweet was the nail in the coffin.

“That’s the precipitating factor” to the legislation getting pulled, Cole said. “A lot of people have said a lot of things about that bill, and they’re incredibly misinformed, everything from ‘it’s a Jack Abramoff bill’ or ‘it’s totally an Elizabeth Warren bill.’”

Cole said he started hearing rumblings yesterday that the White House was concerned about the measure, but didn’t know whether Schlapp was directly involved.

“I don’t think [Schlapp] knows much about Indian issues,” he added.

Republicans who oppose the legislation worry that they would chip away at states’ rights and give tribes unfettered jurisdiction over lands.

“The tribes have a sovereign right to do things, but I think it needs to be in agreement with the communities,” Palmer said.

